How Inner India Became Christian

We must now tell how Christianity spread during this emperor’s reign, for it was in his time that the nations of the Indians in the interior, and of the Iberians, first embraced the Christian faith. But I will briefly explain why I have added the words “in the interior.” When the apostles went out by lot among the nations, Thomas received the apostleship of the Parthians, Matthew was allotted Ethiopia, and Bartholomew the part of India bordering on that country. But inner India, where many barbarous nations speaking different languages lived, was not enlightened by Christian teaching before the times of Constantine. [a]

I now come to the cause that led them to turn to Christianity. A certain philosopher, Meropius, a Tyrian by race, decided to get to know the country of the Indians. He was spurred on by the example of the philosopher Metrodorus, who had traveled through the region of India before him. So he took with him two young relatives, who were by no means ignorant of Greek, and reached the country by ship. When he had seen whatever he wished, he put in at a place that had a safe harbor, to get some supplies. It happened that a little before this the treaty between the Romans and the Indians had been broken. So the Indians seized the philosopher and those who sailed with him, and killed them all except his two young kinsmen. These they spared out of pity for their tender age, and sent them as a gift to the king of the Indians.

The king was pleased with the young men’s looks. He made one of them, whose name was Edesius, cupbearer at his table; the other, named Frumentius, he put in charge of the royal records. The king died soon after and left them free, and the government passed to his wife and infant son. The queen, seeing her son left a minor, begged the young men to take charge of him until he came of age. So the youths accepted the task and took up the administration of the kingdom. Thus Frumentius had control of everything. He made it his business to find out whether there were any Christians among the Roman merchants trading with that country. When he found some, he told them who he was, and urged them to choose and occupy some suitable places for Christian worship. Before long he built a house of prayer; and they taught some of the Indians the principles of Christianity and made them ready to take part in the worship.

When the young king reached maturity, Frumentius and his associates handed back to him the management of public affairs, which they had carried out honorably, and asked permission to return to their own country. Both the king and his mother begged them to stay. But they longed to see their homeland again, could not be persuaded, and so departed. Edesius for his part hurried to Tyre to see his parents and relatives. But Frumentius came to Alexandria and reported the matter to Athanasius the bishop, who had only recently been raised to that office. He told him both the details of his wanderings and the hopes the Indians had of receiving Christianity. He also begged him to send a bishop and clergy there, and by no means to neglect those who might in this way be brought to salvation. Athanasius considered how this could best be done, and asked Frumentius himself to accept the office of bishop, declaring that he could appoint no one more suitable than he was. So this was done. Frumentius, invested with a bishop’s authority, returned to India and became a preacher of the good news there. He built several churches, and, aided also by divine grace, he performed various miracles, healing the bodily diseases of many along with their souls. Rufinus assures us that he heard these facts from Edesius, who was afterward ordained to the priesthood at Tyre.