Today February 7

Today is the feast of one of the numerous saints named Moses; including the great patriarch; a priest in Rome; the Desert Father also known as Moses the Black, a former brigand and gangster who became a non-violent and gentle witness to Jesus; and today's saint (died c. 372). He was an Arab who was a holy hermit known and beloved by the wandering pagan Arabs (also known as Saracens) under their warrior-queen Mavia. The Christian Romans defeated them after a protracted guerrilla war and as part of the peace terms the Arabs agreed to be evangelized. They had one condition: that Moses be their bishop. Moses was roused out of his peaceful life into the difficult one of being the traveling bishop (naturally, as his parishioners were all nomads) of these formerly star-worshiping people. His teaching, preaching, baptizing and confirming must have done the trick, since all those Arabs became Christians! We tend to think of them as going directly from paganism to Islam (some did, of course) but it's certainly not true of the many. Dear St. Moses, please keep in your prayers the people of the Middle East, still embroiled in political turmoil.