Prophet Elijah born in Thesbia of Gilead in the tribe of Levi 900 years before the birth of Christ. According to the legend that has come down to us from Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus (d. 403), when Elijah was born, his father had a mysterious vision: handsome men welcomed the baby, swaddled him with fire and fed him with a fiery flame. The name of the prophet Elijah is translated as " My God Lord“, which expresses the main content of his ministry (3 Kings 18.36) - a zealous struggle for the worship of the one God and who demonstrated His power through his deeds.
The Prophet Elijah was a zealous champion of the purity of faith in the kingdom of Israel and a formidable denouncer of idolatry and wickedness. His activity dates back to the reign of Ahab (d. 852 BC), when his Phoenician wife Jezebel decided to establish the cult of Baal and Ashtoreth. Tradition says that the true zealots of piety were expelled from the country, and a staff of priests of Baal was established at court. The prophet Elijah appeared as a terrible accuser of the trampling of the shrine, who performed many miracles to admonish the wicked king. The history of his life and work is set out in the Third and Fourth Books of Kings (1 Kings 17-20 and 2 Kings 1-3).
When Ahab's wickedness reached its limit, the prophet Elijah announced to the king that because of his wickedness, the country would suffer famine for several years (1 Kings 17:1). But Ahab did not repent; a struggle began between the king and the prophet, ending in the triumph of the latter. During the sacrifice on Mount Carmel (Carmel), arranged for the purpose of testing and comparing the power of Yahweh and Baal, the priests of the latter suffered a complete defeat and were executed by the prophet (1 Kings 18:40). This further angered Jezebel, who vowed to kill Elijah. At the direction of God, the prophet Elijah hid near the stream Horath, where ravens brought him food every morning and evening.
The people at that time suffered from unbearable heat and hunger. The Old Testament legend tells that the Lord, in His mercy, seeing the suffering of people, was ready to spare everyone and send rain to the earth, but did not want to violate the words of the prophet Elijah. It was important for the prophet to turn the hearts of the Israelites to repentance and return them to true worship of God. After some time, the prophet Elijah, according to the word of God, went to Zarephath of Sidon to visit a poor widow. Because she did not spare the last handful of flour and oil, through the prayer of the prophet Elijah, flour and oil have not been exhausted in the widow’s house since then. Here the prophet Elijah performed another miracle: he revived the widow’s suddenly ill and dead son, sympathizing with the woman’s grief.
In the third year of drought, the prophet Elijah returned to Ahab. Elijah proposed a contest with the priests of Baal to find out whose god was true. Having gathered the people on Mount Carmel, the prophet Elijah proposed to build two altars: one from the priests of Baal, the other from the prophet Elijah to serve the True God. “On which of them fire falls from heaven, that will be an indication whose God is true,” said the prophet Elijah, “and everyone will have to worship Him, and those who do not recognize Him will be put to death.” The priests of Baal danced, prayed and stabbed themselves with knives all day, but nothing happened. In the evening, the prophet Elijah erected his altar of 12 stones, according to the number of tribes of Israel, laid the sacrifice on the firewood, ordered a ditch to be dug around the altar, and ordered the sacrifice and firewood to be watered. When the ditch was filled with water, the fiery prophet turned to God with a fervent prayer and petition, so that the Lord would send fire from heaven to admonish the erring and embittered people of Israel and turn their hearts to Himself. Fire fell from the sky and ignited the sacrifice of the prophet Elijah. The people exclaimed: “Truly the Lord is One God, and there is no other God besides Him!” Then, by order of the prophet Elijah, the priests were killed. Through the prayer of the prophet Elijah, the Lord sent abundant rain to the earth, and the drought ended. However, despite the miracles and great signs that happened through the prayer of the prophet, Jezebel wanted to kill him because he put the priests of Baal to death. Elijah disappeared into the desert.
At this time, the prophet was honored, as far as possible for a person, to contemplate God face to face. The Lord consoled him, saying that there were still people on earth who had never worshiped idols, and pointed Elijah to Elisha, whom He chose as a prophet after Elijah.
