Editing Frumentius (section)

{{Short description|Phoenician Christian missionary; the first bishop of Axumite Empire}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{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 of Alexandria|Coptic Orthodox Church]])
|venerated_in=[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br />[[Oriental Orthodoxy]]<br />[[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]<br />[[Anglican Communion]]
|image=St_Frumentius.jpg
|imagesize=140px
|caption=Saint Frumentius
|birth_place=[[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], [[Phoenice (Roman province)|Phoenice]], [[Byzantine Empire]] (modern-day [[Lebanon]])
|death_place=[[Kingdom of Aksum]]
|titles=Confessor<br />Bishop of Axum<br />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=
}}
{{Oriental Orthodox sidebar|expanded=figures}}
[[File:Frumentius.jpg|thumb|Frumentius]]
{{Contains special characters|Ethiopic}}
''' Saint Frumentius''' ({{langx|gez|ፍሬምናጦስ}}; died c. 383) was a [[Phoenicia|Phoenician]] [[Christian mission]]ary and the first [[bishop]] of [[Axum]] who brought [[Christianity]] to the [[Kingdom of Aksum]].<ref name="isbn0-313-32273-2">{{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}}</ref> He is sometimes known by other names, such as [[Abuna]] ("Our Father") and '''Aba Salama''' ("Father of Peace").<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

He was a native of [[Phoenicia]], born in [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], modern day Lebanon.<ref name="EB">{{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.}}</ref><ref>
*{{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}}
</ref> As a boy, he was captured with his brother on a voyage, and they became slaves to the [[Ousanas|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.<ref>{{cite book| title= Ethiopia, the Unknown Land |author=Stuart Munro-Hay |authorlink=Stuart Munro-Hay |publisher=IB Tauris |year=2002 |page=20}}</ref>