FRITMEN'TIUS, SAINT, Apostle of Ethiopia and the Abyssinians, b. in Phenicia to wards the beginning of the 4th century. At a very early age, he and another youth, named (Edesius, accompanied their uncle Meropius, a Greek philosopher from Tyre, on a voyage undertaken for mercantile, or, according to others, for scientific purposes. On their return, they landed on the coast of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, to procure fresh water; but the savage inhabitants, under the pretext of their hostility with the Romans, made an onslaught upon them, and murdered Meropius and the whole crew, sparing only the two boys, whom they found sitting under a tree and reading. They were taken as slaves into the service of the king; and made themselves so beloved that OMeSOIS was soon raised to the office of cupbearer, while the more sagacious F. became the king's private secretary and accountant. After the death of the monarch, F. was appointed instructor to the young prince Aizanes, and in this capacity he obtained a still greater influence on the administration of the state affairs. He aided the Christian merchants who sought these parts, in a church, and gradually paved the way for the formal introduction of the new creed. In 326, lie went to Alexandria—CEdesius having
returned to Tyre, where he was made presbyter—and convinced Athanasius, who bad recently been nominated bishop of Alexandria, of the necessity of appointing a special ecclesiastical dignitary for Abyssinia, who should carry out vigorously the work of con version. Athanasius, in full synod, and with its unanimous approbation, consecrated F. himself bishop of Axum (Auxuma). The new bishop repaired to Abyssinia, and succeeded in proselytizing large numbers. He is also supposed to have translated the Bible into Ethiopian. See Erfuorta. On his subsequent theological disputations with Theophilus the Arian—F. himself being in all probability an Athanasian—we cannot enlarge here. F. died about 360, and Ins day is celebrated by the Latins on Oct. 27, by the Greeks on Nov. 30, and- by the Abyssinians on Dec. 18. —Socrates, i. 15; Rutin, Dist. Ece,l., i. 9; Theodoret, i. 22; Ludolf, Hist. yEth., iii. 7, 17, etc.