Moses of Sinai

Venerable Martyr Moses of Sinai is counted among the venerable martyrs slain at Sinai and Raithu: Isaiah, Sabbas, Moses, another Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius, Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebius, Elijah and others. The venerable fathers slain at Sinai and Raithu lived the ascetic life in the monasteries and caves of Mount Sinai, where God gave the ten commandments through Moses, and in the nearby desert of Raithu (on the shore of the Red Sea), and suffered at the hands of the Saracens and the Blemmyes, tribes of nomad Arabs. The first slaying took place around the year 312 and was described by Ammonius, an Egyptian monk, witness of the slaying of forty fathers of Sinai. At that time the Arabs also slew thirty-⁠nine fathers at Raithu. The second slaying took place after a hundred years and was described likewise by a witness who escaped by a miracle, Venerable Nilus the Faster (commemorated on 12 November).

The ascetics of Sinai and Raithu led an especially strict life: all the week they stayed in their cells in silence, on Saturday they gathered for the all-⁠night vigil, and on Sunday they received the Holy Mysteries. They ate only dates and drank water. Many of the hermits became famous for the gift of working wonders, the elders Moses, Joseph and others. The page says nothing in particular about this Moses, only about the whole company. He is commemorated on 27 January and on 5 May, a movable day, with the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of Sinai, in the new style.