St Frumentius, the Enlightener of Abyssinia.

Commemorated November 30 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

In the time of the Emperor Constantine the Great, a learned man from Tyre called Meropius travelled to India. He took with him two young Christians, brothers called Edessius and Frumentius. On the journey, the ship foundered in a storm on the Abyssinian coast, and the wild Abyssinians killed all the people from the ship except these two brothers, Edessius and Frumentius. They lived in Abyssinia for several years and succeeded in entering the service of the king. Frumentius began to preach the Christian faith, at first fairly cautiously, and became convinced that the land was ripe for such preaching. The two brothers then took ship, Edessius to Tyre to his parents and Frumentius to Alexandria, to Patriarch Athanasius the Great. Frumentius described the situation in Abyssinia to the Patriarch and sought pastors to bring the people to the Faith. St Athanasius consecrated Frumentius bishop, and he returned to Abyssinia where, by his zeal and his miracles, he brought the whole of Abyssinia to the Faith during his lifetime. This great pastor of Christ's flock and enlightener of Abyssinia died peacefully in the year 370, and entered into the Kingdom of his Lord.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK