(5TH CENT.)
[Salisbury Martyrology of Wytford, and all other Western
Martyrologies. This S. Moses is not to be confounded with the S.
Moses, B. among the Arabs, nor with S. Moses the Ethiopian.
Authorities:--The Lives of the Fathers of the Desert and Rufinus.]
This holy abbot ruled a community of monks at Scete, in Egypt. He was
once sent for to judge a brother who had been overtaken in a fault;
but he would not go. Then he was sent for again, and told that all the
brethren awaited him. So he arose and filled a basket with sand, laid
it on his back, and went to them. Then they asked, "Oh, Father! what
art thou doing?" He answered, "My sons, all my sins are behind my
back, following me, and I see them not; and shall I judge, this day,
the sins of another man?"
A party of Arabs fell upon him in his cell and killed him, together
with six of his monks.