Frumentius and King Ezana: how Christianity came to the kingdom of Aksum

The story begins with a voyage that went wrong. Two young brothers from Tyre, Frumentius and Aedesius, were travelling on the Red Sea with their teacher when their ship stopped on the African coast. Local people attacked, and everyone on board was killed except the two boys. They were taken to the royal court of Aksum, a powerful trading kingdom in the highlands of what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. What happened next would shape the faith of a nation for the next seventeen centuries.

The royal court and Alexandria

The king took the boys into his service. Aedesius became his cupbearer, and Frumentius, the elder, became his secretary and treasurer. They earned the trust of the royal household. When the king died, the queen asked Frumentius to help govern and to teach the young prince, Ezana. During this time, Frumentius encouraged Christian merchants in Aksum and helped them find places to worship.

When Ezana came of age, Frumentius was free to leave. Aedesius returned to Tyre, but Frumentius travelled to Alexandria in Egypt. There he asked Bishop Athanasius to send a bishop to Aksum.

Bishop of Aksum and King Ezana

Athanasius decided that Frumentius himself was the best person for the task and consecrated him bishop. Frumentius returned to Aksum, where he baptised many people and built up the church. Ezana became a Christian, and Aksum became one of the earliest kingdoms to adopt Christianity. Coins from his reign show the cross replacing older pagan symbols.

In Ethiopian tradition, Frumentius is called Abba Salama, “Father of Peace,” and Kesate Birhan, “Revealer of Light.” He is honoured as the first bishop of the Ethiopian church. For centuries afterwards, the head of the Ethiopian church was appointed from Alexandria. The relationship lasted until the twentieth century, when the Ethiopian church gained its own patriarch.

Sources and Aksum's place

The story of Frumentius comes mainly from the church historian Rufinus, who wrote that he heard it from Aedesius himself. Aksum traded across the Red Sea with Rome, Arabia and India, exporting ivory and gold. Its wealth and contacts help explain how Christian merchants came to be living there, and why the faith spread among its rulers.

Frumentius arrived in Aksum as a captive boy and came back to it as a bishop. The church he helped plant is still worshipping in the same highlands today.