08 — East and West
The reach of Moses’s memory through the whole monastic tradition. His sayings traveled with the Apophthegmata into every language and every monastic culture of East and West — the Greek and Coptic collections, the Latin Verba Seniorum that shaped Western monasticism, the Syriac and beyond — and his veneration spread accordingly. This section sets out his enduring place in the monastic tradition East and West and the shape of his cult.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Desert Father; martyr)
The Apophthegmata Patrum were among the most widely diffused texts of early Christianity, and Moses traveled with them everywhere they went. This section traces his place in the monastic memory of East and West — in the Greek and Coptic East, in the Latin West through the Verba Seniorum and the tradition that drew on Cassian, and across the broader Christian world — and then describes the veneration that grew up around him.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Moses in the Monastic Tradition | His enduring place in the Apophthegmata and in monastic memory East and West — the Greek, Coptic, Latin, and Syriac transmission; his sayings among the fellow fathers of Scetis; the diffusion of his counsels through Western monasticism. |
| Veneration | The shape of his cult — his commemoration as father and martyr, his place in the calendars and synaxaria, and the icons and dedications that carry his memory. |
See Also
- The Sayings of Abba Moses — the sayings that traveled
- The Apophthegmata and the Lausiac History — the collections and their transmission
- Feast and Cult — the feast and the later devotion
- Monasticism — the monastic tradition East and West
References
- Ward, Benedicta, trans. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection. Rev. ed. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984.
- Chitty, Derwas J. The Desert a City. Oxford: Blackwell, 1966.
- Harmless, William. Desert Christians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.