Venerable Moses the Black of Scete

Moses the Black, called the Ethiopian, was a slave in Egypt who was driven out by his master for murder and became the leader of a band of robbers. St Dimitry's account tells that once, to take revenge on a shepherd, he swam the flooded Nile with his sword in his teeth. Struck to the heart, he went to a monastery in Scetis, repented, and became a monk and later a priest, known for his humility and gentleness; the Roman Martyrology says he brought other robbers to the monastery too. Around 400, at the age of seventy-five, knowing that barbarians were coming, he refused to flee and was killed with six monks who stayed with him.