Frumentius (Gk Φρουμέντιος/Phrouméntios, b. in Tyre before 330 CE, d. after 356 CE) is considered as the evangelizer and first bishop of Ethiopia. Locally known as Fǝremnaṭos and Abba Sälama Käśate Bǝrhan (“Revealer of Light”), he is commemorated in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on 26 Hamle, that is, Aug 2.

The main source on Frumentius’ life is Rufinus of Aquileia’s Historia ecclesiastica (1.9–10; perhaps based on the lost Historia by Gelasius of Caesarea; Brakmann, 1994, 62–63) or, as Rufinus claims, on the direct testi…