Moses the Ethiopian

ON ST. MOSES THE ETHIOPIAN, HERMIT, ABBOT, AND PERHAPS MARTYR

IN MOUNT SCETIS OF LIBYA,

About the end of the fourth century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

ON ST. MOSES THE ETHIOPIAN, HERMIT, ABBOT, AND PERHAPS MARTYR

BY J. P.

§ I. The Saint converted from a robber to penitence, and others through him.

On the day XXVII of this month, in the article on St. Poemen the anchorite, I made mention of this mountain, which that same Saint illustrated excellently by illustrious sayings and virtues. His personal description, and his life in the world Behold now for thee, reader, another star of that mountain: St. Moses the Ethiopian, called by the altogether singular goodness of a merciful God from the most abandoned manners in the world to the most perfect sanctity of life in solitude; so that it may truly be said of him that he was an admirable prodigy of divine grace, and a most powerful incitement to great sinners, that with contrite heart they may return to God. In the Lausiac History of Palladius, published in Latin at Paris in the year 1570, which I use, chapter 22, page 62, are these words: There was a certain man Moses by name, an Ethiopian by race, black. He was also of tall body: for in the Lives of the Fathers in Rosweyde, book 5, little book 8, number 10, page 593 of the second edition, which I shall cite hereafter, he is called tall. He practiced a vile and criminal manner of living, according to Sozomen, in the translation of Valois published at Paris in the year 1668, Ecclesiastical History, book 6, chapter 29, page 682: Moses, he says, when he was a slave, being cast out of his master's house on account of his wickedness, and turning to robbery, offered himself as leader to a band of robbers. Palladius, cited above, writes that he was the slave of a certain man who administered public affairs.

[2] But the same writer expresses his crimes somewhat otherwise, defiled by the most abandoned manners saying: whom his master cast out on account of the wickedness of his manners and the crime of robbery. For he was said to go even so far as murders: for I am compelled to speak of the deeds of his wickedness, that I may afterwards show the power of his penitence. Some therefore have narrated that he was the chief of a great band of robbers. And presently, coming to particulars, he records the following concerning his unbridled barbarity: Among his other works of robbery, this also is reported, that he was of a hostile mind and eager for vengeance against a shepherd who had been a hindrance to him, lest he should bring some matter to effect, when he went off by night with the dogs of the flock. Whom, when he wished to kill, he went to the place in which his sheep had their station. But it was signified to him that the man was across the Nile; and since the river at that time was flooding, and stretched more than a mile in breadth, holding his sword in his teeth and setting upon his head the tunic with which he was clothed, he thus crossed the river by swimming.

[3] But while he was swimming across, the shepherd was able to hide himself somewhere by digging in. was stained: Since therefore Moses' undertaking had not succeeded, four excellent rams being killed and bound with a chain, he swam across the Nile again; and when he had come to a certain small village, he flayed the rams; and when he had eaten the best of the flesh and had sold the skins for wine, having drunk eighteen saïtia, he set out thence to a distance of fifty miles, where he had his company.

[4] wonderful From these things it is understood what his life was before his conversion. But this was so much the more wonderful, the more the former was defiled with the most abandoned crimes

— through true penitence indeed, and a contrite and humbled heart, which the divine mercy does not despise, being afterwards led on to a notable sanctity. I set forth the matter. Palladius at page 63 says: This prince of robbers, late at last being pricked by some chance which had befallen him, delivered himself to a monastery. That chance, which Palladius and Sozomen do not explain in detail, seems to be different from that which is thus read in the Appendix to the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 14, page 995, or to signify something different from the two authors just mentioned: for the text cited narrates these things: At a certain time, hearing from a certain religious man the word of God, and of the examination to come on the day of judgment between the just and sinners, between the criminal and the Saints, and also of the bitter penalties of Gehenna and of eternal fire, and of the torments without end in the outer darkness which are prepared for the wicked and for sinners; likewise hearing of the eternal glory and the eternal honors and the rest in the kingdom of heaven among the holy angels, which God has prepared for the Saints and the just who serve him — being pricked in heart, he began to weep most bitterly with groaning and wailing. And entering a monastery, he gave himself to penitence, and tormented himself with many tears, asking indulgence and pardon of his sins from the goodness and mercy of the Lord; and so he remained in the monastery.

[5] This manner of conversion, I say, is not proved to be intended by Palladius and Sozomen by the phrase by some chance. with his own But indeed Cassian, in Conference 3, chapter 5, page 221 of the Lyons edition of the year 1606, records it in a manner different from the former, in these words: For nothing was lacking to abbot Moses, who dwelt in the place of that desert which is called Calamus, for the merit of perfect blessedness, in that, driven by fear of the death which was threatened him for the crime of homicide, he ran to a monastery; because he so seized upon the necessity of conversion that, turning it into a will by a ready virtue of mind, he attained the highest summits of perfection. And the Moses just named is believed by Tillemont, to be mentioned repeatedly below, page 64, to be the same of whom we here treat.

[6] It must also be seen what worthy fruits of penitence and of good works the holy Man's conversion brought forth. Palladius at page 63 narrates this singular deed, and then the conversion of others through him. by which he wonderfully brought others to change a most evil life. The text has it thus: But among other things it is said that, when four robbers had rushed upon him as he sat in his cell, not knowing that he was Moses, blessed Moses bound them like a sack of chaff and set them upon his shoulders and carried them to the church of the brethren, saying: "Since it is not lawful for me to do injury to anyone, but I found these assaulting me, what do you bid to be done with them?" And being thus apprehended by holy Moses, they made confession to God. And when they had learned that he was Moses, who had once been a notable prince of robbers, glorifying Christ on that account, they too renounced the world on account of his penitence, and turned out most approved monks, thinking thus: "If this man, who was of such great strength, making little of robberies, so fears God, why do we still defer our own salvation?"

§ II. The solitary life; a vehement and long struggle of the flesh; the remedies employed against it; the demon's cruelty toward the Saint; the latter's wonderful power over the demon.

The Saint loves silence: We follow the holy Man into the solitude of Scetis, the nurse of excellent solitaries. In Cotelier, in the Monuments of the Greek Church, which he translated from Greek into Latin and illustrated with notes, among the Apophthegms of the Fathers, page 538, these things are reported: Abbot Moses said to abbot Macarius in Scetis: "I wish to live in quiet and silence, and the brethren do not allow me." Abbot Macarius said to him: "I see thee to be of a softer disposition, and unable to turn a brother away from thee; but if thou desirest a quiet life, go forth to the desert within at Petra, and there thou shalt live in quiet." And he did this, and found rest. In the same place at page 554 it is thus narrated: They said of abbot Moses in Scetis that, being about to come to Petra (I understand it to be a rock in the solitude of Scetis), he was wearied on the journey; and he said within himself: How shall I be able to gather my water here? Then there came down to him a voice of this kind: "Enter, and be not anxious for anything." And so he entered. Some of the fathers came to him; and he had but one jar of water; which, when he had cooked a few lentils, was used up. Whence the old man was distressed. Therefore going in and going out he prayed to God. When behold, a rain-cloud came over Petra, and from the rain he filled all his vessels. After this they address the old man: "Tell us why thou wast going in and going out." He answered them: "I was pleading my cause with God: thou hast brought me hither, and behold I lack water for thy servants to drink. Therefore I went in and out, asking God, until he sent to us."

[8] I can scarcely doubt that that vehement assault of the demon which I am now about to narrate a most grievous befell in the first years of the Saint's solitary life, and perhaps before he dwelt at Petra. Understand the heroic struggle of the Man from Palladius at pages 63 and 64: But blessed Moses (for so he must be called) the demons thereafter assailed, driving him toward the habit of fornicating intemperance. And he was tempted by them to such a degree, as he himself narrated, that they came near to moving him from his purpose. But when he had gone to the great Isidore, who sat in Scetis, he told him three times of the war of fornication. To whom the Saint answered: "Be not troubled, brother; these are beginnings: and therefore they have invaded thee the more vehemently, seeking thy former habit. For as a dog, when it has grown accustomed to gnaw bones in the butcher's shop, does not depart from the habit; but if the shop be shut and no one give it anything, being worn out with hunger it comes no more: so thou also, if thou remain in the exercise of thy continence, mortifying thy members which are upon the earth, and shutting out from entrance the gluttony which begets intemperance, the demon, taking it ill as one who has no foods to kindle him, will depart from thee."

[9] struggle of the flesh, When therefore Moses, the servant of Christ, had withdrawn, and from that hour had shut himself in his cell, he practiced the greatest endurance in all things, but especially in abstinence from foods, as one who took nothing else besides twelve ounces of dry bread, working much, and performing fifty prayers daily. But further, although he had melted away his poor little body, yet he remained inflamed, and especially in sleep. Nor did the most grievous struggle of the holy Solitary with the spirit of darkness, especially in dreams, cease by these remedies, but persisted further with the utmost obstinacy, as we learn from Palladius, who thus goes on: But when he had arisen, he met a certain other holy and most approved monk, and says to him: "What shall I do, abba? Dreams pour darkness over my reason, so that I am delighted by them out of old habit" (that is, that he suffers the delight even unwillingly, as is gathered from the state of St. Moses, who refused to do and to suffer nothing that he might remove it from himself). That Saint says to him: "Thou hast not restrained thy mind from the images which are engaged in them: for that cause thou endurest these things."

[10] and singular Do therefore what I say. Give thyself by degrees to vigil, and pray soberly: and from these thou shalt quickly be freed. And when the illustrious Man had heard this admonition, as from one who was a craftsman by experience, returning to his cell, he said that — so far as his own conscience knew — he did not sleep the whole night, and did not bend his knee under pretext of prayer, that he might flee the tyranny of sleep. When therefore he had remained six years in his cell, standing whole nights in the midst of the cell and praying God assiduously, and not closing his eyes, he could not conquer the intemperate desire. For in truth desire cannot truly be chastised. For when he had melted himself away with labors, he could not subdue that base affection. In the Lives of the Fathers, book 3, number 10, from page 494, so vehement a battle vexed the Man, that champion, in this matter, that it drove him out of the cell most dear to him. The matter is there thus described:

[11] against it Upon the blessed abbot Moses, who dwelt in the place which was called Petra, at a certain time the demon of fornication laid so hard an assault, that he could not endure to sit in his little cell, but went off to the holy abbot Isidore, and told him the violence of his assault. And when abbot Isidore, bringing forward testimonies from the holy Scriptures, was consoling him, and asked him to return to his little cell, abbot Moses was unwilling to go to his little cell. Then abbot Isidore together with abbot Moses went up to the upper part of his little cell. And Isidore said to him: "Look toward the West, and see." And when he looked, he saw a multitude of demons vehemently disturbed with fury, and as it were prepared for battle and hastening to fight. But abbot Isidore said to him: "Look again toward the East, and see." And when he looked, he saw an innumerable multitude of holy angels, a glorious host of heavenly powers, shining above the light of the sun. And abbot Isidore said to him: "Behold, those whom thou hast seen in the West are they who also assail the Saints of God.