According to legend, the prophet Elijah was taken to Heaven alive: “Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared, and separated them both, and Elijah rushed into Heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11). According to the Bible, before him, only Enoch, who lived before the Flood, was taken alive into heaven (Gen. 5:24). In the Book of Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, the event of the ascension of Elijah is described as follows: “Elijah was hidden in a whirlwind, and Elisha was filled with his spirit” (Sirach 48:12). According to the Fourth Book of Kings, Elijah left his outer garment (“mantle”) for the prophet Elisha, having thrown it to him from the chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11-13).
The Book of the prophet Malachi says that God will send the prophet Elijah back to earth: “Behold, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5). We are talking about the Second Coming here. Before the Second Coming, the prophet Elijah will descend from heaven to expose the false Messiah and convert the remnant of Israel to the true God.
The prophet Elijah is mentioned several times in the New Testament. Thus, an episode is described how the elders and people asked John the Baptist, when he preached on the banks of the Jordan in the spirit and power of Elijah and even looked like him in appearance, was he not Elijah? Also, the disciples of Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel of Matthew, asked Him if Elijah should come before the Messiah. To which Christ replied: “True, Elijah must come first and arrange everything; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him as they wanted; so the Son of Man will suffer from them” (Matthew 17:11-12). Then the disciples realized that Jesus was talking about John the Baptist, who was beheaded (Mark 6:28).
During this time, the prophet Elijah appeared with Moses, and they talked with Jesus “about His exodus, which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). According to John Chrysostom, “one who died and another who has not yet experienced death” appeared in order to show that “Christ has power over life and death, rules over heaven and earth.” He is supposed to be one of the two lamps standing before God and must appear before the Second Coming of Christ to earth (Rev. 11:3-12). During the suffering of Christ on the cross, some of the people thought that Christ was calling the prophet Elijah for help, and expected his arrival.
Miracles of the Holy Prophet Elijah
Through the prayer of the prophet Elijah, the sky “closed up” and did not give rain (1 Kings 17:1), which is why there was a famine. According to the word of God, food was brought to him by ravens (1 Kings 17:6) and an angel (1 Kings 19:5-6). According to the word of the prophet, the food in the house of the widow of Sarepta did not end (1 Kings 17:13-16). The prophet Elijah resurrected the boy of the Sarepta widow (1 Kings 17:21-22). The prophet Elijah brought down fire on the altar (1 Kings 18:36-38). Through the prayer of the prophet, God gave rain to the earth after a three-year “confinement” of heaven (1 Kings 18:41-45). The prophet Elijah spoke with God face to face, while covering his face (1 Kings 19:9-14). The Prophet Elijah brought down fire from heaven, both to punish sinners and as a sign of true worship of God (2 Kings 1:10-12). The prophet Elijah divided the Jordan River like Moses, striking it with his robe (2 Kings 2:8). The prophet Elijah was taken up alive into heaven for his special righteousness before God (2 Kings 2:11).
Veneration of the Prophet Elijah in Rus'
The Prophet Elijah was one of the first saints of God who began to be revered in Rus'. In his name, even under Prince Askold, at the beginning of the 9th century, a cathedral church was erected in Kyiv. And the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga built a church in the name of the prophet of God Elijah in the north of Rus', in the village of Vybuty. The Holy Prophet Elijah has always been perceived by the Orthodox Russian people as one of the saints closest to our fatherland. Processions of the cross were and are still taking place in the Ilyinsky churches, especially during drought. Elijah's day was considered the boundary of the seasons, while among the southern Slavs (for example, in Macedonia) this day was called the middle of summer, and in Russia - the turn to winter. After Ilyin's day, rain was expected, and it was forbidden to swim (so as not to drown or get sick). On this day one could begin to enjoy the fruits of the new harvest. The holiday was associated in the ideas of the Slavs with the theme of marriage and the symbolism of fertility: they prayed for a rich harvest, and girls prayed for getting married.
The day of remembrance of the Prophet Elijah is celebrated on August 2 (July 20, old style). In Christianity, he is the most revered Old Testament saint. Based on his birthplace in the city of Thisbah, the prophet Elijah is called Elijah the Tezbite.
Troparion and Kontakion to the Holy Prophet Elijah
Troparion, tone 4
Plotskiy ѓnGl, and 3rd prophetic degree. the second part of the coming of Christ, and the glorious ones. From above I sent grace to the foxes, to drive away illnesses, and to cleanse the lepers. In the same way, those who honor є3go2 t0read the goals2.
The carnal angel, and the prophet of the degree, the second forerunner of the coming of Christ, the glorious Elijah, having sent Elisha’s grace from above, to drive away illnesses, and to cleanse lepers, with the same ones who honor him, he sharpens healing.
Kontakion, tone 2
In other words, you have foreseen great deeds of ours, and your great name, and by broadcasting your 1st water-flowing clouds, pray2 for us 3rd person.
Prophet and seer of the great deeds of our God, Great Elijah, whose broadcasting decrees and water-flowing clouds, pray for us to the One Lover of Mankind.
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Library of Russian Faith
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Holy Prophet Elijah. Icons
Images of the Prophet Elijah were as widespread as the images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Great Martyrs George the Victorious and Demetrius of Thessalonica. The iconography of the prophet Elijah combines symbolic elements that reflect his significance as a participant in the most important events in the history of the divine economy. Words Saint John Chrysostom contain a vivid figurative description of the prophet:
Let's imagine... Elijah, a prophet, an earthly angel and a heavenly man, who walked the earth and drove a heavenly chariot, former height three cubits and reaching to a great height, rising to the very vaults of heaven, the lord of the waters, whose tongue was the repository of waters and the key of heaven (John Chrysostom, St. Homily about the Apostle Peter and the Prophet Elijah // Creations. 2004. Vol. 2 Book 2, p. 776).
In Christian art, not only individual images of the prophet Elijah were common, but also individual scenes from his Life. When venerated, Elijah was endowed different functions. For the monks, his life was an example of ascetic deeds. Among the imperial circles he was revered as the patron of military valor. Emperor Basil I of Macedon every year, on the day of memory of Elijah, attended a service in the New Church of the Great Imperial Palace, where Elijah's mantle and belt were kept. In popular perception, Elijah was the patron of the elements. The role of the prophet-god-seer in the divine economy, the eschatological expectations of Elijah as the herald of the Second Coming, as well as various aspects of his veneration became the reasons for the diversity of iconography.
There are known images of the prophet Elijah in the Jewish synagogue in Dura Europos (249-250). In the scene with the king, judging by the fragments of the legs, the prophet was presented frontally. Near a strip of land, a fragmentary image of legs has been preserved, possibly the remains of the figure of the general Obadiah, who led Elijah to Ahab. In the scene of the resurrection of the son of the Sarepta widow, Elijah reclines on a bed, in his arms is a baby, whom he extends to the hand of the Lord, depicted above, on the left - a preliminary action - a widow in black robes gives it to Elijah dead body son, on the right - a widow in light festive clothes holds a cheerful baby in her arms.
The earliest image of the prophet Elijah is presented in the iconography “The Ascension of the Prophet Elijah, or the Fiery Ascension” and is located in the Chapel of Sant'Aquilino in the Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Milan (c. 370 n.). In the apse of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna (c. 549) in the scene of the Transfiguration of the Lord (the figure of Christ is replaced by a cross with His face in the middle cross, the apostles Peter, John and James are presented in the form of lambs, the cross is in the pose of an orant Bishop Apollinaris, flanked by 12 apostles in the form of lambs) half-figures of the prophets Elijah (right) and Moses (left) are represented in the clouds. Elijah is an old man with long, gray hair, parted in the middle and falling down his back, with a long gray beard pointed downwards.
The earliest known icon image of Elijah was made using the technique of wax painting (encaustic) in the 7th century and is located in the monastery of the Great Martyr Catherine in Sinai. The icon was the right wing of a triptych that has not survived. Elijah is depicted as gray-haired, his clothes are detailed with an assist. Right hand- in a prophetic gesture, in the lowered left - an unfolded scroll.
Preserved in Byzantine art rare examples single images of Elijah. One of the earliest is big size icon (1180-1200, Byzantine Museum, Kastoria) with a generational frontal image of Elijah on a blue background, dressed in an ocher tunic with a blue belt and a mantle, in his left hand an unrolled scroll. On a folding medallion with images of Our Lady Oranta and Jesus Christ (late 10th - early 11th centuries, National Library of St. Mark, Venice), Elijah is presented with a scroll in his hand among the prophets, apostles and saints.
