Prester John

American  

[pres-ter] / ˈprɛs tər /

noun

1. a legendary Christian monk and potentate of the Middle Ages, supposed to have had a kingdom in some remote part of Asia or Africa and associated with fabulous narratives of travel.

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Prester John British  

/ ˈprɛstə /

noun

1. a legendary Christian priest and king, believed in the Middle Ages to have ruled in the Far East, but identified in the 14th century with the king of Ethiopia

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Etymology

Origin of Prester John

C14 Prestre Johan, from Medieval Latin presbyter Iohannes Priest John

Example Sentences

In fact, a bit like Wakanda, Ethiopia, or Abyssinia as it was once known, was also long shrouded in mystery for Europeans during the Middle Ages, a mythical Christian kingdom of great wealth, surrounded by hostile Muslim states, hidden in the mountains and home to the legendary Prester John.

From Washington Post

Supposedly set in the time of King Arthur, the travels through Central Asia, the character of Prester John and the shining armor had nothing to do with Camelot.

From New York Times

These alternative perspectives are threaded through the narrative; both sets of letters converge on the legends of Prester John, the mythical, eastern king.

From The Guardian

The country itself was like that of the far-famed Prester John—everything about it smacked of the marvellous.

From Project Gutenberg

Less authentic, perhaps, are the Dominican accounts of eight missionaries of their Order who, in 1316, penetrated to the empire of Prester John in Abyssinia, where they founded so durable a Church that in half a century they had the Inquisition organized there, with Friar Philip, son of one of Prester John’s subject kings, as inquisitor-general.

From Project Gutenberg