[12] For those whom thou hast beheld in the East are they employed whom God sends to the aid of his Saints. Know therefore that there are more with us, as the prophet Elisha says. But holy John also said: Because greater is he that is in us than he that is in this world." And when these things had been heard, holy abbot Moses, being strengthened in the Lord, returned to his little cell, giving thanks and glorifying the patience of the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor indeed did the holy Athlete neglect the remedies suited to his struggle, but employed one austerity of life after another for its healing. For, as Sozomen says at page 682, since, being still fervent from the good habit of body which he had contracted from his former diet, he was incited to thoughts of foul lust, he wore down his body with every kind of philosophic exercise, now living upon a little bread without relish, now doing very much work, and praying fifty times. Sometimes also, standing every night, he prayed for six continuous years, neither bending his knees nor closing his eyes to take sleep.

[13] Sometimes, going round the cells of the monks by night, he secretly filled the water-jars of each. by the Saint as remedies: Which indeed was especially laborious. For from some the place whence they drew water was distant ten stades, from others twenty, from certain ones thirty and more. For a long time nevertheless he retained his former strength, although he had striven to break it by very many exercises, and wore down his body with continual vexations. It will be useful to declare and confirm these things further from Palladius, who at pages 65 and 66 speaks thus:

After these things he suggested to himself another way of leading a harsh life. Going forth, this Champion against Satan (for he contended with him in various ways) would go by night to the cells of the monks who had grown old exercising themselves in labors, and could no longer carry in water by themselves; and taking their water-jars without their knowledge, he filled them with water. For in those places they have water at a certain distance. Some indeed at two miles; others at five; others at half a mile.

[14] On one night therefore, while he was doing this, the demon, who had watched him, he is beaten by the devil almost to death, and from the struggle no longer bearing the Athlete's fortitude, when he himself had bent down into the well to fill the water-jar of one monk, drove a certain club into his loins, and left him lying dead in that place, feeling nothing at all, neither what he had suffered nor from whom. When therefore on another day a certain monk had come to draw water, he found him lying there in a swoon. And he reported this to the great Isidore, priest of Scetis. Who, going with some others, took him up and carried him into the church. And he was sick for a whole year, so that his body and soul scarcely recovered. Then the great priest of Christ Isidore says to him: "Cease henceforth, brother Moses, to contend with the demons, and do not thus insult them. For there is a measure also of fortitude in exercise." But he says to him: "I will not cease to fight with them, until the phantasy of dreams shall cease for me." Then holy Isidore the priest says to him: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, from this point of time thy base dreams have ceased. Henceforth with good and confident mind partake of the Sacraments. For lest thou shouldst boast, as one who by thine own exercise hadst conquered the affection, therefore he vehemently exercised his power over thee, for thy own profit, lest thou shouldst fall into elation of mind." When these things had been heard, he returned to his cell, thereafter attending in quiet to a moderate rule of exercise. But after two or three months, Moses the practicer, being asked by blessed Isidore the priest whether the spirit had shown him any further trouble, answered: "From that hour in which the servant of Christ prayed for me, nothing of this kind has befallen me."

[15] long-lasting he is freed: From these words, Henceforth with good and confident mind partake of the Sacraments, you would say it is concluded that the Saint, in that most burning heat of temptations, either did not partake of the Sacraments, or at least did not do this μετὰ παῤῥησίας, as I read in the Greek text of Palladius, that is, with freedom or with boldness — let us say, freely and boldly. To this belongs another text of Palladius in the Life of the abbot Dioscorus the priest, in which, by the translation of Hervet, which we use, chapter 68, page 164, he narrates these things: But we saw also another priest in the Thebaid, by name Dioscorus, father of a hundred monks; who, when he was about to approach the grace of God, would say to them: "See that no one who by night has had a phantasy of a woman dare to approach the holy Sacraments. Let no one of you, driven by sights and phantasies, dream. For those fluxes of seed which occur without phantasies happen by chance, and are not present by each man's free choice of mind, but without the will. For they proceed from nature, and are discharged from redundant matter. Wherefore neither are they liable to sin. But sights and phantasies (the man's consent being added to them) proceed from the free will of choosing, and are an evidence of an evil mind." Let us return to our Saint. The words of Isidore in Palladius, Henceforth with good mind, etc., I thus expound. First, it is not credible that our Saint abstained from the Sacraments for the whole six years during which that conflict of the flesh lasted. Secondly, it seems likely that he nevertheless partook of them more rarely than other monks, out of a certain sacred dread and great reverence accounting himself unworthy to frequent them very often.

[16] another vehement temptation of his: What shall I say of another struggle, not indeed so long-lasting as the former was, but yet exceedingly perilous and difficult, as may be gathered from the singular means which God employed for its remedy — Cassian narrating the matter in Conference 7, chapter 27, page 312, in these words: But the second, whom we said dwelt in this desert (namely in the place which is called Calamus, situated, according to chapter 26, page 311 of the same, in Scetis, as I read elsewhere), since he too was a singular and incomparable man, on account of the blame of one saying which, disputing against abbot Macarius, he uttered a little too harshly, being namely forestalled by a certain opinion, was immediately delivered to a demon so dire that he stuffed human excrements into his own mouth. That the Lord had inflicted this scourge for the sake of purgation — namely that not even the stain of a momentary fault should remain in him — he showed by the swiftness of his cure and by the author of the remedy. For, abbot Macarius forthwith submitting himself to prayer, sooner than the word the wicked spirit, being put to flight, departed from him.

[17] wonderful command over the demons: a eulogy And these contests indeed our unconquered Athlete sustained, whom so many and so black tempests of the flesh did not hinder from having his soul illumined with a great abundance of heavenly rays, and from exercising a powerful and wonderful command over the demons, according to Palladius at page 66: This Saint, he says, was deemed worthy of grace against the demons, to such a degree that, as we despise flies in winter, so, and yet more, this great Moses despised the demons. Another passage, in which it is narrated that the holy Man struck the greatest terror into the demons, we shall give below at number 38, where there will be discourse of his eulogies.

the edition of Gazet adds ab eo*

§ III. The Saint's virtues; apophthegms and instructions.

By a most profound In the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 15, number 29, page 624, there is treatment of St. Moses' priesthood, proved by the most profound humility of the Man gathering himself into the slender shadows of modesty and self-abasement. Hear the matter: They said of abbot Moses that he was made a cleric, and they placed upon him the ephod. And the archbishop said to him: "Behold, thou art made white-robed, abba Moses." And he answered: "Dost thou think, lord pope, outwardly or inwardly?" But the bishop, wishing to prove him, said to the clergy: "When abbot Moses enters to the altar, drive him out, and follow, that you may hear what he says." And when they had begun to put him out of doors, they said to him: "Go out, Ethiopian." But he, going out, said: "They have done well to thee, thou ashen and sooty one. Since thou art not a man, why hast thou presumed to place thyself in the midst of men?" Concerning the words cinerente and caccabate Rosweyde observes these things in a note on the cited book, page 643, number 43: So the Vedastine and Saint-Omer manuscripts. The printed texts vary. Some, CINEROSE ET CACCABATE; some, CINERATE ET CACCABATE. I judge that cinerentus was said after that form by which PULVERULENTUS and the like are formed. See the Onomasticon.

[19] The same virtue of most profound humility he showed on many other occasions. humility For in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 16, number 7, page 631: An assembly of the brethren having once been held in Scetis, when the elders wished to prove abbot Moses, they despised him, saying: "Why does this Ethiopian come into our midst?" But he, hearing it, kept silence. And when the assembly had been dismissed, those who had treated him insultingly said to him: "Wast thou not disturbed just now?" And he answered: "I was disturbed, and I did not speak." And in the same place, little book 8, number 10, page 593, he gave forth another example, by which he showed how small and abject he was in his own eyes: For the judge of the province once heard of abbot Moses, and went to Scetis to see him; and certain men reported to the old man of his coming, and he arose to flee into the marsh; and that judge with his men met him, and asked him, saying: "Tell us, old man, where is the cell of abbot Moses?" And he says to them: "Why do you wish to seek him? He is a foolish man and a heretic."

[20] And the judge, coming to the church, said to the clergy: "I, hearing of abbot Moses, he excelled: came to see him; and behold, an old man met us going into Egypt, and we asked him where the cell of abbot Moses was, and he said to us: Why do you seek him? He is foolish and a heretic." And the clergy, hearing this, were saddened, saying: "What sort of old man is he who spoke these things to you of a holy man?" And they said: "An old man using a very ancient garment, tall and black." And they said: "That is abbot Moses; and because he did not wish to be seen by you, therefore he himself said these things of himself to you." And the judge departed much edified. What of this, that the same virtue, queen of all the virtues, made our holy Confessor terrible to the proud demons, and shut the way against their approach, so that they did not dare to tempt him? Receive the fact from the Lives of the Fathers, book 3, number 102, page 516: To abbot Moses also demons frequently appeared, cursing him and saying: "Thou hast prevailed over us, Moses, and we can do nothing to thee: for as often as we wish to humble thee into despair, thou art exalted; but as often as thou art exalted, so dost thou humble thyself, that none of us may approach thee."

[21] to which charity To this virtue, which St. Moses had in an excellent degree, add a singular charity, in which also he excelled remarkably. In the same seventh book, chapter 18, number 2, page 673, these things are written: A certain brother, coming into Scetis, asked to see abbot Arsenius. And when other brethren urged him to rest a little, he answered: "I do not eat bread unless I shall have deserved to see him." Then one of the brethren led him to abbot Arsenius; and, the door of the little cell having been knocked at, he brought him in. Then, being received, and prayer having been made, they sat down. But when blessed Arsenius kept silence, he who had brought the brother says: "I depart." But he too who had come out of great desire, seeing that abbot Arsenius had spoken nothing to him, sitting silent for shame, said: "And I too depart with thee, brother." And so both departed. But he asked that he might also be led to abbot Moses, who had been converted from among robbers. By whom, being received, and charity having been shown, he was dismissed. But the brother who had led him to both said to him: "Behold, thou hast seen both whom thou didst ask for: which of the two pleases thee more?" And he said: "To me meanwhile this one seems the better, who both received us both well and fed us well." Which saying being learned, one of the fathers prayed to the Lord, saying: "Lord, I pray thee show me this matter: why one for thy name's sake shuns to see or to address all men; but the other for thy name's sake is common to all." And behold, in an ecstasy

two ships were shown him upon the river; and in the one indeed he saw the Holy Spirit sailing with silence and rest together with abbot Arsenius; but in the other ship he saw abbot Moses and the angels of God, putting honey and honeycomb into his mouth and upon his teeth.

