FRUMENZIO, saint. — Apostle of Abyssinia and first bishop of Aksum. Born in Tyre around 310–320, he reached Abyssinia in an unexpected manner. Taken while still young to India together with his brother Edesius by the philosopher Meropius of Tyre, on their return they landed at an Abyssinian port, probably Adulis. When a dispute arose between the travelers and the natives, the latter massacred the entire crew, sparing only the two young men, whom they took as slaves to the court of Aksum. There F. was appointed treasurer and Edesius cupbearer to the king; they soon succeeded in winning his favor, so much so that upon his death they were asked by the queen to remain in order to help her govern the kingdom and educate the heir, who was still very young. They consented to the queen’s wishes.
F. was invested with great authority, which he used to encourage religious practice among the Christian merchants residing in the kingdom, taking the lead by his example and building a church. When the prince ascended the throne, they obtained permission to return to their homeland. Edesius went directly to Tyre, where he settled and became a priest. F. passed through Alexandria to report to St. Athanasius the hopes of the Church at Aksum and ask him to send a bishop there. Athanasius judged F. the person best suited to the purpose, ordained him bishop, and sent him back to Aksum, where he exercised the sacred ministry with great success until his death, around 386, obtaining the conversion of a large number of natives and of the king himself, ’Ezāna’. Four inscriptions concerning him have been discovered: the first three still show him to have been a pagan, while the fourth already shows him to have been a Christian. The same development appears on the coins. The emperor Constantius attempted to cause disorder and win Abyssinia over to Arianism by writing in 356 a letter to King Acizanas (’Ezāna’) and his brother Sesezanas, in which he attacked Athanasius and asked them to send F. to Alexandria, where he was to be instructed in the faith by the Arian bishop George. Indeed, according to Philostorgius, he also sent Bishop Theophilus there to promote Arianism, though without any result.
The chronology remains somewhat uncertain, since the dates of F.’s arrival at Aksum and of his episcopal ordination cannot be established precisely. The account of Rufinus, which has him consecrated before 330, is unlikely. The Bollandists demonstrate with plausible arguments that F. arrived at Aksum around 340, went to Alexandria around 347, and returned to Abyssinia only around 351–352.
Since he heard the account of F. from Edesius’s own lips, Rufinus remains the principal source, upon which Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and the Eastern Synaxaries drew. Feast day: 27 October.