- Jun 19, 2013
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No doubt you all are familiar with the story of St. Moses "the Black", the desert father from Ethiopia who overcame his unholy life as a robber/thief through prayer and fasting as an ascetic.
Recently though, I came across a blurb in a book called The Frescoes of Mar Musa Al-Habashi which claims the following:
"Most scholars agree that Moses the Black was not the same individual as Moses the Ethiopian (or Moses of Scete)."
So by this account, there should be three St. Moses' who all lived around the same time period and had the same name. I was skeptical, so I did some digging. In The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church (obviously an OO text) compiled and translated by Budge I found an entry for a "Saint Moses of the desert of Scete".
The life of this individual is much different from the traditional story of St. Moses the Black. This monk was a monastic who was tempted into the remote desert by a devil who was masquerading as a woman in need of help, there he was left to die until God sent a holy monk named Simon to take him to a church so that he could repose in peace.
Does the Eastern Orthodox Church teach that there is more than one St. Moses the Ethiopian? Do we have more than one on our calendars? Or, is the belief that there was more than one St. Moses from the same region mainly an academic understanding?
Recently though, I came across a blurb in a book called The Frescoes of Mar Musa Al-Habashi which claims the following:
"Most scholars agree that Moses the Black was not the same individual as Moses the Ethiopian (or Moses of Scete)."
So by this account, there should be three St. Moses' who all lived around the same time period and had the same name. I was skeptical, so I did some digging. In The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church (obviously an OO text) compiled and translated by Budge I found an entry for a "Saint Moses of the desert of Scete".
The life of this individual is much different from the traditional story of St. Moses the Black. This monk was a monastic who was tempted into the remote desert by a devil who was masquerading as a woman in need of help, there he was left to die until God sent a holy monk named Simon to take him to a church so that he could repose in peace.
Does the Eastern Orthodox Church teach that there is more than one St. Moses the Ethiopian? Do we have more than one on our calendars? Or, is the belief that there was more than one St. Moses from the same region mainly an academic understanding?
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