Moses the Black of Scete
Reading from the Synaxarion:
Saint Moses, who is also called Moses the Black, was a slave, but
because of his evil life, his master cast him out, and he became a
ruthless thief, dissolute in all his ways. Later, however, coming to
repentance, he converted, and took up the monastic life under Saint Isidore
of Scete. He gave himself over to prayer and the mortification of
the carnal mind with such diligence that he later became a priest of
exemplary virtue. He was revered by all for his lofty ascetical life and
for his great humility. Once the Fathers in Scete asked Moses to come
to an assembly to judge the fault of a certain brother, but he
refused. When they insisted, he took a basket which had a hole in it,
filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. When the Fathers
saw him coming they asked him what the basket might mean. He
answered, "My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and I am come
this day to judge failings which are not mine." When a barbarian tribe
was coming to Scete, Moses, conscious that he himself had slain other
men when he was a thief, awaited them and was willingly slain by them
with six other monks, at the end of the fourth century. He was a
contemporary of Saint Arsenius the Great
Reading from the Synaxarion:
Saint Moses, who is also called Moses the Black, was a slave, but
because of his evil life, his master cast him out, and he became a
ruthless thief, dissolute in all his ways. Later, however, coming to
repentance, he converted, and took up the monastic life under Saint Isidore
of Scete. He gave himself over to prayer and the mortification of
the carnal mind with such diligence that he later became a priest of
exemplary virtue. He was revered by all for his lofty ascetical life and
for his great humility. Once the Fathers in Scete asked Moses to come
to an assembly to judge the fault of a certain brother, but he
refused. When they insisted, he took a basket which had a hole in it,
filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. When the Fathers
saw him coming they asked him what the basket might mean. He
answered, "My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and I am come
this day to judge failings which are not mine." When a barbarian tribe
was coming to Scete, Moses, conscious that he himself had slain other
men when he was a thief, awaited them and was willingly slain by them
with six other monks, at the end of the fourth century. He was a
contemporary of Saint Arsenius the Great