Saint Moses the Black is one of my personal favorites when it comes to talking about saints. This guy lived a life of high adventure before and after answering God’s call to holiness.
He started his life as the slave to some high-powered Egyptian family. After gaining his independence, he put his freedom to good use as the leader of a gang of thieves, wreaking havoc across the Nile Valley.
When Moses was caught red-handed in the act of theft, he plotted to kill the only witness. He swam the Nile intent on killing him, but when the snitch wasn’t at home, Moses settled for killing four of his sheep instead. Then Moses swam back across the Nile and ran from the hammer of justice that he knew was headed his way.
Moses decided to hide out in the unlikeliest place he could think of, a nearby monastery. I guess he liked it there just fine, because he decided to leave his bad-boy lifestyle behind and become a monk himself.
A few years later, a few guys from one what had been the main rivals of Moses’s gang attacked the monastery where Moses was living. Moses grabbed hold of them and beat them to a bloody pulp like it was nothing. He dragged their sad selves to the head monk and said, “Back in the day, these guys would’ve been swimming with the fishes by now, but this is your place, so you tell me what to do.” The guy in charge told Moses that he should forgive these would be thieves and let them go. The attempted robbers were so impressed by this new forgiving Moses that they returned to the monastery later and took vows themselves.
Moses the Black lived a good long life at the monastery by the Nile. When he was 75-years-old, a band of marauding warriors attacked the monks. Moses told everyone to run for safety while he bought them time, fought the bad guys, and covered the escape. In the end, Moses saved more than seventy monks and died the way any dramatic hero would wish, with a sword in his hand and the praise of God on his lips.
written by B. W. Frech
image credit By Original unknown, modified by User:ZX95 [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons