Is there more than one St. Moses the Black?

[GoingByzantine]

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?

 

[dzheremi]

Huh. I guess this is one of those things that I thought other people knew, but now that I think about it more there's no reason to assume that you would, since the St. Moses in question is from the 6th century, so he's post-Chalcedon. I could only find little snippets of his biography on Arabic-language sites (so I don't know how useful links would be, but here is one if you want to Google Translate it or something; the biographic details are in the second paragraph), but he is the one that the monastery bearing that name in Nabk, Syria is named after. It is currently under the control of the Syriac Catholics, so it can be safely assumed, since the monastery itself dates back to the 6th century, to have previously been a home to the local Syriac Orthodox, since this saint does not appear to be known to the Antiochian Orthodox of the area. (I did try searching the Antiochian Orthodox patriarchate's Arabic-language website to make sure, and it only came up with results for the 'pan-communal' St. Moses you're thinking of, the desert father. It's totally possible that somebody who knows Arabic better than I do could find different results, but that's what you get by just searching for that name in Arabic.)

Obviously since he is from Ethiopia (he, like the desert father, can be called either el Aswad, the black, or el Habashi, the Ethiopian; they're both accurate descriptors), they know him very well, so it's not surprising that you found that bit about him in the syanxarium of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. I'm not sure whether he is specifically venerated in the Coptic Orthodox Church, though it wouldn't surprise me if he is, or originally was before being equated with the St. Moses we all know (since obviously for the Egyptians in particular this is the St. Moses who is more well-known, being as he is one of the greatest fathers of the Egyptian desert).

 

[GoingByzantine]

Dzheremi, do you have any information about the "third" St. Moses from this region?

I couldn't exactly place St. Moses of Scete on the timeline, but him being after the schism makes sense. I know that we have inherited a few post-schism saints due to their veneration in local Melkite circles, but it appears that this is not one that we inherited unless this St. Moses was mistakingly conflated with the more well known St. Moses.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I have not heard of more than one St Moses the black.

and typically, when modern "scholars" say this kinda stuff, I take it with a Lot's Wife of salt.

 

[dzheremi]

Dzheremi, do you have any information about the "third" St. Moses from this region?

I couldn't exactly place St. Moses of Scete on the timeline, but him being after the schism makes sense. I know that we have inherited a few post-schism saints due to their veneration in local Melkite circles, but it appears that this is not one that we inherited unless this St. Moses was mistakingly conflated with the more well known St. Moses.

Unfortunately, I don't. The Moses I described already is the only other one I know of who could've been called "The Ethiopian", as the only other St. Moses I know in the Coptic tradition in particular is the one who was martyred with his sister Sarah during the time of HH Pope Demetrius the Vinedresser. Their martyrdom at Alexandria is commemorated on the 26th of Mesra (September 1), according to the synaxarium. But this St. Moses' life doesn't match at all with the story you gave in the OP, and anyway both he and his sister were Egyptians, not Ethiopians.

 

[GoingByzantine]

Okay, I have unraveled it a bit more.

The Oriental Orthodox saint that Dzhermi referenced above is St. Moses "of the Smoking Mountain", who is sometimes also known as St. Moses "the Ethiopian", which can cause confusion. This individual is not an Eastern Orthodox saint, and according to Coptic legend was a martyr of noble birth who died at the hands of Chalcedonian Christians.

However, there is another St. Moses. This one is "St. Moses of Scete", who was likely not of Ethiopian background, but since he lived in the same place and during the same time period as the well known Abba Moses the Black, he is often conflated to be the same person. This is the same saint I mentioned in my OP.

"St. Moses of Scete" conversed with St. Cassian of Imola, was friends with St. Anthony, and lived a life very similar to St. Seraphim of Sarov. It is said that animals flocked to his cave and lived there comfortably, protected by his holiness that came as a result of his devout prayer and fasting. The devil, disguised as an elder monk, tricked St. Moses into leaving his cave where a devilish entity disguised as a young woman lured him deep into the desert. God sent Simon, another ascetic, to bring him to a hidden desert temple so that he could repose in peace.

This St. Moses is indeed an Eastern Orthodox saint, but due to the close temporal and spatial presence of the more well known St. Moses, very few Chalcedonian Orthodox realize this. I know that I certainly didn't.

 

[dzheremi]

Thank you for the further information, GoingByzantine! Fascinating stuff!

 

[ArseniusTheSilent]

Abba Moses the Black of the Scete is who I think of when I hear Moses the Black. I did not know there were additional saints competing for this title.