MOSES the Ethiopian, St. — Commemorated in the Latin and Greek martyrologies on 28 Aug., in the Ethiopian martyrologies on 18 June. He was a slave of a lord who cast him out of his house because of his wickedness.
He then gave himself over to a dissolute life, placing himself at the head of a band of robbers. One day he suddenly converted and withdrew to a solitary place in Arabia, living in penance and mortification. There he was assailed by fierce temptations, against which he multiplied fasts and prayers, night vigils and penances. Many disciples, already his companions in wickedness, followed him into solitude; he died at the age of 75 towards the end of the 4th century.
BIBL.: Palladius, Hist. Laus., 22; Sozomen, Hist. ecc., VI, 29; I. Pizzi, S. M. monaco e ladrone, in Bessarione, I (1901), pp. 387-389; J. Guidi, Le synaxaire ethiopien: P. O., I, pp. 665-670; Martyr. Romanum, p. 366.