MOSES the Ethiopian, saint. — Commemorated in the Latin and Greek martyrologies on 28 August, and in the Ethiopian ones on 18 June. He was a slave of a master who expelled him from his house because of his wickedness.
He then devoted himself to a life of crime, placing himself at the head of a band of thieves. One day he suddenly converted and withdrew to a solitary place in Arabia, living in penance and mortification. There he was assailed by harsh temptations; to combat them, he multiplied fasts and prayers, night vigils, and penances. Many disciples, formerly his companions in crime, followed him into solitude; he died at the age of 75, toward the end of the 4th century.
BIBL.: Palladio, Hist. Lausiaca, 22; Sozomeno, Hist. eccl., VI, 29; J. Pizzi, S. M. monaco e ladrone, in Bessarione, 1 (1901), pp. 387–89; J. Guidi, Le synaxaire ethiopien: PO, I, pp. 665–66; Martyr. Romanum, p. 366. Agostino Amore