Ezana (c. 320s-360 AD) was an emperor of Aksum, an empire centered on what is now modern Ethiopia and Eritrea that, at the peak of its power, stretched from northern Sudan to the west and southern Arabia to the east. Under the influence of his enslaved Syrian teacher Frumentius, Ezana was the first Ethiopian ruler to convert to Christianity. He may have also conquered the kingdom of Kush in 350 AD, as historians have deduced from Ge’ez inscriptions on a stela found at the Kushite capital of Meroe, although an alternate interpretation is that Ezana was simply helping the Kushites suppress a revolt by the Nuba people. To this day, both the Catholic Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church reveres Ezana as a saint, honoring him with days of feasting on the 1st and 27th of October.