The iconographic programs of temples of the Middle Byzantine period often included individual scenes from the Life of Elijah. The earliest examples include the frescoes of the cave church of Ayvali Kilise (Cappadocia; between 913 and 920), where on the slopes of a small arch framing a niche with the scene of the “Sacrifice of Abraham”, “The Sacrifice on Mount Carmel” and “The Ascension of the Prophet Elijah” are presented. .
The special veneration of the prophet Elijah in Sinai, not far from which, on Mount Horeb, he was honored to see God, led to the widespread dissemination of his images in the composition different icons, originating from the monastery of the Great Martyr Catherine or created for it.
The most widespread subjects in monumental art and icon painting are “The Prophet Elijah in the Desert” and “The Fiery Ascent of the Prophet Elijah.”
Detailed hagiographical narratives in monumental painting have been known since the 13th century. One of the earliest surviving cycles is located on the northern wall of the southeastern compartment of the temple in Akhtala (1205-1216) and includes 3 scenes: “The Sacrifice on Mount Carmel”, “The Prophet Elijah in the Desert”, “The Ascension of the Prophet Elijah”.
The first Christian church built in Kyiv was consecrated in the name of the prophet Elijah. Along with the traditional corpus of the Lives of Elijah and Eulogies, a cycle of apocryphal works appeared early in Rus'. Thus, in Russian indices, starting with the Izbornik of Prince Svyatoslav in 1073, there is an indication of the apocryphal “Ilya’s addition” (Agapius’s Walk to Paradise), where Elder Agapius’ guide through the Garden of Eden was Elijah. In “The Word and Vision of the Apostle Paul” (“The Apostle Paul’s Walk through Torment”) we talk about the meeting of the Apostle Paul with Elijah and Elisha in paradise. These works, despite being included in the category of prohibited books, were in demand at different times and became the source of new iconographies of the prophet Elijah.
IN Kievan Rus veneration of the prophet Elijah acquired peculiarities. The comparison of Elijah with the Archangel Michael, which appeared early in various iconographic versions, is characteristic of Old Russian culture and unusual for Byzantium. One of the reasons for the combination of the images of Elijah and the Archangel Michael was that both have power over the fire and water elements, and are also revered as intercessors for the human race at the Last Judgment. An early example of images of Elijah was preserved in the Kondakara Typographical Rules (late 11th - early 12th centuries, Tretyakov Gallery).
The earliest image in ancient Russian monumental art is known in the painting of St. Sophia of Kyiv, where the gray-haired Elijah is presented full-length, with a rolled scroll in his hand in the lower zone on the southwestern dome pillar.
The diversity of the iconography of “Prophet Elijah in the Desert,” which contains a Eucharistic theme and expresses the ideal of monastic life, in Russian art was complemented by motifs of submission to God’s will, in-depth prayer, and at the same time bold and zealous communication with God. A few monuments of the 15th century depict Elijah sitting on a stone half-turned to the right, with his left hand supporting his head and a scroll in his right.
Obviously, even in pre-Mongol Rus', parallels were traced between Elijah, taken to heaven in a pillar of fire, and the image of the Mother of God “ Burning bush”, which are united by the theme of divine fire, transforming but not scorching.
In the 16th century, the iconography of the “Fiery Ascent” began to be saturated with images of previous events from the Life of Elijah. On a Novgorod icon of the second quarter of the 16th century. There are two plots: “An angel prompts Elijah” and “Crossing the Jordan on dry land.” As a result, iconography, which combines several compositions without dividing them into brands, became widespread and took shape in special type hagiographic icons. This phenomenon is unique to the iconography of Elijah. These “complex” compositions did not receive a special name and are named, as a rule, according to the plot, highlighted by scale.
The earliest icon life cycle of the Prophet Elijah has been preserved in Russian art - the image “Prophet Elijah in the Desert, with Life” from the Vybuta churchyard near Pskov (beginning of the 13th century, Tretyakov Gallery). The centerpiece depicts Elijah in the desert, wearing apostolic robes - a tunic and a himation, without a raven.
The development of hagiographic iconography continued actively in the 16th century. Particular attention to the image of Elijah was explained by the spread of his veneration. Numerous “ordinary” churches in the name of the prophet Elijah are known.
