The elders said about abba Moses that he had become cleric and they gave him an epitrachelion.
The archbishop told him:
`Look, you became completely white, abba Moses!`
The monk answered him:
`On the outside, your holiness, or on the inside?`
The archbishop wanting to try him, told his clerics:
`When abba Moses comes into the altar, send him away and listen to see what he will tell you.`
So abba Moses antered and they admonished him and sent him away telling him :
`Go away, Ethiopian!`
He went out saying to himself:
`It`s good what they did to you, black man with dark skin. If you are not human, why are you coming among people?`
Excerpt from the Egyptian Patericon– Abba Moses the Arab.
