FRUMENTIUS, ST.

Venerated as the fourth-century apostle who converted Ethiopia to Christianity; life dates uncertain. The main Western source is rufinus of aquileia (Histoire Ecclesiastique 1.9). Meropius, a philosopher of Tyre, and his two young disciples, Frumentius and Aedesius, were en route to India when their ship was attacked by natives in an African harbor. The two youths were captured and kept as slaves in the personal service of the local king, after whose death Frumentius was appointed civil administrator by the queen regent; he then began his apostolate, giving full freedom of cult to Christian merchants from the Roman Empire.

When the prince and heir came of age, his mentor Aedesius returned to Tyre, where in 403 he met Rufinus. At the same time, Frumentius went to Alexandria, where St. athanasius consecrated him bishop for the region of his apostolate, to which he returned. Constantius II, who favored Arianism, wrote c. 356 asking the rulers of Aksum, the capital of Ethiopia, to expel Frumentius as a follower of the orthodox Athanasius. The Greek text of the letter, included in Athanasius's Apology (Patrologia Graeca, ed. J. P. Migne 25:656–657), is clear evidence that the events narrated about Frumentius by Rufinus, who does not name the country, took place in Ethiopia. Frumentius is known in Ethiopia as Ferēmenatos and as Kasātē Berhān (Revealer of the Light). His consecration by Athanasius is the historical link between the Ethiopian Church and the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria. Frumentius, a Syrian, probably intentionally avoided being consecrated by his own patriarch of Antioch, then favorable to Arianism.

Feast: Oct. 27; Aug. 1 (Hamlē); Aug. 26 (Ethiopian Church).

Bibliography: i. guidi, ed. and tr., Synaxaire Ethiopien, Patrologia orientalis, ed. r. graffin and f. nau 7:427–429. e. cerulli, "Punti di vista sulla storia di Etiopia," Atti del Primo Convegno Internazionale di Studi Etiopici (Rome 1960) 21–22.

[e. cerulli]