Small-sized hagiographic icons of Elijah were intended for lecterns or for home prayer. Some of them had an individual selection of stamps, including rare subjects. For the Yaroslavl Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Semyon Spiridonov Kholmogorets painted the icon “Prophet Elijah, with a life in 26 stamps” (1678, Yakhm). Elijah is depicted full-length, with a scroll in his hand, in prayer to the Lord, in the heavenly segment on the left, with a sphere in his hands, sitting on cherubim. The composition of the centerpiece is enclosed in an arch against a background of exquisite herbs. The architecture and landscape in the hallmarks are unusually complex and varied.
Temples of Elijah the Prophet in Rus'
In the name of the holy prophet Elijah it was consecrated church at the Vybuty churchyard, Pskov region. The stone Ilinskaya Church was built from a slab in the 15th century. Presumably, a more ancient temple stood here, because... in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow there is an icon of the holy prophet Elijah from the church in Vybuty, dated to the 13th century. The church stands on the banks of the Velikaya River. The bell tower is stone, in connection with the vestibule of the church. There are two altars in the church: the main one is in the name of the holy prophet of God Elijah, the side altar is in the name of St. Nicholas. There is a cemetery near the church. The church was closed at Soviet time. On December 15, 1927, the financial department of the Pskov district executive committee sent a letter to the district department of public education (OKRONO) stamped “Not subject to disclosure,” in which it announced its intention to “sell 14 pieces to Gospromtsvetmet different sizes bells from the closed Vybut Church.” In response, OKRONO said that “the sale of bells of non-museum significance can only be carried out by Glavnauka.” During the Great Patriotic War the church was damaged. In 1955-1957 it was restored according to the design of V.P. Smirnova. In 1999, services were resumed in the church.
temple near the village of Konechek(formerly Krivovichi churchyard) Pskov region. There is no information available when and by whom the church was built. In 1877, on the right side of the main church, a chapel was built in the name of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity. The church is surrounded by a cemetery, surrounded by a stone fence. The Ilyinskaya Church of the former Krivovichi churchyard was badly damaged during the military operations to liberate Pskov in 1944. Its ruins are located near the village of Konechek, Pskov region.
In the name of the prophet Elijah was consecrated Church in Teply Ryad in Moscow. The stone temple was built as a cathedral of the Ilyinsky Monastery, founded no later than the 15th century, next to the Moscow shopping area. From the name of this temple, Ilyinka Street was named, and the market began to be called Ilyinsky Sacrum. The construction of the temple was carried out from 1519 to 1521, “and it was built by ordinary people by someone named Klim, and nicknamed Muzhilo.” The church burned in 1547 and was damaged in a fire in 1626. The uprising of the townspeople on May 27, 1606 in Moscow against False Dmitry I began after the sound of the alarm on the bell tower of the monastery church of Elijah the Prophet, made on the orders of Shuisky. During the Time of Troubles, the monastery was abolished, the church became a parish church, and in 1676, along with the church land, it was transferred to the Novgorod bishop's house and was built as an upper church, where the throne was moved in honor of the Prophet Elijah. The ancient lower temple was consecrated in the name of the Apostle Timothy. The temple was closed in 1923, then dismantled upper tier bell towers. From 1930 to 1980, various institutions were located in the temple building. The building is a cultural heritage site of federal significance. Since 1995, services have resumed in the temple.
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Consecrated in honor of the prophet Elijah temple in the village Prussians of Kolomna district, Moscow region. The Prussian village was owned by the Sheremetev boyars. In the middle of the 16th century, the Bishop of Kolomna acquired it. At the same time, the tented Elias Church was built. It is mentioned in stone in the scribe books of 1578. The building was partially remodeled in the 1660s. In the first half of the 19th century, a brick refectory and a wooden bell tower “on pillars” were added to the west (now lost).
Also consecrated in the name of the prophet Elijah Church at the Vyya churchyard Arkhangelsk region , which was built in 1600.
Elias Church existed in the village of Chasovenskaya (Zadnaya Dubrova) in the Arkhangelsk region. Built and consecrated around 1622. In 1879 it was dismantled and a new temple was built on the stone foundation. In 1884, the bell tower was dismantled to its foundations and rebuilt on a stone foundation. IN Soviet years They sawed off the altar and brought down the tent. It is in disrepair.