[22] he joined, From this virtue also flowed a deed of our holy Father, when he preferred to seem less rigid in a certain custom, as I believe, of fasting, than little hospitable at the coming of certain solitaries. The deed is written in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 13, number 4, page 615, to have happened thus: It happened once in Scetis that an order was given that they should fast that week and keep Easter. But it fell out that in that same week certain brethren came from Egypt to abbot Moses; and he made them a little pottage; and when the neighbors had seen the smoke, they said to the clergy of the church which is there: "Behold, Moses has broken the order, and has cooked pottage at his house." But they said: "When he comes, we will speak with him." But when the Sabbath came, the clergy, seeing the great manner of life of abbot Moses, say to him before all the people: "O abbot Moses, thou hast indeed broken the ordinance of men, but the ordinances of God thou hast bound fast."

[23] and mercy toward offenders: With the virtue of charity mercy toward offenders has no small affinity. This the holy Man showed to be found in himself beyond the other brethren dwelling in the desert: for they wished another to be punished, who was guilty of I know not what fault; but he wished him to be spared. Learn the story from the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 9, number 4, page 594: A brother was once found blameworthy in Scetis, and the elders held an assembly, and sent to abbot Moses, saying that he should come; but he was unwilling to come. And the priest sent to him, saying: "Come, for the company of the brethren awaits thee." And he, rising, came. And taking with him a very old basket, he filled it with sand and carried it behind him. And they went out to meet him, saying: "What is this, father?" And the old man said to them: "My sins are running behind me, and I do not see them; and I have come today to judge the sins of another." And they, hearing this, said nothing to the brother, but forgave him. Very many other virtues of the Saint are sprinkled through various places of this Commentary.

[24] Various apophthegms of abbot Moses are also reported in the Lives of the Fathers, apophthegms which declare his pious sentiments. In book 3, number 58, page 510, are these: Abbot Moses said: By these four things passion is begotten: by abundance of food and drink, and by satiety of sleep, and by idleness and jesting, and by walking about in adorned garments. In the same place, book 7, chapter 1, number 7, page 665: The same said: The passions of the body are many. And a brother says to him: And what are they, Abba? But he answered: Because Paul the Apostle says: "Let fornication and uncleanness, or all covetousness, not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints"; sights also and over-confidence frequently come to the battle. Book 3, number 196, page 529: Abbot Moses admonished the brethren, saying: There are four chief things to be observed by a monk; that is, keeping silence, keeping God's commandments, humbling oneself, and the straitness of poverty. It behooves therefore a monk always to mourn, always to be mindful of his own sins, and at every hour to set death before his eyes. With these four just brought forward nearly agree the things which are found in the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chapter 35, number 1, page 680. He esteemed the love of the cell greatly, as is plain from this brief but, for persuading, effective apophthegm, which is read in the said Lives, book 3, number 109, page 516: When a certain brother had asked a word from abbot Moses, the Old Man says to him: Go, and sit in thy cell. And thy cell can teach thee all things, if thou remain there. For as a fish taken out of the water immediately dies, so also a monk perishes if he chooses to linger outside his cell. Upon the same theme he uses another comparison in book 5, little book 2, number 10, page 564: Abbot Moses said: A man fleeing from man is like a ripe grape; but he who converses with men is like a sour grape.

[25] In Cotelier, cited above, there is given at page 553 this apophthegm: others are brought forward, A brother thus asked abbot Moses: I see a thing before me, and I cannot lay hold of it. The Old Man says to him: Unless thou hast been made dead like those who are covered by the tomb, thou wilt not be able to apprehend it. In the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 10, number 63, page 602: Abbot Pastor said that a certain brother asked abbot Moses, saying: What sort of man mortifies himself? a man to his neighbor? And he answered him: Unless a man has set it in his heart that he has been three years in the grave, he does not attain to this word. Chapter 26 of book 7, number 1, page 678, may also be seen. In the same place, book 6, little book 4, page 657, there are various instructions under this title: Seven chapters of words which abbot Moses sent to abbot Poemenius, etc. The narrative is long, and was long since transcribed among us at the day VII of February, page 47; where it is attributed to Moses the Libyan. Of St. Poemen, a most famous anchorite in Scetis and in Egypt, there has been treatment in this volume at the day XXVII of August. We do not see why the Poemenius who was called above should be different from him, nor why the Moses who is named among his apophthegms at page 41, number 26, should be determined to be another than he of whom we here treat. Among the sentences of the Egyptian Fathers in Rosweyde, number 109, page 1007, the above admonitions are set down otherwise and briefly under this title: These are the seven sentences which abbot Moses spoke to abbot Poemenion, etc., which may there be read; as also the apophthegms in Cotelier, pages 555, 557, and his notes at page 816, and the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 10, number 63, page 602. Tillemont, in volume 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, in the article on St. Moses, applies to him various instructions which are in Cassian.

[26] and instructions which he gave fruitfully: He did not bring forth his institutions concerning perfection promiscuously and without fruit, but wished those to have them who were eager for it and sought it with a contrite and humbled heart, lest, if they were not such, it should harm him. Hear Cassian in Conference 1, chapter 1, page 174, speaking thus of abbot Moses: When in the desert of Scetis (about the year 390, as Tillemont will have it, page 72), where the most approved fathers of the monks and all perfection dwelt, I, desiring to be grounded by his instruction, had sought out abbot Moses (the same without doubt of whom we here speak, as the author just named judges), who among those excellent flowers glowed more sweetly, not only in the active but also in the contemplative life, together with the holy abbot Germanus …, and when we alike with poured-out tears sought from that abbot a word of edification — since indeed we knew most manifestly this rigor of his mind, that he would by no means at all consent to open the doctrine of perfection save to those faithfully desiring it and seeking it with all contrition of heart; lest namely, if he should set it forth indiscriminately either to those unwilling for it or lukewarmly thirsting, disclosing necessary things, and such as ought to be known only to those desiring perfection, to the unworthy and to those receiving them fastidiously, he should seem to incur either the vice of boasting or the crime of betrayal, etc.

[27] a remedy against sloth: Cassian, in the Institutes of the Renouncers, book 10, chapter 25, page 142, narrates that he received this remedy against sloth from abbot Moses: When, he says, beginning to dwell in the desert, I had said to abbot Moses, the chief of all the holy men dwelling in it, that I had been most grievously worn out the day before by the sickness of sloth, and could not otherwise be freed from it unless I had run at once to abbot Paul, he said: "Thou hast not freed thyself from it, but hast rather offered thyself as its bondman and subject. For the adversary will thereafter assail thee the more grievously as a deserter and a fugitive, whom he saw take flight forthwith when overcome in the conflict — unless henceforth, joining battle, thou choose to let his onrushing heats evaporate for the hour not by desertion of the cell or by the torpor of sleep, but rather learn to triumph by endurance and by conflict." Whence it has been proved by experience that the assault of sloth is not to be fled by turning aside, but to be overcome by resisting.

[28] frugality of diet, The same Cassian (as Tillemont goes on) inscribes his first two Conferences with the name of abbot Moses of Scetis, and in the second of them, chapter 21, page 214, introduces him speaking thus: If you wish to prove the force of this rule (he had treated in chapter 19 of the best measure of daily food) keep this measure continually, taking no cooked pottage from without on the Lord's Day or the Sabbath, nor on any occasion of arriving brethren: for the flesh, refreshed with these, will not only be able to be sustained on the remaining days with a smaller quantity, but even to defer the whole refection without labor, being supported namely by the addition of those foods which it has taken from without. Which he will in no way be able to do, nor to defer the refection of bread to the following day, whoever has always been content with the quantity of the aforesaid measure. For I remember that our elders (which I too remember to have frequently endured) sustained this frugality with such labor and difficulty, and kept the aforesaid measure with such force and hunger, that unwillingly as it were, and not without groaning and sadness, they set this end to their refection. Further, that quantity of the aforesaid measure is set down at chapter 19 as two paxamacia, which little loaves it is most certain scarcely have the weight of one pound. These paxamacia, as it is there written, elsewhere paximatia, are dry loaves, from the Lausiac History, chapter 22, page 64, where in the Life of Moses who was of the robbers these things are narrated, and the above are confirmed: When therefore Moses, the servant of Christ, had withdrawn …, he practiced the greatest endurance in all things, but especially in abstinence from foods, as one who took nothing else besides twelve ounces of dry bread.

[29] In Cassian, Conference 2, chapter 17, page 213, and the measure to be kept in it: which is concerning immoderate fastings and vigils, he narrates how far he had advanced in abstinence from foods, and teaches that a measure must be kept in it. For I remember, he says, that I frequently so utterly rejected the appetite for food, that, refection being deferred for two and three days, not even the memory of any eatable interrupted my mind; and again that sleep was so withdrawn from my eyes by the devil's assault, that for many nights and days I prayed the Lord that a little sleep might be poured into my eyes, and that I was more grievously endangered by the

loathing of sleep and food than by the struggle with drowsiness and gluttony.

[30] It seems likely that upon our St. Moses falls that notable eulogy the sociable life joined to the monastic. which is found in Conference 19, chapter 9, from page 536, and in which Moses, Paphnutius, and the two Macarii are praised for their contempt of secular things and for the contemplative life: Who were so perfect in both those professions that, although withdrawing beyond all the dwellers in the desert, they fed insatiably on the secret of solitude, and, so far as was in them, in no way sought human fellowships, yet they so bore with the throngs and frailties of those running to them, that, when an innumerable multitude of brethren flowed together to them for the sake of a visit or of progress, enduring with unmoved patience so nearly continual an unquiet of reception, they were believed to have neither learned nor practiced anything else in all the time of their life than to serve only the common offices of those arriving; so that it was doubtful among all in which profession the greater diligence of the same men lay — that is, whether in that eremitic purity or in this common conversation their greatness of soul was the more wonderfully fitted.

§ IV. The gift of prophecy; his death; his cult among the Greeks and Latins; eulogies; chronology.

He foretells the fall of the flesh Besides very many other gifts which God most kindly heaped upon our holy Hermit, he also conferred upon him the spirit of prophecy. This is proved from the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 5, number 35, page 578, where these things handed down to memory are read — to whom they can be more aptly applied than to abbot Moses the Ethiopian, who so shone in Scetis, I do not see: There was a certain old man in Scetis, who, when he had fallen into a great sickness, was served by the brethren. And the old man, seeing that they labored, said: "I go into Egypt, and I will not burden these brethren." And abbot Moses says to him: "Go not, since thou art about to fall into fornication." But he, being saddened, said: "My body is dead, and dost thou say these things to me?" Rising therefore he went off into Egypt. And when the men dwelling round about had heard of it, they offered him many things. There came also to him a certain faithful virgin, wishing to render her service to the sick old man. And after some time, when he had somewhat improved from the sickness by which he was held, he fell upon her, and she conceived. And being asked by the neighbors of the place whence she had conceived, she answered: "From this old man."

