Mount Zion Ryan

As my few readers know, I have contemplated writing a biographical novel about Saint Moses the Black. Here is a swing in that direction.

Today the Governor came to Scetis seeking Abba Moses. He came to the gate and we met him there, as we felt he should be accorded great honor. I offered him wine and dates and a seat in the cool of the shade. He made a great show of all of this, like we were guests in his court. Finally I asked if he had seen our blessed Abba.

“I did not,” he said.

“Why did your excellency not see Abba Moses?” I asked.

“Fathers,” he said, “I have heard a great deal about Abba Moses so I came to the desert to see him.” He paused wiping the sweat from his brow. His ruddy cheeks and damp armpits were proof that he lived a soft life.

“A few leagues before we came to your cells I met an old man by the swamp. Thinking he was on of the brethren, I asked him about Abba Moses’ cell. He answered that going to see him is waste of time. The old man said Abba Moses is a feeble old man given to wickedness.”

I sat in stunned silence while the brothers moaned and shouted that this was false and that we should find this old man and shown the truth. The brothers acted very shamefully, forgetting their place and the words of the Fathers about idle talk. Finally I calmed them down and asked the Governor about this old man.

“He was an old man, as I have said, and very thin. His clothes were hardly better than a beggar and his face was the color of tanned leather. He had a long white beard and half his head was bald.”

I looked around at the brothers and they all understood.

“Your Excellency has indeed met with Abba Moses, for the man you describe was certainly he.”

“Then truly he has master the way of self-denial.”

“Indeed,” I said.

Later, after the Governor and his party had left, I went to the swamp and found Abba Moses still sitting in the reeds.

“Abba,” I said, “Why do you sit in the reeds and hide?”

“Because,” he said, “I am a feeble old man given to wickedness.”

Whenever I remember Abba Moses I think about that day. By his own words and actions he taught us all to be humble.

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