Old Believers and Edinoverie churches in the name of the prophet Elijah
In honor of the Prophet Elijah, the Voskresensky district of the Moscow region was consecrated. A wooden one-domed church with a hipped bell tower, built in 1907–1909 by reconstructing an old wooden prayer house on the first floor. XIX century, was closed in 1937 and later broken down. In 2005, a community of believers was re-established, and in 2007–2008 a new wooden single-domed church was built.
Ilyinsky churches of the Russian Orthodox Church also exist in (Belarus), in the Ust-Koksinsky district Altai Territory, in Tbilisi, Tbilisi diocese of the Georgian Ancient Orthodox Church.
There is a company in Minsk (Belarus), founded in 2002.
Holy Prophet Elijah. Paintings
The Holy Prophet Elijah was depicted on their canvases by famous artists such as Gillies van Koningsloe, Peter Paul Rubens, Paul Gustave Dore, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, A.M. Volkov, P. Pleshanov, P.I. Neradovsky and others.
Folk traditions on Elijah's Day
On a fiery chariot, a mighty gray-haired old man with menacing eyes rides from end to end across the boundless heavenly fields, and his punishing hand rains fiery stone arrows from the heights above the stars, striking the frightened hosts of demons and sons of men who have transgressed the law of God. Wherever this formidable old man appears, he brings with him fire, horror, death and destruction. His unyielding heart will not be softened by the cries or groans of the afflicted, and the gaze of his menacing eyes will not stop at the sights of earthly misfortunes. Having fulfilled the justice of heaven, he, like a stormy whirlwind, rushes further and further in his sparkling chariot, and only gray curls scatter over his mighty shoulders, and a white, silver beard flutters in the wind. This, according to the views of the people, is the prophet Elijah, personifying the righteous wrath of God. Everywhere in Rus' he was called “formidable,” and everywhere the day dedicated to his memory was considered one of the most dangerous. In many places, peasants even fasted throughout Elijah Week in order to prevent the wrath of the prophet and save their fields, villages and livestock from his arrows. The peasants called the very day of the holiday “angry” and spent it in complete idleness, since even empty work was considered a great sin. If clouds appeared in the sky on this day, the people watched them with fear; if it came to a thunderstorm, then this fear turned into panic: the entire population hid in their houses, closed the doors tightly, curtained the windows and, lighting Thursday candles in front of the icon, begged the prophet to surrender his anger to mercy. In some regions, for example, in Nikolsk, Vologda province, peasants fumigated their house with incense in the evening, and all light objects, such as a samovar, a mirror and the like, were either covered with linen, or even taken out of the hut, on the grounds that the prophet Elijah considers such items to be reprehensible luxury, indecent in peasant life. In the Vyatka province, the prophet Elijah was propitiated with gifts: on this day the peasants brought a leg of a ram to the church “under the holy name”, bee honey, beer, ears of fresh rye and green peas. But there was disagreement on the question of which of these items most pleased Ilya. Some stood for bee honey, others argued for the superiority of lamb.
Public prayers performed in the field were considered the most reliable means of preventing Elijah’s anger. In many villages such prayers were performed annually. Attributing to the prophet Elijah the power to produce thunder and lightning and direct clouds at his own discretion, that is, putting into his hands the most terrible and at the same time the most beneficial forces of nature, our people firmly believed that the fertility of the earth is the work of the prophet, and that without his will it is impossible maybe a harvest. Therefore, the people imagined Elijah not only as a messenger of heavenly wrath, but also as a benefactor of the human race, giving the earth an abundance of fruits and driving away evil spirits. By popular belief, For evil spirits Not only Elijah himself is terrible, but even the rain that fell on his day has great power: with Elijah’s rain they washed themselves from the enemy’s slander, from attacks and enchantments. Elijah himself instilled panic, boundless horror into the demons: as soon as the roar of his chariot was heard in the sky, the devils ran in crowds to the boundaries, hid behind people’s backs or took refuge under hats poisonous mushrooms, popularly known as “yaruiki”.