[32] of a certain solitary, But they did not believe her. But the old man said: "I have done this; but keep for me the child which she has borne." And when she had brought forth a boy, and he had been weaned, the old man took the child upon his shoulders; and on the day on which there was a festival in Scetis he went thither, and entered into the church before the multitude of the brethren. And they, seeing him, wept. And he said to the brethren: "Do you see this child? He is the son of my disobedience. Beware therefore, brethren, since I did this in old age, and pray for me." And going to his cell, he returned to the beginning of his first manner of life.

[33] and the irruption of the barbarians into Scetis, by whom he was slain Another prophecy our holy Abbot is said to have uttered on the same Mount Scetis, and to have foretold the impending ravaging of the Mazices. In volume IV of July, at the day XIX of that month, page 610, in the article on St. Arsenius the anchorite, I spoke of their barbarous cruelty, of their twofold irruption, and of its time, which I do not here repeat. But since the solitude of Scetis was near enough to that barbarous nation (see the Lausiac History, chapter 7), it is no wonder that those solitaries were exposed to the ravagings of the Mazices. Further, the Saint's prophecy concerning their coming into Scetis is thus narrated in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 18, numbers 13 and 14, page 638: Abbot Moses said in Scetis: "If we keep the commandments of our fathers, presuming upon God I promise you that the barbarians will not come hither; but if we shall not keep them, this place is to be laid desolate." Once when the brethren were sitting with the same abbot Moses, he says to them: "Behold, the barbarians will come today into Scetis; but rise and flee." They say to him: "And wilt not thou flee, abba?" But he says to them: "I for so many years have awaited this day, that the word of my Lord Jesus Christ might be fulfilled, who says: All who take the sword shall perish by the sword." But they said to him: "Neither will we flee, but we will die with thee." And he said to them: "I have no cause; let each of you see how he sits." Now there were seven brethren with him, and they say to him: "Behold, the barbarians have drawn near to the door"; and at once the barbarians, entering, killed them. But one of them, terrified with fleshly fear, fled and hid himself behind the mats of palm; and he saw seven crowns descending and crowning abbot Moses and the six brethren who had been slain with him.

[34] Further, those crowns, as Tillemont observes in volume 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, in the article on St. Moses, page 75, is said to be as it were a martyr, designated not only the glory which those Saints had obtained by their perseverance in penitence and in good works, but also the honor of martyrdom which they had merited by their death; the Church being accustomed to ascribe to the catalogue of Martyrs those who after a holy life were slain by unbelieving barbarians — as the holy Paul, Isaiah, and others in the solitude whose name is Raithu, and in Sinai (they are places in Arabia by the Red Sea), slain about the year 373 (of whom he treats in volume 7, from page 573). To these he adds those whom he reports slain on the same day and in the same solitude of Sinai about the beginning of the fifth century, sending the reader to what he gathered concerning St. Nilus, namely St. Sarmatas, disciple of St. Antony, whose memory is kept on the day XI of October. This is the cause, as the same author observes, that at the day VII of February in our work, page 46, it was believed that this title is due to St. Moses and his companions (whether the same, or different from those of whom I have just spoken, I shall discuss afterwards). This is Tillemont's reasoning, which will afford us matter for further examination below.

[35] See meanwhile how greatly Palladius differs from that martyrdom of St. Moses the Ethiopian — the silence of Palladius being against it: a most weighty author and most worthy of credit, who indeed expressly makes mention of his death, his age, his priesthood, and his disciples, but says nothing of the manner of his death, and speaks of it no otherwise than as though it had happened without violence and in peace: He died, he says at page 66, at the age of seventy-five years in Scetis, having been made a priest, leaving seventy-five [] disciples.* If the Saint was a martyr, how could Palladius be ignorant of this? If he was not ignorant, how could he write thus? Here is Rhodes, here the leap. And these indeed are the seeds of a very intricate controversy, of which more below. Meanwhile I subjoin the cult of today's St. Moses, and his eulogies.

[36] The yearly memory of St. Moses is inscribed in the Typicon called St. Sabas', his cult among the Greeks and in the Synaxary which, from the Menology published by order of the emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, stands among us at the end of volume 1 of August. Our Saint is also announced and praised in the Menology of Sirleto. Our Greek manuscript transcripts I forbear to append to these one by one. In the sacred Office which stands on this day in the great Greek Menæa published in print, he is addressed with excellent eulogies, and is honored with the two following little verses; and since those Menæa which I use are very faulty, I have laid my hand upon them, as I judged the sense to require, which runs thus:

Φησὶ τὸ ῥητόν· Καὶ θανὼν Μωσῆς μέλας, Ἄνθρωπος ὄψιν, καὶ θεὸς τὴν καρδίαν.

The saying reports: Even in death Moses is black: A man in face, but one who in heart was a god.

This hexameter is added concerning his burial:

Τάψαν ἐν εἰκάδι Μωσῆν ὀγδόῃ Αἰθιοπῆα.

The twenty-eighth buries Moses the Ethiopian.

Perhaps the poet in the first verse looks to the Greek proverb, Αἰθίοψ οὐ λευκαίνεται, concerning which I spoke in the article on St. the Ethiopian Eunuch, baptized by St. Philip the deacon, page 5 of this volume. But by what metaphorical likeness he is called a god, I have not ascertained from his sayings and deeds.

[37] and among the Latins But the posthumous glory of St. Moses received a singular increase when it was propagated from the Greek church to the Latin, which in its Martyrology on this day announces him thus: Likewise of St. Moses the Ethiopian, who from a notable robber became a notable anchorite, and converted many robbers and led them with him to a monastery. It is singular also that the yearly memory of St. Moses was propagated under a peculiar title to the church of St. Saviour of the Cistercian Order at Antwerp. For in a little book printed there, which contains the particular feasts of that same church on account of notable relics of Saints male and female, these things are noted: XXVIII of August. Of St. Moses, hermit and confessor, with Mass and commemoration at both vespers and lauds; collect: Deus qui nos.

[38] eulogies Receive the eulogies of the most holy Man. Palladius at page 66 in Hervet's edition: This is the life which Moses the Ethiopian led, who himself also was numbered among the great. But the Greek of Meursius has it thus: Αὕτη ἡ ἔνθεος τῆς ἀσκήσεως πολιτεία τοῦ ἀκαταγωνίστου ἀθλητοῦ Μωυσέως τοῦ τῷ γένει Αἰθίοπος, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν ἐθίσαντος θείᾳ χάριτι· ὃς καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἐν τοῖς μεγάλοις τῶν πατέρων κατορθώμασιν ἀριθμούμενος. Which I thus interpret: This is the divine conversation of the ascetic exercise of the unconquered champion Moses, by race an Ethiopian, but in soul accustoming himself to divine grace, who himself also was rightly numbered among the great achievements of the fathers. Sozomen at page 683 extols him with these praises: They say … that to no one ever did such and so great a change from vice to virtue befall as to this man; who indeed reached the summit of monastic philosophy, and struck the greatest terror into the demons, and was made priest of the monks of Scetis. Behold now for thee, reader, a eulogy from the Greek Synaxary just mentioned, which is found at the end of volume 1 of the month of August, rendered into Latin after the custom, even though the things narrated in it are well enough known from elsewhere: In the same month (August) on the XXVIII day, the memory of our holy father Moses the Ethiopian. This Blessed one was indeed by race an Ethiopian, but in color exceedingly black, the servant of a certain administrator of public affairs, whom his master drove out on account of the great perversity of his manners and his practice of robbery. He was once of a hostile mind toward a certain shepherd, remembering that he had placed a hindrance before him in some matter; whom also he wished to kill.

[39] of him: Knowing therefore that he was across the Nile, which was flooding with waters, holding a sword in the bite of his mouth and setting his garment upon his head, he crossed over by swimming. But the shepherd, perceiving beforehand his coming, withdrew himself by flight. And he, four rams

of the best being slaughtered and bound with a cord, crossed the Nile again by swimming. And when he had eaten their flesh and had sold the skins for wine, he departed to his companions. But these things I have narrated in order to show that sinners can be saved through penitence, if they will. He at length, being at some time pricked by some occasion, delivered himself to a monastery, and advanced so far in penitence that he brought his companions to Christ. When he was once sitting in his cell, certain robbers came to him, not knowing that he was Moses; whom the Blessed one, bound with a rope like a sack of chaff, set upon his shoulders and betook himself to the church []; and he says to the brethren: "Since indeed it is not lawful for me to do injury, and I found these coming upon me, what do you wish concerning them?" But they, learning that he was Moses, that famous and unconquerable prince of robbers, after they had glorified God, themselves also renounced the world, and were made most approved monks. And so the holy Old Man, his life being spent according to God's good pleasure, and the demon's lust overcome, dies at the age of seventy-five years, having been made a priest also, and leaving seventy disciples. Concerning the word κυριακὸν (that is, literally the Lord's), which I have in Latin called church*, Du Cange may be consulted in either Glossary.

[40] Further, that age of seventy-five years gives us occasion to attempt the chronology of his life whether from these and other things a chronology of his life can be woven, which we shall give by way of an attempt or chronological scheme, since it is difficult to define it exactly and to fit it to its own years. But the Saint's age already mentioned is confirmed from the Lausiac History above at number 35, and concerning it also by the transcript of the Life which we have from the Imperial library of Vienna; although Nicephorus Callistus, in volume 2 of the Ecclesiastical History, book XI, chapter 36, asserts that he ended his life about the eighty-fifth year. If St. Moses closed his life about the end of the fourth century, let us set down that he began to live about the year 325. Tillemont in volume 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 64, indicates that his conversion could have happened in the 25th or 30th year of his age, which, according to what has been said, may coincide with the 50th or 55th year of that century. He presided over a certain monastery of Scetis for the direction of solitaries about the year 375 or 380, if we believe Baillet in his Life.

[41] It is a business of altogether more difficult investigation to define the year of his death. and of his death The aforesaid collector of the Monuments at page 75 saw this difficulty, and affirms it to be certain that he died before the year 420, since Palladius speaks of his death. But that note of time is too vague. He adds that judgment can be passed that it happened between the year 391 or 392, in which that author seems to have spoken with him, and the year 400, in which Cassian may have departed from Egypt. But the same collector endeavors to discuss the present argument with more pains in note 5 upon St. Moses the robber, pages 728 and 729, which is concerning the time of his death. If Moses, he says, slain by the Mazices, be the Libyan or some other different from the robber, we see nothing to be said of the time of his death, save that it happened at the end of the fourth century, or at the beginning of the fifth. Then he signifies that it is had from a letter of Synesius that the Ausurians or Austorians, barbarous peoples of those regions, depopulated the whole of Libya in the year 412, nay even threatened Egypt. That writer flourished under the rule of Arcadius and Theodosius the younger, and was archbishop of Ptolemais in Libya; and his deeds Tillemont reduced to a historical narrative in volume 12, page 499 and following, where in article 24, from page 550, he sets forth at some length from the same Synesius the depopulation already mentioned. And, some things being interposed, in note 5 just indicated he returns to the time of the death of St. Moses, which we are inquiring.

