A saint's day
St Moses the Black
Also called St Moses the Ethiopian
St Moses was an Ethiopian slave in fourth-century Egypt who became the feared leader of a band of robbers. By God's mercy he repented, came to a desert monastery and wept at the gate until the monks received him; he fought his old passions with fasting, prayer and labor, carrying water by night to the elders' cells, and was ordained a priest. When brigands came he sent his disciples away but stayed, saying, “All who take the sword will perish by the sword,” and was killed at about seventy-five.
The dates
- Kept on
- 28 August (10 September on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
Russian tradition prays to him, with a prayer of its own, for deliverance from drunkenness, and Orthodox Christians ask him for every sinner who needs the courage to begin again.
American Orthodox Christians honor him in Black History Month, and the Fellowship of St Moses the Black keeps him as patron of racial reconciliation, a modern American devotion.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast: