4th century
Saint Moses the Ethiopian
A former Egyptian bandit chief who repented and became one of the great desert fathers of the fourth century.
Biography
Moses had been a slave with a violent temper who, once driven off by his master, became the leader of a band of robbers in the Egyptian desert. Hunted by the authorities, he took refuge among ascetics, and their company gradually changed his heart, until he repented in earnest and was baptised, soon reaching the stature of the great desert fathers.
His life became a byword for deep humility: it is said that when old accomplices once tried to rob him, he marched them before the elders to decide their fate, saying it was no longer his place to punish anyone. At seventy-five he was killed, without resistance, by raiders who broke into his cave.