You're listening to Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast, all week we have been telling the stories of great black Catholics, people with dark skin who love Jesus, loved the church, and did great things for Jesus and the church.

And I'm telling you these stories to remind you that no matter who you are, what you look

like, you are called to be a saint. And there are people in heaven that look just like you.

And so today, we are going to talk about another saint. We are going to talk about St. Moses

the Black. Now, St. Moses the Black lived during the 4th century. So he is the oldest saint that we

are talking about this week. And he also lived over in the Ethiopia, Egypt kind of area of Africa.

Now, St. Moses, the Black did not have a very good beginning to his life.

In fact, he was a great sinner.

St. Moses' life began as a slave.

Many people think that he was a slave in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, that he stole

from his master, and because of this, he was forced to run away. As a free man, although an escaped

slave, he took on the life of crime. He led a gang of robbers that became known throughout the

region for plundering and crime and violence.

And so he lived this life of terrible crime and violence, leading a whole gang of criminals for many years.

But then one day, while out in the desert, he was pursued by people that were trying to get back the things that he

had stolen from them, and he entered a monastery. Now, this was the time of the desert fathers. During this

time, many people that love Jesus were out in the desert, giving their whole life to prayer and reflection. And we have lots of wisdom

that we still use as Catholics today that came out of this time period. So there were whole

monasteries of men and women out in the desert praying and communing with Jesus. And it was into

one of these monasteries that St. Moses accidentally ended up.

Now, while he was there, hiding out, eventually he got to know some of the monks, and he was also,

for the very first time, exposed to the reality of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. And through all of these things, he realized

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