Frumentius

{{Short description|Phoenician Christian missionary; the first bishop of Axumite Empire}}

{{Infobox saint

|honorific_prefix=Saint

|name= Frumentius

|birth_date=4th century

|death_date={{circa}} 383

|feast_day=*27 December (Ethiopian Orthodox Church)

20 July (Catholic Church)
30 November (Eastern Orthodox Church)
18 December (Coptic Orthodox Church)

|venerated_in=Eastern Orthodox Church
Oriental Orthodoxy
Catholicism
Anglican Communion

|image=St_Frumentius.jpg

|imagesize=140px

|caption=Saint Frumentius

|birth_place=Tyre, Phoenice, Byzantine Empire (modern-day Lebanon)

|death_place=Kingdom of Aksum

|titles=Confessor
Bishop of Axum
Apostle to Ethiopia

|beatified_date=

|beatified_place=

|beatified_by=

|canonized_date=

|canonized_place=

|canonized_by=

|attributes=

|patronage=Kingdom of Aksum

|major_shrine=

|suppressed_date=

|issues=

}}

File:Frumentius.jpg

Saint Frumentius ({{langx|gez|ፍሬምናጦስ}}; died c. 383) was a Phoenician Christian missionary and the first bishop of Axum who brought Christianity to the Kingdom of Aksum.{{cite book|last=Adejumobi|first=Saheed A.|title=The History of Ethiopia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Un6_LGIEyQC&pg=PA171|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32273-0|page=171}} He is sometimes known by other names, such as Abuna ("Our Father") and Aba Salama ("Father of Peace").{{cite book|title=Butler's Lives of the Saints|year=1995 |author=Alban Butler |author2=Paul Burns |isbn=0-86012-259-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WmiNrUarzLUC&pg=PA191|page=191|publisher=A&C Black }}

He was a native of Phoenicia, born in Tyre, modern day Lebanon.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Frumentius|volume=11|page=270|quote=FRUMENTIUS (c. 300–c. 360), the founder of the Abyssinian church, traditionally identified in Abyssinian literature with Abba Salama or Father of Peace (but see Ethiopia), was a native of Phoenicia.}}

{{cite book|last=Nabokov|first=Vladimir|author-link=Vladimir Nabokov|date=1964|title=Notes on Prosody and Abram Gannibal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VRnWCgAAQBAJ|location=Princeton, New Jersey|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=127|isbn=9781400875924|quote=the history of Abyssinia should be briefly recalled. The Gospel was introduced there about A.D. 327 by Frumentius (c. 290-c. 350), a native of Phoenicia, who was consecrated bishop of Aksum by Athanasius of Alexandria.}}
{{cite book|last=Mullen|first=Roderic L.|date=2004|title=The Expansion of Christianity: A Gazetteer of Its First Three Centuries|url=https://brill.com/display/title/8419|location=|publisher=Brill|page=331|isbn=978-90-47-40232-9|quote=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.}}
{{cite book|last=Felshman|first=Jeffrey|date=1996|editor-last1=Ring|editor-first1=Trudy|editor-last2=Watson|editor-first2=Noelle|editor-last3=Schellinger|editor-first3=Paul|title=Middle East and Africa International Dictionary of Historic Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHMBAwAAQBAJ|volume=4|publisher=Taylor & Francis|pages=278–302|chapter=Chapter 73: Gonder (Gonder, Ethiopia)|isbn=9781134259939}}
{{cite journal|last=Kebede|first=Ashenafi|date=Spring 1980|title=The Sacred Chant of Ethiopian Monotheistic Churches: Music in Black Jewish and Christian Communities|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1214519|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|volume=8|issue=1|pages=21–34|doi=10.2307/1214519|jstor=1214519 |quote=Frumentius, the first Ethiopian bishop, was a Phoenician.|url-access=subscription}}

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.{{cite book| title= Ethiopia, the Unknown Land |author=Stuart Munro-Hay |authorlink=Stuart Munro-Hay |publisher=IB Tauris |year=2002 |page=20}}

Biography

According to the fourth-century historian Tyrannius Rufinus (x.9), who cites Frumentius' brother Edesius as his authority, as children (ca. 316) Frumentius and Edesius accompanied their uncle Meropius from their birthplace of Tyre (now in Lebanon) on a voyage to 'India'.{{cite journal|last=Villa|first=Massimo|date=2017|title=Frumentius in the Ethiopic sources: Mythopoeia and text-critical considerations|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45137006|journal=Rassegna di Studi Etiopici|volume=1|issue=3|pages=87–111|doi=|jstor=45137006 |quote=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.}} When their ship stopped at one of the harbors of the Red Sea, local people massacred the whole crew, sparing the two boys, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The two boys soon gained the favor of the king, who raised them to positions of trust. Shortly before his death, the king freed them. The widowed queen, however, prevailed upon them to remain at the court and assist her in the education of the young heir, Ezana, and in the administration of the kingdom during the prince's minority. They remained and (especially Frumentius) used their influence to spread Christianity. First they encouraged the Christian merchants present in the country to practice their faith openly, and they helped them find places "where they could come together for prayer according to the Roman Rite";Cardinal Paulos Tzadua on [https://www.angelfire.com/stars4/zion/divine_liturgy_according_to_ethiopia.htm St. Frumentius and the Liturgy of the Ethiopian Church] later they converted some of the natives.

