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Holy Prophet Elijah

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The feast of St. Elias / Elijah is commemorated on July 20 every year, by Catholics, Orthodox, and by the Carmelite Order, which sees Elias as its spiritual ancestor. His icons are noted for the bright colors that are used, fiery red especially. He is the patron saint of wheeled vehicles, due to his heavenly chariot, and cars and other vehicles are blessed on his feast day. He is also considered the spiritual ancestor and protector of the Carmelite Order, which celebrates his feast as a major liturgical event.

Elijah erupts on the scene in 1 Kings, where he appears as the Servant of the Living God, and rebukes King Ahab for allowing his Canaanite queen, Jezebel, to establish and promote the worship of the false god Baal in Israel. A drought ensues as God’s punishment for this sin. When he flees for his life, God arranges for him to flee to a cave near the stream of Cherith, where ravens bring him his daily bread. When the stream dries up in the drought, the Lord sends him to a pagan widow, who is about to eat the last of the flour and oil in her house with her son, and then lie down to die, as the drought is causing famine. God miraculously multiplies her stock so that all three live well, but then the child dies. At the tears of the widow, Elijah throws himself across the boy’s body, beseeches God to have mercy, and God sends the boy’s soul back into his body. Thus, the Lord cares for these pagans who have sheltered His prophet while Israel starves.

Elijah is sent back to Israel by God after three years of drought and famine, and he again chastises King Ahab for encouraging the worship of Baal. In a dramatic showdown, two altars are set up at Mount Carmel, one with dry wood and a slaughtered ox where the priests of Baal dance and slash themselves with knives while singing his praises, and one with water-soaked wood and a trench filled with altar. The pagan priests do not obtain results, but when Elijah calls on the true God to respond, He sends down fire from heaven which consumes not only the wood, but the altar and sacrifice. He goes off to the edge of the Mount, and spies a small cloud coming. This cloud, he tells his servant, will bring the drought to an end, and indeed it unleashes torrential rains across the land.

The Fathers see this cloud as prefiguring the Virgin Mary: from her pure womb will come the Savior Who will take away the sins of the world. Queen Jezebel tries to kill Elijah, but he flees again to Mount Horeb. Here the wonderful revelation of God takes place, in the “still small sound of silence” of a gentle breeze. After other events, Elijah is taken to heaven in a chariot of fire; his disciple Elisha, or Eliseus, beseeches him to send down his cloak so that he may have a portion of his prophetic power, and indeed Elisha catches the cloak and thus becomes a new prophet.

Elijah appears again in the book of Malachi (3:19), which predicts that he will come to prepare the way for the Messiah. To this day, an empty seat is left at the Passover table by Jews, who await the coming of the prophet. Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic families do this on Christmas Eve, when the prophet is awaited to announce the birth of Jesus, and the first person to enter the house must be a man. This role as announcer has been fulfilled by St. John the Baptist who preached in the wilderness, dressed like Elijah, and preached the need for repentance to prepare for the Lord. Elijah is mentioned four times in the gospels, most notably at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, where he appears to affirm that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.