[42] But if Moses, he says, the martyr be the same as the robber, it is in some fashion and the same as he who dwelt in the Calami, he must have died before the year 400: for Serenus and Paphnutius speak with Cassian of him as of a man already dead, "who dwelt, etc." See chapter 5 of the third Conference, and chapter 26 of the seventh Conference. Now, when Cassian had been made a disciple of St. Chrysostom, after he had set out into Scetis, this could scarcely have happened after the year 400; and accordingly he must have died at that time in which Cassian was in Egypt, that is, as we, he says, believe, between the year 390 and 400: since he could not have died before the year 390, and that not only because we believe him to be the same with whom Cassian held converse in Scetis, but also because St. Arsenius, who did not betake himself to the solitude before the year 385, was already then a solitary — nay rather much advanced in piety — when St. Moses was then still living, from Cotelier, pages 368 and 369.

[43] set in order. Palladius, who arrived at the Cells in the year 391, seems to say that he related to him the history of his own temptations; and this Tillemont gathers from the Greek text ὡς αὐτὸς διηγήσατο, that is, as he himself narrated. To these things which I have hitherto set forth from the said collector, I add in passing that that phrase, as he himself narrated, is found in the Latin version of Gentian Hervet which I use, page 63; but is not found by me in the Greek text which John Meursius published. Long indeed and various is the above reasoning of Tillemont, laboriously turning himself in every direction that he might come to an exact knowledge of the true time in which our St. Moses died; but I do not call each and all of these things to a new examination, the present controversy coming round to this, that it seems not improbable that the Saint departed from life about the year of Christ 400, as Castellan places him; and, that we may reckon another also with him, Baillet. We at the beginning of this Commentary have marked that he died about the end of the fourth century, which comes to nearly the same.

in the Greek text in Meursius I read ἑβδομήκοντα, seventy*

* in the Greek it is κυριακὸν

§ V. Solitaries of the same name as our Saint; his disciples, the abbatial dignity, his priesthood, and perhaps his martyrdom.

St. Moses the bishop distinguished from today's Saint: whether also St. Moses, bishop of the Saracens in Arabia, is different from today's Saint, with whom we have said that he was confused, in volume 11 of February, at the day VII, on which he was treated of, page 45. In the same place, page 46, there were given among us SS. Moses the abbot and six monks, martyrs, and they are placed in Egypt; but that Moses is reported as called the Libyan. But first, I do not sufficiently understand why they should be announced in Egypt, and not rather in Scetis; since in the prediction and narration of their martyrdom, which is there produced from the Lives of the Fathers, and which I reported above in §4 after the beginning, these words are read: Abbot Moses said in Scetis, etc. Once when the brethren were sitting with the same abbot Moses, he says to them: Behold, the barbarians will come today into Scetis …, and the barbarians killed them. The arena of their martyrdom therefore was not properly in Egypt, but in Scetis of Libya. Secondly, I do not sufficiently see that the Moses called the Libyan ought here to be understood; nor do I sufficiently grasp upon what foundation various apophthegms are applied to him at the same day VII of February. From Palladius certainly I cannot conclude this, nor from Sozomen, since they have only a very few things concerning him.

[45] one of the same name, For Palladius, expressly treating of that Moses at chapter 88, page 184, under this title, The Life of abbot Moses the Libyan, records these things: Moses the Libyan was a most gentle man, and endowed with the greatest charity. He was accounted worthy of the gift of healings. He narrated this, namely that a vein of water was in a wonderful manner drawn out in a well by Pior for the use of the monks. But I read nothing else there concerning that Moses besides these few words. Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book 6, chapter 29, page 684, writes these things of him: Moses … is recorded to have become famous beyond the rest for gentleness and charity, and for the cures of sicknesses which he drove away by prayer alone. Thirdly, I can by no means prove that Moses the Libyan is he who was slain with six monks in Scetis: for since the Moses slain there said, I for so many years have awaited this day, that the word of my Lord Jesus Christ might be fulfilled, who says: All who take the sword shall perish by the sword, as may be seen above at §4, perhaps that Moses here designates himself who, accustomed to robberies in his secular life, was converted from a robber to the best fruit and to excellent sanctity. And indeed his death, which is set down among the apophthegms in Cotelier at page 553, is depicted there at page 549 and following with these characteristics, which seem proper to today's Moses and to him alone: for he is said to have been most vehemently … tempted to fornication … an Ethiopian … tall and black … in Scetis.

[46] Nevertheless a strong argument against this opinion is called the Libyan, is inquired. that Palladius, who writes at length concerning abbot Moses who was of the robbers, and who indicates even the very place of his death, the years of his age, and the number of his disciples, says nothing of the manner of his death. This is the knot of the difficulty which I touched at number 35. But I answer that the same author also writes concerning Moses the Libyan, and says nothing of his death. Nor should you rejoin that he wrote only in passing concerning Moses the Libyan, and that it could have happened that he was ignorant of his death, if it fell in that time at which Palladius had departed from the solitude. For I answer that these things rest upon mere conjectures; for Palladius has handed down in writing no more concerning him than we have said above. Whether, and what, he afterwards learned concerning him outside the solitude, who would divine? I answer finally to the objection from Palladius' silence concerning the manner of the death of St. Moses converted from a robber, that all historical authors do not always write everything, but not seldom omit various things which other collectors of history supply. How often this happens in our Work, who does not know? It does not therefore follow: Palladius does not report this, therefore it is false. Nor should you object the Greeks in the great printed Menæa, nor in the eulogy of the Greek Synaxary, rendered by me into Latin above from number 38, since they either followed or transcribed Palladius, or some other writer who drew from that fountain. If nevertheless the silence of Palladius should appear to anyone an argument of such weight that he judges it not to be gainsaid, he is at liberty to seek another Moses to whom the congruences which I have premised concerning today's Saint may more aptly agree; yet since these do not establish the matter, I do not decide the present controversy, but, leaving it undetermined, commit it to the judgment of the learned.

But now another controversy offers itself: who that Moses is who is named in the Conferences of Cassian.

[47] Tillemont, in note three upon St. Moses the robber, page 728, endeavors to prove Whether today's St. Moses is the same, that this Moses is probably Moses of Scetis, of whom Cassian speaks. Gazet, he says, the commentator on Cassian (whom he cites in the notes at page 218, the first Conference of Cassian being designated in the index of citations, published at Paris in the year 1642), believes that Moses of Scetis, who speaks in the first two Conferences of that author, cannot be he who had been a robber, for this reason, that the latter was much earlier than Cassian. But the aforesaid collector of the Ecclesiastical Monuments answers that he does not know what foundation he has for saying this. Then he appeals to the text of Cassian, and from it affirms that it is necessary that Moses the robber lived until the year 390, in which he records that Cassian came into Scetis, and even later; since Cassian knew excellently the virtue of Moses, who on account of a robbery committed by him had withdrawn into the solitude, and who had lived there in a certain place of the desert of Scetis whose name is Calamus. (See the text of Cassian alleged by us in §1, number 5.)

[48] who speaks in Cassian: But that Moses the robber is here understood according to Gazet, page 336, the same collector asserts. And indeed, since Moses in the Calami, as he adds, is for Gazet at page 218 the same also who speaks in the Conferences of Cassian, it is exceedingly probable that that Moses is the robber so famous in the Lives of the Fathers and in Palladius; and at least that this could not be denied by Gazet, unless he was contrary to himself. Louis Bulteau, in the History of the monastic Order, book 1, chapter 10, page 154, affirms that that Moses who speaks in Cassian must be distinguished from our Ethiopian, for this reason, that the latter was from his youth with St. Antony. If he proved this, he would give no small weight to Gazet's opinion. But since he does not designate the place in which this is said, and the collector mentioned above adds that he could not find it, he does not deserve to be heard. The reckoning of time therefore does not seem to exclude today's Moses from the Conferences of Cassian; whether nevertheless he was the man, is not certainly established for me.

[49] concerning the Moses in Nitria: Whether the Moses of the same name in Nitria, whom from Rufinus we named in this volume in the article on St. Poemen the anchorite, page 26, has anything agreeing with the present or the foregoing controversy, we have not ascertained; nor do we remember that those circumstances of his life which would prove this have hitherto come to our notice. Yet not on that account ought he certainly to be removed from here, if other circumstances should persuade it — because, as we have said, he is recorded in Nitria (a mountain on the borders of Scetis): for that those ancient solitaries were not always so fixed to one place that they did not from time to time pass over to another, we have shown in the article on Poemen already praised, page XI, against Tillemont; who, persisting in the same error in note three upon today's St. Moses cited before, besides other things which he signifies that he has said concerning Moses the Libyan, to whom he denies the martyrdom, adds this, that he seems to have dwelt in Nitria rather than in Scetis.

[50] likewise concerning one of the same name with seven others. But what shall we say of St. Moses the Ethiopian and the seven holy anchorites, martyrs, briefly given among us from the metrical Hagiology of the Abyssinians in volume III of June, at the day XVIII of that month, page 586? When I compare the things which are narrated of these Martyrs with the death of the one of the same name, and his seven companions, of whom I have discoursed before, I can scarcely doubt that they are the same — the curious reader, I believe, supporting me, if he shall have chosen to compare the one history with the other and to weigh both. In the sacred Fasti of the Ethiopian church in Job Ludolf, page 419, at the day XVIII of June, there are announced Abba Moses the black. The seven Brethren of Moses the black; and it is there observed in the notes at the letter i: Moses the Ethiopian is named in the Menologies of the Greeks and Latins on the day XXVIII of August; from a notable robber made a notable anchorite.

[51] [Whether the sayings and deeds which have been reported before regard today's Moses:] In the foregoing paragraphs I have drawn forth apophthegms and historical facts which Tillemont adopted and set down under the title of today's St. Moses, and which accordingly seemed to him to suit that Moses. But I would not stand surety that all are to be referred to one man. Meanwhile the more certain things in this kind are those which Palladius and Sozomen have; to which add the Lives of the Fathers, when a congruence concurs in which this man rather than another will seem to shine forth. Although I shall not gainsay it, if anyone say — what it seems can in some fashion be presumed — that certain things noted in the said Lives under the name of Moses alone are perhaps tacitly attributed to today's Moses by antonomasia, both on account of the great celebrity of the name among the ancient dwellers in the desert, and on account of the seventy disciples whom he had. But concerning these some things also must be observed.