There are many legends and traditions about the prophet Elijah. In almost every village you can listen to a story about some exceptional manifestation of the prophet’s wrath or mercy, about some miracle or heavenly sign: in almost every volost, in every district and province one could encounter new versions of old legends or come across a completely original legend of local origin. Here, for example, is what the peasants of the Oryol district and province told about the earthly life of the prophet Elijah: “Until the age of 33, the prophet Elijah sat and could not walk. His parents were poor people and uprooted stumps, feeding their crippled son with this work. One day the Lord walked along the earth with St. Nicholas the saint and, seeing Elijah, said: “Go, give us something to drink.” “I would be glad to give, but I can’t go,” answered Elijah. The Lord took him by the hand, and he rose from the ground himself. Then the Lord drew a full bucket of water from the well and told Ilya to drink, then he drew another one and half a third and asked him: “Well, how are you now?” “I can turn the whole world differently,” answered Elijah, “if there were a pillar in the middle of heaven and earth, I would destroy the whole earth.” Hearing these words, God was frightened and hastened to reduce Elijah’s strength by half and, moreover, ordered him to sit underground for 6 weeks. But then, when Elijah, having sat underground, came out into the light again (along with the prophet Onuphrius), the first thing he saw was the tomb. Elijah entered this tomb, and immediately a fiery chariot with angels descended from heaven, who rushed Elijah to heaven, presenting him before the face of the Lord. “You, Elijah,” said the Lord, “control this chariot until I come to earth, and let thunder and lightning be in your hands from now on.” According to popular belief, on this chariot, Elijah, before the end of the world, will descend to earth and travel three times from one end of the earth to the other, warning everyone about the Last Judgment. This Oryol legend already varies in some places, and the peasants say that the Lord placed a stone of 40 dessiatines on Elijah’s head to reduce his strength. This stone is still intact and stands in heaven before the throne of God.
Considering the prophet Elijah to be the ruler of the winds and rain clouds, peasants associate many calendar signs with the day of this saint. “Before Elijah,” they say, “the clouds walk with the wind, but from Elijah they begin to walk against the wind.” “Before Elijah, the priest will not beg for rain, but after Elijah, the woman will catch up with an apron.” “After Ilya’s day,” the Vologda residents say, “you won’t see a horse in a field - that’s how dark the nights are.” “From Ilya’s day the night is long: the worker wakes up, and the horses eat enough.” “The water has been getting cold since Ilya’s day.” In the Poshekhonsky district of the Yaroslavl province, the reason for the cooling of river waters after Elijah’s day was explained as follows: “The Prophet Elijah rides horses across the sky, and from fast running one of the horses loses a horseshoe, which falls into the water, and the water immediately gets colder.”
Agricultural signs are also associated with the day of Elijah: “If on this day it is cloudy in the morning, then sowing should be early and a bountiful harvest can be expected; if it’s cloudy at noon, sowing is average, and if in the evening, sowing is late and the harvest is bad.”
Thunder rolled across the sky, and the old women crossed themselves, cautiously glancing sideways at the clouds. “Elijah the Prophet rode in a chariot,” they can be heard whispering. Older people remember scenes like this. Who is he who shakes heaven and earth? Let's open the Bible and listen to what it tells us.
Israel in the darkness of paganism
900 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the wicked king Jeroboam reigned in Israel. For reasons of self-interest, he abandoned the true God, fell into idolatry and carried away the entire unfortunate people with him. Since then, a whole galaxy of kings of Israel worshiped idols. The inhabitants of the country suffered many troubles because of their wickedness. But the Lord, in His boundless mercy, did not abandon the apostates, but tried to return them to the true path, sending them prophets and denouncing paganism through their mouths. Among them, the most ardent fighter for the true faith was the prophet of God Elijah.
Birth of a new prophet
The Bible says that he was born in the east of Palestine, in the city of Tishbit. At the moment of his birth, his father, a priest, had a vision: he saw some men swaddling the baby with fire and putting flame into his mouth. This was a prediction that in his mature years the words of his sermons would be like fire, and he would mercilessly burn out wickedness among his compatriots who had fallen into sin. They named the newborn Elijah, which translated from Hebrew means “my God.” These words perfectly expressed his destiny to become a vessel of God’s grace.
Growing up, the prophet Elijah, as befits the son of a priest, led a pure and righteous life, retiring for long periods into the desert and spending time in prayer. And the Lord loved him, sending down everything he asked. The young man himself grieved endlessly in his soul, seeing around him the terrible bacchanalia of idolatry. The rulers and people made human sacrifices. Everything was mired in vice and debauchery. The true God was forgotten. Before his eyes, those rare righteous people who still remained in Israel and tried to condemn the dishonor were put to death. Elijah's heart was filled with pain.
