ON SAINT MOSES THE ETHIOPIAN AND THE SEVEN HOLY ANCHORITES,
MARTYRS IN EGYPT.
From the Metrical Hagiology of the Abyssinians.
CommentaryMoses the Ethiopian, Martyr in Egypt (Saint) The Seven Anchorites, Martyrs in Egypt (Saints)
D. P.
[1] Known everywhere to the Latins as well as the Greeks is Saint Moses the Ethiopian, from a famous robber become a distinguished Monk, and the institutor of several Monks, From another similar Moses, recorded in the Calendars on the 28th of August: but he had the end of his long exercise composed in a peaceful death; another of the same order, color, and almost also manner of life, before his conversion equally bloodthirsty, similarly also like him a Monk or Anchorite, but having obtained an utterly dissimilar yet nonetheless happy end, this one distinct, comes forth to us from the Hagiology of the Abyssinians. Since I read that he led his life in the Desert with seven Companions, I judge it pertains to Egypt rather than Ethiopia: mindful of the several Martyr Anchorites whom the Barbarians, having caught them in solitude, from time to time slew, such as was the one who brought death upon the pretitled Martyrs.
[2] To their leader the Poet sings thus: I salute Moses the Black, who, remembering all his past iniquities, patiently abode in the inner desert; but today he was killed by the sword of a certain Barbarian, saying to himself: Blood is not cleansed except by blood. he readily bore death from a barbarian, with 6 companions And so he generously offered himself to death with six companions; meanwhile the seventh hid himself in concealment: but him too the crowns, seen to be brought down from heaven to them, quickly drew forth: which the same Poet expounds thus: I bid salutation to the seven Brothers slain by the barbaric sword together with Moses the Black: while one who had hidden himself saw each of their crowns being brought to each by an Angel, his fear was turned into confidence. Of the time at which this happened I would not wish to divine gratuitously, and with the seventh, animated by the sight of their crowns. although I suspect that they pertain to the fifth or sixth century rather than to earlier times. Job Ludolf in the Annotations to the Ethiopian Calendars, attending his mind only to the beginnings of both Moseses, and not also to the end, fused both into one person.