[52] The often-named collector of the Ecclesiastical Monuments subjoins to his lucubration on today's St. Moses two out of the many disciples, as he will have it, of that same Moses, his disciples: namely Zacharias and Carion, at page 76 and following, recording various things concerning them from the Lives of the Fathers and from the Apophthegms in Cotelier. The latter may be read at pages 443 and 444, likewise at page 516 and following; but the former in book 3, number 86, page 513, and book 5, little book 15, number 17, page 623. I find in Cotelier the name of Moses, and that those two of whom I was speaking resided in Scetis, and that mention is made of Isidore, priest of that same place, perhaps the same of whom Palladius speaks, and with whom St. Moses the Ethiopian, converted from a robber, dealt: the text of the transaction I cited in §2. But the same author there calls him the great Isidore. But since it cannot be doubted that this Moses, in so great a number of disciples, had all, or at least most of them, as witnesses and heirs of his virtues, it little concerns us or the Saint whether Zacharias and Carion were under his discipline or under that of another of the same name.

[53] From his so many disciples it seems to be concluded that he was an abbot in the true sense of the name. he was an abbot, a priest, and perhaps a martyr. He is called abbot in Palladius in the title prefixed to the Life, which in the same is not in the Greek copy which Meursius published. He was made a priest, according to Palladius. He may also be called a martyr by those who, with Tillemont, shall judge that he is not to be distinguished from the one of the same name who was slain by the barbarians. These titles I have given him before the beginning of this preliminary Commentary, yet in such wise that I have restricted the martyrdom by the adverb perhaps, in case it should suit the other of the same name.

§ VI. The copies of the Greek Life; our observations.

A twofold copy of the Greek Life: The chief source of the Lives is Palladius, praised by us before. To him must be referred what two Greek biographers commemorate concerning the Saint, whose manuscript copies of the narrative are among us. The one received from a manuscript codex of the Imperial library of Vienna, of which mention has often already been made through the course of this month of August. It bears no author's name, but is prefaced with this title: Τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Μωσέως τοῦ Αἰθίοπος ΚΉ. That is: (The Life) of our holy father Moses the Ethiopian, XXVIII (of August). It begins: Οὗτος ὁ μακάριος Μωσῆς τῷ μὲν γένει ἦν Αἰθίοψ, τῇ χροίᾳ μέλας ἀκριβῶς. This blessed Moses was indeed by race an Ethiopian, but in color exceedingly black. The end is: Τελευτᾷ δὲ ἐτῶν ἑβδομήκοντα πέντε ἐν τῇ Σκήτῃ, γεγονὼς καὶ πρεσβύτερος, καταλιπὼν ἑβδομήκοντα μαθητάς. Ταῖς πρεσβείαις αὐτοῦ, Κύριε, σῶσον πάντας ἡμᾶς &c. And he dies at seventy-five years of age in Scetis, having been made a priest also, leaving seventy disciples. By his intercessions, Lord, save us all, etc.

[55] some notes Another copy of the Life our Papebroch left us, written by himself from the codex, as he adds, Ambros. f. N. n. 152. See the Martyrology of Maximus. Fuller notice of this codex I have supplied in this volume at page 29, where there is also treatment of its writer, a certain monk Laurentius in the monastery of Rossano, which is in Calabria. In this manuscript the narrative is somewhat longer than in the former. Further, I shall commit that Life to the press, translated by me from Greek into the Latin tongue and furnished with Annotations. In it, among us at number 9, there occurs σαλός ἐστι, which expression somewhat exercised Tillemont in note 2 upon St. Moses the robber. For he says that he does not find the word σαλός either in Constantine or in Meursius; but that to the word σάλος no significations are given by them except such as do not suit this passage. But Palladius, he says, whom he alleges at chapter 41, page 958 and following, employs the same word with respect to a daughter who feigned herself foolish and possessed; adding that he had therefore believed that this word ought here to be taken in the same sense, for which he further brings forward Cotelier's translation. (This may be consulted at page 552.)

[56] upon it, In the same place he also observes from the Lives of the Fathers that the word is stultus in the version of Pelagius the Deacon, and of another whom they will have to be Rufinus; but that both there add and a heretic, which is not in the Greek text; and that the Saints scarcely ever suffered themselves to be called heretics, far less that they themselves should load themselves with this reproach. What Tillemont here brought forward from those two writers is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, little book 8, number 10, page 593, and book 3, number 119, page 517. And indeed the adjective noun of which he was here speaking was so well known and widespread among the ancients that it was changed into a proper name, and given to those Saints who, that they might make sport of the vanity and folly of a foolish world, hid their heavenly wisdom under a feigned and affected veil of folly, being made fools for Christ's sake. Consult what I wrote long since in volume 1 of July, at the day 1 of that month, page 129, in the article on St. Symeon Salus, where I indicated in passing that this surname Σαλὸς was given to Saints of this kind from a Syriac word.

[57] which by us I do not indeed wonder that nothing is recorded in the aforesaid Life which Laurentius, monk of Rossano, wrote, concerning a certain demon converted to a better course by our St. Moses; this seems somewhat wonderful, that that matter, briefly recorded in the Greek text of Palladius which Meursius published, and in which the deeds of Moses the Ethiopian are narrated, is omitted in the Latin version of Hervet — nay rather, as I read in a recent writer, in various versions. The Greek text of Palladius has it thus: Καὶ οὕτω προσῆλθεν τῷ πράγματι τῆς μετανοίας, ὡς καὶ

αὐτὸν τὸν συμπρώκτην αὐτοῦ ἐκ νεότητος δαίμονα, τὸν εἰς πάντα αὐτοῦ συναμαρτῶντα, ἄντικρυς εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀγαγεῖν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Which words, in the Appendix to the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 7, page 954, in the Paradise of Heraclides the hermit, who treats the same matters as Palladius, are by an uncertain but ancient translator thus rendered into Latin: And he so vehemently seized upon the life of his own penitence, that he even set Clemon, the partner of his evils, who from his earliest years had sinned with him, afar off to know the power of Christ.

[58] rendered into Greek But why were these things passed over in the Latin History of Palladius? I suspect that this happened because the translators understood by the demon the devil. But this signification would be so ridiculous, and so unworthy of Palladius, that it must rather be confessed either that the passage is corrupt, or that dæmon is here the proper name of a man. Rosweyde, in a note on the passage produced above, page 1008, says: In the Greek Palladius of Paris, συμπαίκτην αὐτοῦ, HIS FELLOW-PLAYER. In the Palatine it was συμπρώκτης. But in both, in the Greek, it was δαίμονα for Κλήμονα. But Palladius must be emended from Heraclides.

[59] What then did that history so greatly deserve, to the press what did it offend, that some translators omitted it as unworthy of the public light? But if Rosweyde's observation, which appears to me very good, should not satisfy anyone, let him consider what I was saying about the proper name of Dæmon, which either that man drew from his father, or was given him from elsewhere on account of his singular cruelty and abandoned manner of life. But since this has more of conjecture than of fact, Rosweyde's opinion pleases me more.

[60] will be subjoined, As to what concerns the word συμπρώκτην, however, for which Rosweyde substituted συμπαίκτην, there seems to me to be something twisted in it, so that the suspicion falls upon me that perhaps we should read συμπράκτωρα, that is, companion or partner. And thus, unless I am deceived, the old translator of Heraclides of whom I spoke read it, putting partner of his evils, and not fellow-player. So too there is read in the Imperial codex of Vienna συμπράκτωρας in the plural number, a fragment of which we shall produce in the Annotations to the Life at letter a. Receive now, reader, the Life; which, although it reports the Saint's deeds handed down before by the ancients to posterity, yet I have not judged that its copy should be suppressed, because I have not known it ever hitherto to have been published in print.

LIFE

Written by Laurentius, monk of Rossano,

From the Ambrosian codex, translated by Jean Pien.

ON ST. MOSES THE ETHIOPIAN, HERMIT, ABBOT, AND PERHAPS MARTYR

By Laurentius the monk.

Οὐδὲ δούλοις, οὐδὲ κακούργοις ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀποκέκλειται, ἀλλ᾽ ἐντός εἰσι ταύτης οἱ τῇ μετανοίᾳ, καθὰ δεῖ, κεχρημένοι, καὶ τὸ βιοῦν ὀρθῶς αἱρούμενοι, καὶ κατὰ Θεόν· οὐδὲ Σκύθαις πάντως, οὐδὲ Αἰθίοψι· πάντες γὰρ χωρητοὶ τῇ ἀγήνῃ [*] Χριστοῦ, καὶ πάντας ἕλκει πρὸς τὴν μάνδραν τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως ὁ Ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς, ὁ τιθεὶς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν προβάτων, Χριστός. Καὶ τοῦτο καὶ ἐξ ἄλλων μὲν πλείστων ἔνεστι κατιδεῖν, ἀλλὰ δὴ καὶ ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, τοῦ προκειμένου νῦν ἡμῖν εἰς διήγησιν, Μώσεώς, φημι, τοῦ Αἰθίοπος. Ὅσῳ γὰρ καὶ δύστροπος ἦν ὁ ἀνὴρ, τοσούτῳ καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν γέγονε μέγας καὶ περιβόητος.

[2] Οὗτος οὖν ὁ μεμελασμένον ἔχων μὲν τὸ σῶμα, λαμπροτέραν δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν τῶν ἡλιακῶν κτησάμενος μαρμαρυγῶν, οἰκέτης γέγονε πολιτευομένου τινὸς, οἰκέτης οὐκ εὔνους, οὐδὲ φίλα δεσπότῃ φρονῶν, ἐναντία δὲ καὶ τῶν καλῶν τρόπων ὄντα μακρόν. Πᾶν γὰρ εἴ τι συρφετῶδες καὶ φαῦλον, πᾶν εἴ τι δύστροπον καὶ ἀπειρημένον εἰργάζετό τε, καὶ ἐμελέτα, καὶ καθ᾽ ἑκάστην, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τὴν ἡμέραν ἐν χερσὶν εἶχε καὶ λογισμῷ, μὴ μεταβαλλόμενος τὸ σύνολον τὸν σκοπὸν μὴ ὀργῇ δεσπότου, μὴ παιδείᾳ, μὴ κακώσεσιν ἄλλαις. Ἐνθέν τοι καὶ τὴν διόρθωσιν ἀπαγορεύσας ὁ τούτου δεσπότης πόῤῥω τοῦτον βάλλει τῶν αὐτοῦ ὁ καλῶς ποιῶν ὀφθαλμῶν· καὶ ὃς λῃστείαις καὶ κλοπαῖς ἐνεφιλοχώρει καὶ φόνοις καὶ λοιπαῖς ἄλλαις κακουργίαις παντοίαις, ὧν μιᾶς ἐπιμνησθῆναι καλόν.

