I was encouraged today to reread an historical sketch that I
wrote 14 years ago. It involves two
brothers named Frumentius and Aedesius who lived in the 300’s. They were living in Alexandria, Egypt when
they accompanied a merchant relative to India.
On the way home their ship had the ill fortune to dock in Ethiopia,
where it was attacked and everyone on board was killed except for the two
brothers. For some reason, they were
enslaved instead, and given as a gift to King Abreha. They had become Christians in the Coptic
church in Alexandria, and as slaves God gave them boldness to preach Christ to
their captors. The King did not listen,
but his wife, although she did not convert to Christianity, liked their
teaching and insisted they teach the young prince, Erazanes. Somehow God gave them the courage and faith
to resist bitterness over their fate and to courageously use the opportunities
given to them.
When King Abreha was near death, he offered the brothers
freedom. What a chance! But the queen begged them to stay, to
continue teaching the prince, and to advise her on how to rule until he reached
adulthood and became king. As I thought
about this, I wondered if they debated the value of one child in comparison to
a lifetime of freedom for themselves.
But these far-sighted brothers saw more than just one child, even a
royal child. They saw the opportunity to
influence a kingdom for Christ. They
refused personal freedom, and stayed.
Eventually Erazanes became king Ezana, but for all their teaching, he
still had not come to faith in Christ.
He continued to worship the idol Michren. Coins minted in that era show pictures of the
pagan gods, and Erazanes’ royal inscriptions gave credit to pagan gods for
victories in battle. The brothers must
have been disappointed and perhaps discouraged, but they kept on sharing their
faith, ministering to businessmen trading in Ethiopia. Neither were ordained as pastors, so
Frumentius requested Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria to send them a
pastor. Instead, Athanasius ordained
Frumentius himself.
Finally, toward the end of his rule, King Ezana finally did
come to Christ. His conversion seems to
be genuine. He no longer minted coins
with pagan symbols, but rather with the Christian cross. He began to give credit to “the King of
Heaven” in his royal inscriptions. He
built churches and named Ethiopia as officially a Christian country, although
of course the majority of the people were still idol worshipers. At last Christians were able to share Christ
freely and the door was opened for other missionaries to enter.
Frumentius learned the Ethiopian Ge’ez language, developed
its script, and translated the first Ge’ez New Testament. Slowly, a strong Christian church
emerged. In fact, it grew so strong that
when Islam was born and swept out of its birthplace in 639, assaulting all of
North Africa with wave after wave of Islamic jihad, giving Christians and
others the ultimatum of Muhammed’s infamous three choices: Islam, slavery (dhimmitude), or death, the
Ethiopian church stood firm. Only it
stood firm, and this in spite of the fact that it had many cultural and
linguistic similarities with Arabic. It
seems to me that only a deep and genuine faith could have withstood the
assault, century after century.
As I reflected on this, I was amazed at how God honored the
faith, vision, humility and commitment of those two young men, Frumentius and
Aedesius, who refused to surrender to their difficult personal situation. Maybe they had discovered the “bloom where
you are planted” philosophy.
I realize that they did not convert Ethiopia alone. God had long been at work there, from the God-seeking
Queen of Sheba in Solomon’s time, and their son, King Menelik I (according to
Ethiopian tradition), to the Jews who took shelter in Egypt shortly after the
destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., to the Jews who settled in Egypt in the
time of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies.
Philip brought the queen’s treasurer to Christ, and tradition says
Matthew evangelized in Ethiopia until he was put to death. The persecution of Christians brought
Christian witness to Ethiopia, since in 308 A.D., maimed Christians were sent
as slave labor in Sudanese mines. Many
faithful men and women had spoken and lived for God in Ethiopia before
Frumentius and Aedesius. But when this
pair added years of patient, faithful testimony to that of others, God brought
forth fruit. He did great and mighty
things because two young men were willing to use what influence they had where
they were and regardless of circumstances.
They gave up their personal rights, and God honored their witness to
bring the Gospel to many generations that followed.
God, make me faithful to bloom where I am planted, not
seeking anything for myself, but using every opportunity for Christ. Thank you for the encouragement of these
brothers who lived so long ago, but whose influence persists to this very day.