Moses the Black was, undoubtedly, the most prominent ‘Black Monk’ in Late Antiquity, whose fame spread far from the desert of Scetis, and was regarded as a model of Christian virtue. Also known as the Ethiopian Moses, this figure was one... more
Moses the Black was, undoubtedly, the most prominent ‘Black Monk’ in Late Antiquity, whose fame spread far from the desert of Scetis, and was regarded as a model of Christian virtue. Also known as the Ethiopian Moses, this figure was one of the most prominent desert fathers. His life and sayings were preserved in four ancient sources, where he is characterized as an ideal monk: Palladius’ Lausiac History (c. 420); Sozomen’s Ecclesiastical History (c. 443-448); the Apophthegmata patrum (early 6th century); and in the Acta Sanctorum (10th century).
The story of Moses is a story about a Black man, who possessed a high degree of devotion and repentance. His skin and his negative past symbolized a kind of imperfect existence, which is polarized to the ideal ascetic religious life. Moses the Black, who used to be a robber and – probably – a murderer, symbolically, ceased to be black. He was able to abandon his blackness, and as it was demonstrated, to reject his nationality, by escaping from his ethiopianess and ‘washing himself white.’ If ascetic life is the wisest choice for an Ethiopian, why it would not be for a non-Ethiopian?