[3] Τῇ τοῦ σώματος ῥώμῃ πεποιθὼς ὁ Μωσῆς ἔξεισι μόνος εἰς λῃστείαν ποτέ. Ποιμένος οὖν τινος παρεμποδήσαντος καὶ κωλύσαντος αὐτὸν τῆς ὁρμῆς, εἴτε μηνύμασιν, εἴτε τρόποις ἄλλοις τισὶν, οὐκ ἔχω λέγειν, ἐκεῖνος ὅλος ἐκμανὴς γεγονὼς, ἐπιτίθεται τούτῳ τὸν Νεῖλον νύκτωρ πλημμυροῦντα διανηξάμενος. Τούτου δὲ προαισθομένου τὴν ἔφοδον, καὶ πρὸς φυγὴν τραπομένου, ὁ Μωσῆς ἀποτυχὼν τοῦ σκοποῦ, κριοὺς τέσσαρας ἐπιλέκτους ἐν θυμῷ σφαγιάσας, καὶ σχοίνῳ συνδήσας, τὸν ποταμὸν δι᾽ αὐτῶν νηχόμενος ἀντεπέρασε. Τῶν κρεῶν τοίνυν αὐτῶν μετασχὼν, καὶ τὰ κώδια τούτων οἴνου διαπωλήσας, τοὺς ἑταίρους κατέλαβε πεντήκοντά που τοῦ ποταμοῦ τὴν οἴκησιν σταδίους ἀπέχοντας. Ταῦτα τοῦ Μωσέως τὰ δεινὰ νεανιεύματα καὶ τεχνάσματα καὶ τοιαῦτα καὶ μείζονα. Διεξῆλθον δὲ ταῦτα, τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν περὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον πλάσμα συμπάθειαν, καὶ τὴν ἀνοχὴν ἐκπληττόμενος πῶς διὰ τῆς μετανοίας ἕλκει πάντας εἰς σωτηρίαν, καὶ οὐδέν ἐστι τῶν ἀδικημάτων, ὃ νικᾷ τὴν αὐτοῦ μεγάλην καὶ ἄφατον εὐσπλαγχνίαν.

[4] Ὁ γὰρ τοιοῦτος καὶ τοσοῦτος λῄσταρχος, οὗ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα λεγόμενον μόνον φόβον τοῖς πολλοῖς ἐνεποίει· ὁ περιβόητος οὗτος ἐν κακίᾳ, καὶ τὴν ἀπήνειαν ἀπαράμιλλος, τῆς θείας χάριτος αὐτοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ἁψαμένης διά τινα πάντως οὐ μικρὰν αἰτίαν, ᾗ περιπεσὼν ἐμνήσθη Θεοῦ, καὶ θανάτου, καὶ κρίσεως, πᾶσαν ἐκείνην τὴν πολυχρόνιον καὶ πολυαμάρτητον διαγωγὴν καταλιπὼν, καὶ πάντα λόχον ἐρημικὸν, καὶ πᾶσαν ἔνεδραν· ἀσκητῶν ἐξ ἀπροόπτου σεβασμίᾳ πρόσεισι μονῇ τὸ σχῆμα ἐλεεινὸς, τὸν τρόπον ταπεινὸς, τὸ πνεῦμα συντετριμμένος [*], ὅλος κατηφὴς, ὅλος πάθους μεστὸς, δακρύων πλήρης καὶ στεναγμῶν. Καὶ φόβον μὲν πρῶτα τοῖς ἐν αὐτῇ προσεμποιεῖ μοναχοῖς, εἶτα προσπίπτει τοῖς τοῦ προεστῶτος ποσί· καὶ θερμῶς αἰτεῖται τὴν συγγνώμην τῶν ἐσφαλμένων, ἀπαγγέλλει ταῦτα κατὰ λεπτὸν, ἐξαγορεύει τοὺς λογισμοὺς, τὰς πράξεις, τὰς ἐνθυμήσεις, τὰς διανοίας, τὰ ἔργα, οὐδὲν τῶν εἰργασμένων αὐτῷ παρενέλιπεν, ὅτι μὴ διασυγχώρητον ἠβούλετό τι τούτων ὑποληφθῆναι.

[5] Πρὸς τούτοις αἰτεῖ καὶ τοῖς κατὰ κόσμον πᾶσιν ἀποταξάμενον δέξασθαι τὸ τῆς σωτηρίας ἐχέγγυον, τὸ μοναχικὸν ἔνδυμα λέγω, δάκρυα κἀν τούτῳ συχνὰ καταχέει μὴ παροφθῆναι τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἐκτὸς λιπαρῶν. Ὁ τοίνυν καθηγούμενος τὸ παράδοξον ἐκπλαγεὶς τῆς μεταποιήσεως (οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀνήκοος τῶν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐτύγχανε πράξεων) δέχεται τοῦτον εὐμενῶς, ἀσπάζεται τοῦτον, χερσὶν ἀμφοτέραις περιπλέκεται, καὶ ὥς τινα τῶν μεγάλων τοῦτον ὁρᾷ προφητικῶς πάντως, ἢ καὶ διορατικῶς, κείρει τοῦτον, ἀξιοῖ τοῦ μοναχικοῦ σχήματος, καὶ ἕνα τοῦ καταλόγου τῆς ἀδελφότητος τίθησι· διδάσκει, νουθετεῖ, παρακαλεῖ, ἐντολὰς αὐτῷ δίδωσι τὰς πρεπούσας· καὶ ἦν Μωσῆς πρὸς τὰ τῆς μοναχικῆς πολιτείας θεσμὰ οὐχ ὡς ἀρτιπαγὴς, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς χρόνων ἐκ πλείστων ταῦτα κατορθωκὼς, πᾶσαν ὑπηρεσίαν ἐπλήρου τῶν ἀδελφῶν, καὶ πᾶσαν προθύμως, καὶ τῆς συνάξεως οὐκ ἀπελιμπάνετο, νηστείαις καὶ προσευχαῖς ἐσχόλαζε, καὶ διὰ τριῶν ἢ τεττάρων ἡμερῶν τοῦ ἄρτου μετεῖχε καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος ὁ Θαυμάσιος. Ταπείνωσιν ἄκραν ἐκτήσατο, δάκρυον ἄπαυστον, στεναγμοὺς ἀλαλήτους, ἀγρυπνίαν πάννυχον.

[6] Καὶ τί δεῖ τὰ πολλὰ λέγειν; μέγας ὁ Μωσῆς ἐν ἔργοις, ἐν θαύμασι γίνεται, κατανύξεως τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ὑπόθεσις, δαιμόνων διώκτης, νόσων θεραπευτὴς, καὶ ἵνα μὴ τὰ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον λέγω, πᾶσι πάντα γέγονε τῆς θείας χάριτος δοξασάσης αὐτὸν, ἵνα πάντας κερδήσῃ, πατὴρ ἄριστος, παιδευτὴς ἀκριβέστατος, κανὼν καὶ τύπος καὶ στάθμη τῆς μοναδικῆς πολιτείας. Πατέρα πάντες τὸν Μωσῆν εἶχον οἱ μοναχοὶ, ποιμένα, καθηγητὴν, οὕτω τοῦ παναγάθου πνεύματος εὐδοκήσαντος· καὶ τί χρὴ τὰ πολλὰ λέγειν; ὅσον γέγονεν εἰς κακίαν περίφημος, τοσοῦτον ἐφάνη πρὸς ἀρετὴν περιδέξιος· καὶ ἦν μέγας ὁ Μωσῆς, καὶ τοῖς ἁπάντων ἔκειτο στόμασι. Μωσῆν εἶχεν ἡ ἔρημος, Μωσῆν τὰ ὄρη, Μωσῆν ἡ πόλις ἡ περίχωρος πᾶσα. Μωσῆν κἀνταῦθά μοι μόνον τὸ τῆς παροιμίας δοκεῖ παρηλλάχθαι, τὸ μὴ σμήχεσθαι πάντως Αἰθίοπα. Καὶ γὰρ εἰ καὶ μὴ τὸ σῶμα οὗτος, ἀλλὰ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπέσμηξε τῷ τῆς μετανοίας ὑσσώπῳ, καὶ λαμπροτέραν αὐτὴν ἡλιακῶν μαρμαρυγῶν ἀπετέλεσε. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἐκ πολλῶν ὀλίγα.

[7] Πλὴν ἄξιόν ἐστι καὶ τῶν ἐκείνου μετὰ τὴν μετάνοιαν ἀγώνων πρός τε τοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων πονηροτάτους, καὶ πρὸς τὰς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπεμβολὰς ἀπομνημονεῦσαί τινα. Λῃσταί ποτε προσυπήντησαν ὁδεύοντι τούτῳ, καὶ δὴ καὶ ἐπέθεντο· καὶ ὃς αὐτοὺς δεσμοῖς περιβαλὼν πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας ἀπάγει, καὶ σώζει ταῖς παραινέσεσιν, καὶ τῆς κακῆς ὁρμῆς αὐτοὺς ἀφιστᾷ. Ἐπέθεντο τούτῳ καὶ δαίμονες· ταῖς κέλλαις νυκτὸς ἀπιόντος, τῶν μὴ δυναμένων τὴν χρείαν τοῦ ὕδατος κομίζειν γερόντων, καὶ λαμβάνων αὐτῶν τὰς ὑδρίας ἐπλήρου ταύτας ὕδατος, ἀγνοούντων ἐκείνων, ἀπὸ μήκους γὰρ ἔχουσιν ἐν ἐκείνοις τοῖς τόποις τὸ ὕδωρ. Μιᾶς οὖν τῶν νυκτῶν ἐπιτηρήσας ὁ δαίμων, μηκέτι φέρων τὴν τοῦ ἀθλητοῦ καρτερίαν, ἐγκύψαντι αὐτῷ εἰς τὸ φρέαρ ἐπὶ τὸ τὴν ὑδρίαν πληρῶσαι, παίει τοῦτον κατὰ τῶν ψυῶν, καὶ ἀφῆκε τῷ τόπῳ κεῖσθαι ὡσεὶ νεκρὸν, μὴ εἰδὼς παρά τινος πέπονθε τοῦτο. Τῇ οὖν ἐπιούσῃ ἐλθόντων τινῶν ὕδωρ ἀντλῆσαι, εὗρον κείμενον καὶ ψυχορραγοῦντα, καὶ ἀπαγαγόντες τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, μόλις ἐπὶ ἐνιαυτὸν ὅλον ἐδυνήθη ἐν ἰσχύϊ γενέσθαι, πολλὰ παρ᾽ αὐτῶν παραινεθεὶς παῦσαι τοῖς δαίμοσιν φιλονικεῖν· μέτρα γὰρ τῆς πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀνδρίας εἰσί· ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐχὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ ποιήσαντες τῶν ἀκαθάρτων ἐνυπνίων αὖθις ἀπήλλαξαν, καὶ τοῖς θείοις προσελθεῖν παρεσκεύασαν μυστηρίοις· ἵνα γάρ, φησι, μὴ καυχήσῃ ὡς τῇ σῇ περιεγένου ἀσκήσει τούτῳ τῷ πάθει, καὶ καταχθεὶς ὑπὸ οἰήσεως, καταδυναστευθῆναι ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ παρεχωρήθης, καὶ οὕτως αὐτοὺς καταπαλαίσας ἀσθενεῖς ἀπήλεγξε καὶ ἀπράκτους.

