A shipwreck turned into good luck for two young men, Edesius and Frumentius. It blessed Ethiopia. Their uncle from Tyre was a Christian thinker. He took the boys to explore. They sailed near the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The Greek-speaking pair headed home with him. Their ship docked at Andulis in Abyssinia, now Ethiopia. Or it broke apart close by.

No one knows why the boys became slaves to the King of Axum. One story says locals got mad at the sailors. They killed most on board. The boys studied alone under a tree. They survived. This rage might link to a broken deal with Rome. Or rude acts by one sailor. Another tale claims that just the boys escaped the wreck. In the end, locals gave them to the king.

The king liked their intelligence and manners. He made Edesius his cupbearer. He put Frumentius over the court papers. Before dying, the king set them free. His widow begged them to stay. She needed help ruling and raising sons, Abreha and Atsbeha. The boys were too young. Edesius and Frumentius said yes. They stayed till the princes grew up. Frumentius stayed with Anbaram, a Jewish priest who liked Christians. Ethiopia had old ties to Jews, back to Solomon’s time. The pair used power to share the gospel. They urged Christian traders to pray out in the open.

When Abreha and Atsbeha took the throne as Ezana and Sayzana, the two quit their jobs. Ethiopians begged them to remain. But they missed Tyre. They traveled north along the Nile to Alexandria in Egypt.

Athanasius led the church there as bishop. Frumentius asked him to send a bishop to Abyssinia. Athanasius said yes. He chose Frumentius himself. Frumentius never reached Tyre. Athanasius taught and named him bishop. Then Frumentius went home with helpers.

Frumentius turned Anbaram to faith. He made him a priest. He led King Ezana and his brother Sayzana to Christ. He baptized them. Frumentius and his team built the church in Abyssinia. They spread faith nearby, too. New coins dropped old pagan words. They added Christian ones.

After Frumentius died, folks called him Abuna, Our Father. Or Aba Salama, Father of Peace. Those names fit the top Ethiopian church leader still. Edesius became a priest in Tyre. He told church writer Rufinus the story. On November 30, the Orthodox Church honors Frumentius.

Also On This Day

1554: Recently crowned Queen of England, Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, restores Roman Catholicism to the country. Nearly 300 Protestants would be burned at the stake by “Bloody Mary,” including Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley. Nearly 400 more died by imprisonment and starvation.

1725: Martin Boehm is born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A Mennonite bishop, he was excluded from the Mennonite communion because of his liberal views and association with persons of other sects. He later joined with Philip W. Otterbein and others to form the United Brethren in Christ Church.

1979: John Paul II attends an Eastern Orthodox service, the first pope in 1,000 years to do so.