When the prince came of age, Edesius returned to Tyre, where he stayed and was ordained a priest. Frumentius, eager for the conversion of Ethiopia, accompanied his brother as far as Alexandria, where he requested Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, to send a bishop and some priests as missionaries to Ethiopia. By Athanasius' own account, he believed Frumentius to be the most suitable person for the job. He consecrated him as bishop,Athanasius, Epistola ad Constantinum traditionally in the year 328, or according to others, between 340 and 346.

Frumentius returned to Ethiopia, where he erected his episcopal see at Axum, then converted and baptized King Ezana, who built many churches and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. Frumentius established the first monastery of Ethiopia, called Dabba Selama in Dogu'a Tembien. The people called Frumentius Kesate Birhan "Revealer of Light" and Abba Salama "Father of Peace". He became the first Abuna, a title given to the head of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in Ethiopia.

In about 356, the Byzantine emperor Constantius II wrote to King Ezana and his brother Saizana, requesting them to replace Frumentius as bishop with Theophilos the Indian, who supported Arianism, as did the emperor. Athanasius, a leading opponent of Arianism, had appointed Frumentius. The king refused the request.[http://christianbookshelf.org/athanasius/select_works_and_letters_or_athanasius/31_letter_of_constantius_to.htm "Letter of Constantius to the Ethiopians against Frumentius"], Bible Suite, Christian Booksheld[http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631232032_chunk_g978063123203210_ss1-9 "Frumentius of Axum"], Blackwell Reference Online

Ethiopian traditions credit him with the first Geʽez translation of the New Testament and being involved in the development of Geʽez script from an abjad (consonantal-only) into an abugida (syllabic).

Feast date

The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches celebrate his consecration on 18 Taḫśaś (the 4th month of the Ethiopian calendar and death in 26 Hamle (the 11th month).{{cite book |last=Budge |first=E. A. Wallis |title=Synaxarium: The Bool of the Saints of The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church |url=http://www.stmichaeleoc.org/The_Ethiopian_Synaxarium.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110161417/http://www.stmichaeleoc.org/The_Ethiopian_Synaxarium.pdf |archive-date=10 January 2017|page=222}}

The Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of Frumentius on 18 December,{{Cite web |url=http://www.kidusmichael.com/EthiopianChristianity.htm |title=Date of Feast/Consecration as Bishop of Ethiopia |access-date=2007-11-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080119130131/http://www.kidusmichael.com/EthiopianChristianity.htm |archive-date=2008-01-19 }} the Eastern Orthodox Church on 30 November{{cite web|title=Friday, November 30, 2018|url=https://www.goarch.org/chapel?date=11/30/2018|website=goarch.org|access-date=30 November 2018}} and the Catholic Church on 20 July.Martyrologium Romanum, Editio Altera (Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), p. 401 (#5 on 20 July). "In Æthiopia, sancti Frumentii, episcopi, qui primum ibi captivus, deinde, episcopus a sancto Athanasio ordinatus, Evangelium in ea regione propagavit."

Patronage

Frumentius is regarded as the patron saint of the former Kingdom of Aksum, and its contemporary territories.{{fact|date=February 2022}}

He is the patron saint of St Frumentius Theological College in Ethiopia, which is part of the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria.{{fact|date=December 2024}}

References

Sources

Martyrologium Romanum, Editio Altera (Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), p. 401

External links

[http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/75400 "San Frumenzio"], Santi e Beati {{in lang|it}}
[http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=637 Catholic News Agency: Frumentius of Ethiopia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910091922/http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=637 |date=10 September 2015 }}
[http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-frumentius-of-ethiopia/ Saints.SQPN: Frumentius]
[http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=648 Catholic Online: Frumentius]

Category:380s deaths

Category:People from the kingdom of Aksum

Category:Lebanese saints

Category:Bishops of Axum

Category:Syrian Christian saints

Category:Ethiopian saints

Category:4th-century bishops

Category:4th-century Christian saints

Category:Creators of writing systems

Category:People from Tyre, Lebanon

Category:Year of birth unknown

Category:4th-century births