[8] Ἀδελφοῦ δέ τινος ἁλόντος ἐπί τινι σφάλματι ἐν Σκήτει ἀπέστειλαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ συνάξει παραγενέσθαι· ὁ δὲ παρῃτήσατο, δεύτερον ἀπέστειλαν, καὶ ἀναστὰς λαβὼν σπυρίδα τετριμμένην, καὶ ταύτην ἄμμου πλήσας ἧκε βαστάζων. Οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες ἐξῆλθον εἰς ἀπάντησιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπυνθάνοντο, τί δοκεῖ εἶναι τὸ πεπραγμένον. Ὁ δὲ, αἱ ἁμαρτίαι μου, ἔφησεν, ὀπίσω μου καταρρέουσαι, οὐ βλέπω αὐτὰς, καὶ ἦλθον ἐγὼ σήμερον ἀλλότριον κρῖναι ἁμάρτημα. Οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες συνεχώρησαν τῷ ἀδελφῷ, καὶ ἀπέλυσαν. Καὶ ἄρχων δέ τις ἀκούσας περὶ αὐτοῦ, ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὴν Σκῆτιν ἰδεῖν αὐτόν. Καὶ ὁ γέρων γνοὺς ἀνέστη φυγεῖν. Κατὰ συγκυρίαν δὲ ἀπαντήσας τῷ ἄρχοντι, ἠρωτᾶτο, ποῦ εἶναι τὴν κέλλαν Μωσέως. Καὶ αὐτὸς, Σαλός ἐστι, τί θέλετε ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ἔφησε. Καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν σύναξιν ὁ ἄρχων ἐξηγεῖτο τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἅπερ ἠκηκόει παρὰ τοῦ ἀπαντήσαντος. Ἐκεῖνοι δὲ λυπηθέντες, ποταπὸν εἶναι τὸν εἰπόντα διεπυνθάνοντο. Ὁ δὲ, γέροντα, μακρὸν, παλαιὰ φορῶν, καὶ μέλανον. Οἱ δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι τὸν Μωσέα, καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ θέλειν ἀπαντῆσαι, εἶπεν ὑμῖν

ταῦτα. Καὶ ὁ ἄρχων ὠφεληθεὶς ἀνεχώρησεν.

[9] Οὕτω τοιγαροῦν βιοὺς, ὦ πανάριστε Πάτερ, καὶ πλήρης γενόμενος ἡμερῶν τῶν τε λυομένων καὶ τῶν τοῦ πνεύματος, ἐνδόξως καταλύεις τὸν βίον ἐν τέλει καλῷ· καὶ νῦν ταῖς οὐρανίαις σκηναῖς ἐμφιλοχωρεῖς· ὧν γένοιτο καὶ ἡμᾶς πάντας ἀξιωθῆναι ταῖς πρὸς Χριστὸν ἱκεσίαις σου, ᾧ πρέπει δόξα, κράτος καὶ τιμὴ καὶ νῦν καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

After a short preface Neither to slaves nor to malefactors is the kingdom of God shut (but within it are those who exercise penitence as they ought, and turn their mind to living rightly and according to God), nor to Scythians, nor to Ethiopians: for all are capable of the flock of Christ, and the good Shepherd draws all to the fold of knowledge, who laid down his soul for them, Christ. And this indeed one may see both from very many other examples, and also from him whose narrative is now in our hands — Moses, I say, the Ethiopian. For the more perverse the man was in his manners, the greater and more famous he turned out in virtue.

[2] the writer narrates He then, having indeed a blackened body, but endowed with a soul more splendid than the flashings of the sun, was the servant of a certain administrator of public affairs — a servant not well disposed, nor bending his mind to those things which were dear to his master, but to the contrary, and to things far distant from good manners. For whatever was abject and vile, whatever was wicked and abominable, that he both wrought and meditated, and, so to speak, had daily in his hands and in his thought, not in the least deterred from his purpose either by his master's anger or by chastisement, or by other evils inflicted. Whence his master, despairing of his amendment, removed him from his sight, and did rightly. But he devoted himself to robberies, thefts, slaughters, and to all the other manifold crimes, of which it will be useful to mention one.

[3] the abandoned life of Moses, Trusting in the strength of his body, Moses once goes out alone to robbery. When therefore a certain shepherd hindered and checked his onset (whether by signals or by certain other means, I cannot say), he, wholly carried away into fury, makes for him, swimming across the flooding Nile by night. But when the shepherd, foreknowing his approach, had turned to flight, Moses, being frustrated of his end, slaughtered four excellent rams in his rage, and bound them with a rope, and swam across the river with them. Having therefore got possession of their flesh, and having sold their skins for wine, he came to his companions, whose dwelling was fifty stades distant from the river. Such is Moses' horrible vigor, and such and greater his contrivances. But these things I have reported cursorily, being astounded at God's compassion and patience toward his own creature: how through penitence he draws all to salvation, and how there is no iniquity that overcomes his great and unspeakable mercy.

[4] For that great leader of robbers, whose very name when spoken struck fear into many — and his conversion: famous in wickedness, and second to none in cruelty — when the divine grace touched his soul through some by no means slight cause into which he fell, being mindful of God and of death and of judgment, forsook all that long-continued manner of living, foul with many sins, and every clandestine band, and all the ambushes of his fellows: unexpectedly he comes to a venerable monastery, pitiable in habit, humble in bearing, contrite in spirit, wholly downcast, wholly full of emotion, filled with tears and groanings. And first indeed he strikes fear into the monks who were there, then he falls at the feet of the superior, and fervently asks pardon for his offenses; he announces them one by one, he discloses his thoughts, his acts, his devisings, his mind, his works; nothing of what he had done did he conceal from him, because he wished nothing of these to be withdrawn that had not been pardoned.

[5] He asks of them, all worldly things being renounced, to receive the pledge of salvation — he asks and obtains the monastic habit: the monastic habit, I say; and then too he pours forth abundant tears, entreating as a suppliant outside that he might not be disappointed of his desire. The superior therefore, struck by this incredible change (for he had heard of this man's deeds), kindly admits him, kisses him, embraces him with both hands, and beholds him, altogether as a prophet, or even as one discerning inward things, as one of the great men; he tonsures him, deems him worthy of the monastic habit, and reckons him in the roll of the brethren; he teaches, instructs, exhorts, and gives him fitting precepts. And Moses was toward the laws of the monastic institute not as one newly formed, but as one who had for many years practiced them with praise, fulfilling all the ministries of the brethren, and all briskly; nor was he absent from the assembly; he gave himself to fastings and prayers, and after three or four days that wonderful Man took bread and water. He possessed a lofty humility, unceasing tears, unutterable groanings, and vigils through the whole night ^a.

[6] And what need is there to say much? Moses becomes great in works, his excellent virtues: great in wonders, a matter of compunction to those who beheld, a persecutor of demons, a healer of diseases; and, that I may not recount each thing, he became all things to all men, after the divine grace had honored him, that he might gain all: a most excellent father, a most diligent teacher, a rule, an exemplar, and a measuring-line of the monastic conversation. All the monks had Moses for father, shepherd, guide, as it pleased the best Spirit. And what need of many words? As memorable as he became in wickedness, so ambidextrous did he appear toward virtue; and Moses was great, and was on the lips of all. Moses the desert resounded ^b, Moses the mountains, Moses all the neighboring city. Moses alone seems to me here to change the proverb, that an Ethiopian is not by any means washed white ^c. For even if not his body, yet his soul he washed with the hyssop of penitence, and rendered it more splendid than the flashings of the sun. And these indeed are a few things out of many.

[7] But it is worth while to record some of his contests after his conversion against most wicked men, robbers converted: contests with the demon: and against the assaults of the demons. Some robbers met him as he was making a journey ^d, and assailed him; and he, binding them with bonds, brings them to the Fathers, and by good admonitions saves them, and calls them away from their evil purpose. Demons also assailed him, when by night he went from the cells of the old men who were not able to carry the water which they used; but he, taking their water-jars, filled them with water without their knowledge: for in those places they have water far distant. On a certain night therefore the demon, watching him, not bearing the Athlete's endurance of labor, when he had stooped to the well to fill a water-jar, struck him upon the loins, and left him lying in the place as though dead; nor did he know from whom he had suffered this. On the next day, when some came to draw water and found him lying and failing from the cold, they carried him into the church; scarcely in a whole year was he restored to strength, being much admonished by them that he should cease so to contend with the demons: for that there are measures of great-heartedness against them. Nay rather, prayer having been made for him, they freed him from impure dreams and made him ready to approach the divine mysteries. Lest thou shouldst boast, they say, as though by thine own exercise thou hadst overcome this passion, and lest thou shouldst fall into elation of mind, it was permitted that thou shouldst be vexed by its tyranny ^e. And thus, having wrestled, he proved the demons to be weak and powerless ^f.

[8] he refuses to condemn a brother's fault, and to be seen by a certain prefect: But when a certain brother had been caught in some fault in Scetis, they sent to him that he should come to the congregation; and when he excused himself, they sent to him a second time; and rising, he took a worn basket, and, filling it with sand, came carrying it. And they, hearing this, went out to meet him, and asked what he judged of this deed. And he said: My sins run down behind me, I do not see them; and I have come today to judge another's sin. Which being heard, they gave pardon to the brother and dismissed him ^g. And indeed a certain prefect, after he had heard of him, went off into Scetis to see him. But the Old Man, learning the matter, arose to flee. And meeting the prefect by chance, he was asked where the cell of Moses was; and he said: He is a fool ^h; what do you want from him? And the prefect, coming to the congregation, set forth to the brethren what he had heard from him who had met him. But they, being affected with sadness, asked what sort of man he was who had said this to him. An old man, he said, tall, clad in a worn garment, and black. To whom they said: This is Moses himself; and because he does not wish to meet you, he said these things to you. And the prefect departed with profit to his soul ⁱ.

[9] the writer's apostrophe to the Saint. Since therefore thou hadst so lived, O thrice-excellent Father, and wast full of days, both those that are fleeting and those of the spirit, thou dost gloriously pay the debt of nature in a good end, and now dost gladly inhabit the heavenly tabernacles: whose dignity may it befall us all to attain by thy supplications with Christ, to whom is due glory, power, and honor, now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

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* συντετριμμένος