St Moses the Black

St Moses was an Ethiopian slave in fourth-century Egypt, called "Murin" for his dark skin. Banished by his master after a murder, he 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. When a bishop tested him by driving him from the altar as an "unworthy Ethiopian," he bore it humbly and was ordained priest. Warned that brigands would come, he sent his disciples away but stayed, saying, "All who take the sword will perish by the sword," and was killed by the raiders at about seventy-five. Orthodox Christians pray to him for those enslaved to drink and for every sinner who needs the courage to begin again.

The traditional patronage is Russian: he is invoked, with a specific prayer, for deliverance from drunkenness, because he himself was freed from the passions of his former life. Prayer for those caught in violence follows naturally from his Life but is a devotional application rather than a fixed patronage. His role as patron of racial reconciliation and of African-American Orthodox Christians is modern and American, promoted by the Fellowship (formerly Brotherhood) of St Moses the Black; it is not an old-world tradition.