MOSÈ il SARACENO, saint. - He is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 7 February, but the precise day of his death is unknown. He is regarded as the apostle of the Saracens, to whose race he belonged, and for whose conversion to Christianity he worked greatly.
Towards the middle of the fourth century, the Saracens devastated the Roman provinces of Phoenicia, Palestine, and Arabia; their queen Mauvia agreed to cease her raids and to embrace the Catholic religion (c. 374), on condition that one of their own race should be given them as bishop. Thus M. was chosen, who lived in solitude and was very well known for his virtues. He was taken to Alexandria to be consecrated by Bishop Lucio; but M. refused to receive consecration from him, since he knew him to be a follower of Arianism. He then had to be taken to the mountains, where the Catholic bishops lived in exile; there he allowed himself to be consecrated.