Venerable Moses the Black (†c. 400) — August 28 / September 10 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 28 according to the Julian Calendar (September 10 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Venerable Moses the Black (†c. 400).

Venerable Moses the Black lived in Egypt in the 4th century. An Ethiopian by origin, he received this surname because of the colour of his skin. In his youth the saint was the slave of a certain nobleman and served him faithfully, but was later driven from the household by his master for a murder. Fleeing from justice, Moses joined a band of robbers, who chose him as their leader on account of his harsh character and great physical strength. Together with his gang Moses the Black committed many evil deeds: he mercilessly robbed and killed people, and the very mention of his name struck terror into everyone. The future saint spent several years in such lawlessness, but afterwards, through God’s boundless mercy, he came to repentance, left the band of robbers and went to one of the desert monasteries. For a long time he begged with tears to be received into the brotherhood. The monks did not believe in the sincerity of his repentance, but the former criminal kept pleading not to be turned away until his request was granted. In the monastery the venerable father was in complete obedience to the abbot and the brotherhood, and wept over his sinful life. After some time Moses withdrew into a solitary cell and spent his days in prayer and the strictest fasting. Once four robbers from his former band attacked the saint’s cell. The blessed father, who had not lost his former physical strength, bound all four, brought them to the monastery and asked the monks how he should deal with them. The brethren ordered him to release the captives. When the robbers learned that they had fallen into the hands of their former chief, they themselves became monks. Hearing of the repentance of Moses the Black, the remaining robbers followed his example, gave up their lawless life and became zealous monks.

Venerable Moses was not cleansed of the passions all at once. He often went to the abbot of the monastery, Abba Isidore, and asked how he might be freed from carnal desires. The elder, experienced in spiritual warfare, taught him never to eat his fill, to remain always half-hungry and to live in the strictest abstinence. The foul demon did not relent, inflaming the blessed father with dreams at night; then Abba Isidore advised him to take up the labour of vigil. Saint Moses followed his superior’s blessing and spent whole nights in fervent prayer. The unending struggle for a time cast the blessed one into despondency, but the elder Isidore strengthened his disciple: he led him up onto the roof of his cell and showed him, in the west, a great host of demons arrayed on the horizon and ready for battle. In the east an even greater host of angels could be seen, and they too were preparing for battle.

Venerable Moses took up a new labour: at night he would go around the cells of the desert-dwellers and carry water from the well for the monks. He took special care of the elderly, who could not walk long distances or carry water. Once, as Moses was bending over the well, he suddenly felt a violent blow on his back, fell down as if dead beside the well and lay there until dawn. In the morning the brethren carried him to his cell. For a whole year the blessed one was as feeble as a paralytic and suffered greatly. After his recovery he declared to the abbot that he would continue the struggle. Abba Isidore blessed him and told him to receive the Holy Mysteries and return to his cell. From that time on he was granted great power over evil spirits.

Word of the venerable father’s ascetic labours spread far and wide, and the governor of the region wished to see him. Learning of this, Moses decided to hide from the visitors and left his cell. On the way he met the governor’s servants, who asked him where the cell of Moses the Black was. “It is not worth going to that false and unworthy monk,” the blessed one replied. The servants returned to the monastery, where the governor was waiting for them, and passed on the ascetic’s words; but from the description of the monk’s appearance the brethren were convinced that the monk had been Moses himself.

After many years of labour in the desert the venerable father was ordained a deacon. The bishop clothed him in white vestments and said: “Now Abba Moses has become entirely white.” The saint replied: “Master, what makes a man white — the inward or the outward?” Out of humility the blessed one considered himself unworthy of the rank of deacon. Once the bishop decided to test the saint and ordered the clergy to drive him out of the altar, then to follow him and find out what he would say.

The clergy did just that: when Moses entered the altar they said to him, “Get out of here, you black one!”, seized him and threw him out disgracefully. The blessed father bore the humiliation with astonishing humility and, once expelled, muttered to himself: “It serves you right, you dog! How did you dare to enter the Holy of Holies?” When this was reported to the bishop, he had the saint brought back into the altar and ordained him a priest. Asked what he had been thinking when they drove him out and then brought him back again, he answered: “I compared myself to a dog, which, if it is driven away, slinks off with its tail between its legs, and if it is called, at once comes running gladly!” Moses the Black laboured for fifteen years in the priestly rank and gathered seventy-five disciples.

When the venerable father reached the age of seventy-five, he warned the monks that robbers would soon attack the skete and slaughter its inhabitants. The saint blessed them to leave the place in time and escape a violent death. The disciples begged the blessed one to go with them, but Moses replied: “I have long awaited the time when the words of the Lord Jesus Christ would be fulfilled in me: ‘All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword'” (Matt. 26:52). Only seven monks remained with the holy father, one of whom hid when the robbers approached. The robbers killed Moses and the other six brothers. This took place around the year 400.