FRUMENTIUS, an early Christian missionary and bishop who is recognized by the Abyssinian church as its apostle and founder, and usually bears in Abyssinian literature the title of Abba Salama or Father of Salvation. According to Rufinus, an ecclesiastical historian of the latter part of the 4th century, who gives AEdesius himself as his authority, a certain Tyrian philosopher, accompanied by his kinsmen Frumentius and Aedesius, set out on an expedition to “India,” but was murdered by the natives of a coast town which he visited by the way. The two young men, on the contrary, were taken under royal protection, and ultimately became tutors of the heir apparent to the throne. On the succession of their pupil they returned home. Aedesius was made presbyter of Tyre, and Frumentius was consecrated bishop by Athanasius of Alexandria, and went back to propagate Christianity among the “Indians.” This story is substantiated by the letters of Athanasius, who distinctly mentions the consecration of Frumentius, in 326, as bishop of Axum in Abyssinia, and gives some details of the history of his mission. The opinion of Thomas Wright {Early Christianity in Arabia, 1855), that the scene of the labours of Frumentius was not Abyssinia but southern Arabia, appears quite irreconcilable with the direct testimony of Athanasius, whatever support it may find in the vaguer notices of ecclesiastical historians.

See Nicephorus, ix. 18; Rufinus, x. 9; Theodoret, i. 23; Athanasius, Epistola ad Constantinum.