Frumentius


Frumentius
Saint Frumentius
Confessor
Bishop of Axum
Apostle to Ethiopia
Born4th century
Tyre, Phoenice, Byzantine Empire (modern-day Lebanon)
Diedc. 383
Kingdom of Aksum
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodoxy
Catholicism
Anglican Communion
Feast
PatronageKingdom of Aksum
Frumentius

Frumentius (Ge'ez: ፍሬምናጦስ; died c. 383) was a Phoenician Christian missionary and the first bishop of Axum who brought Christianity to the Kingdom of Aksum.[1] He is sometimes known by other names, such as Abuna ("Our Father") and Aba Salama ("Father of Peace").[2]

He was ethnically a Phoenician, according to Rufinus, born in Tyre, modern day Lebanon.[3][4][5][6] As a boy, he was captured with his brother on a voyage, and they became slaves to the King of Axum. He freed them shortly before his death, and they were invited to educate his young heir. They also began to teach Christianity in the region. Later, Frumentius traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, where he appealed to have a bishop appointed and missionary priests sent south to Axum. Thereafter, he was appointed bishop and established the Church in Ethiopia, converting many local people, as well as the king. His appointment began a tradition that the Patriarch of Alexandria appoint the bishops of Ethiopia.[7]

  1. ^ Adejumobi, Saheed A. (2007). The History of Ethiopia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-313-32273-0.
  2. ^ Alban Butler; Paul Burns (1995). Butler's Lives of the Saints. p. 191. ISBN 0-86012-259-X.
  3. ^ Mullen, Roderic L. (2004). The Expansion of Christianity: A Gazetteer of Its First Three Centuries. Brill. p. 331. ISBN 978-90-47-40232-9. Rufinus, Ecclesiastical History, 10.9-10, records the account of Aedesius and Frumentius, nephews of the Phoenician trader Meropius, who were kidnapped on the coast of "further India" in the time of Constantine and later raised at the royal court.
  4. ^ Villa, Massimo (2017). "Frumentius in the Ethiopic sources: Mythopoeia and text-critical considerations". Rassegna di Studi Etiopici. 1 (3): 87–111. The narrative is widely known. Meropius, a philosopher from Tyre on the Lebanese coast, is travelling through the Red Sea with two young brothers belonging to his own family, Frumentius and Aedesius.
  5. ^ Felshman, Jeffrey (1996). "Chapter 73: Gonder (Gonder, Ethiopia)". In Ring, Trudy; Watson, Noelle; Schellinger, Paul (eds.). Middle East and Africa International Dictionary of Historic Places. Vol. 4. Taylor & Francis. pp. 278–302. ISBN 9781134259939.
  6. ^ Kebede, Ashenafi (Spring 1980). "The Sacred Chant of Ethiopian Monotheistic Churches: Music in Black Jewish and Christian Communities". The Black Perspective in Music. 8 (1): 21–34. doi:10.2307/1214519.
  7. ^ Stuart Munro-Hay (2002). Ethiopia, the Unknown Land. IB Tauris. p. 20.

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