Terrible accuser of wickedness
At that time, Jeroboam's successor, King Ahab, reigned in the country. He was also wicked, but his wife Jezebel was especially devoted to idols. She worshiped the Phoenician god Baal and instilled this faith in the Israelites. Pagan altars were built everywhere and temples were erected. The Prophet Elijah, defying mortal danger, went to the king and menacingly denounced him for all the iniquities he was committing, trying to convince their fathers of the truth of the one God. Seeing that the king’s heart was impenetrable to the truth, as proof of his words and to punish the apostates, he sent, by the power of God, a terrible drought across the entire country, from which the crops perished and famine began.
Speaking about the miracles shown by the saints during the period of their earthly life, one should pay attention to a very important detail: it is not they themselves who work miracles, since they are ordinary people during this period, but the Lord God acts with their hands. By virtue of their righteousness, they become a kind of transmission link between the Almighty and people. After death, while remaining in the Kingdom of God, the saints, through our prayers to them, can beg God to fulfill what they ask for.
The Prophet Elijah risked not only becoming a victim of the royal wrath, but also ordinary people die of starvation. However, God spared his life. The Lord led his prophet to a distant place where there was water and ordered a raven to bring him food. It is worth noting that, which is present in almost every Orthodox church, it is often depicted with a raven bringing food.
Miracles in Sarepta
The next miracle performed was the salvation from starvation of a poor widow from the city of Zarephath, where Elijah went at the command of God. Because the poor woman did not spare the last piece of bread for him, her meager supplies of food became inexhaustible by God’s power. When the widow’s son died of illness, the prophet Elijah, showing a new miracle, restored the boy’s life. His name was Jonah. The Bible tells about his amazing fate. Having matured over the years, the young man became an ardent zealot of the true faith. One day, heading on a ship to the city of Nineveh, where he was going to appeal to the inhabitants with a call to repent, he got into a storm and ended up overboard, where he was swallowed by a whale. But by the will of God, three days later Jonah was thrown out alive and unharmed. This stay in the belly of the whale and subsequent return to the world is a prototype of Christ's three-day resurrection.
Contest with the priests and the end of the drought
By the third year of drought, the last wells had already dried up. Death and desolation reigned everywhere. The merciful Lord, not wanting the tragedy to continue, ordered the prophet Elijah to go to King Ahab and convince him to turn away from worshiping demons. After three years of terrible disasters, even such a wicked man should have understood the destructiveness of idolatry. But the king’s mind became clouded from anger.
Then the holy prophet, in order to prove the truth of his God and turn the king and people of Israel away from idolatry, volunteered to compete with the priests of Baal. They accepted the challenge and built their own altar. The prophet began to call heavenly fire on them with prayers. The servants of Baal were four hundred and fifty, but the prophet Elijah was one. But only the prayer of the righteous man was heard, and his altar was illuminated with fire, and the efforts of the priests were in vain. They danced and stabbed themselves with knives - all in vain. The people praised the true God, and the disgraced priests were immediately executed. The people were clearly convinced that the messenger of God was right.
After this, the holy prophet Elijah, ascending Mount Carmel, offered a prayer to the Lord for the gift of rain. Before he had time to finish, the heavens opened and a noisy downpour poured onto the earth, watering the fields and gardens. Everything that happened was so impressive that even King Ahab repented of his errors and began to mourn his sins.
Visit of the Prophet Elijah by God
However, the embittered Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, set out to take revenge for her shame and ordered the death of the prophet. He was forced to hide in the desert. One day, exhausted from hunger and thirst, the prophet Elijah fell asleep. An Angel of God appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to direct his path to Mount Horeb and settle there in a cave. When Elijah woke up, he saw food and a jug of water in front of him. This was very useful, since the journey was forty days and forty nights.
Bitter experiences about the fate of his pagan people plunged the prophet Elijah into deep sadness. He was on the verge of despair, but the all-merciful Lord honored him with his visit on Mount Horeb and announced that the righteous had not yet dried up in the land of Israel, that He had preserved seven thousand of His faithful servants, that the time was near when King Ahab and his wife would perish. In addition, the Lord announced the name of the future king, who would destroy the entire family of Ahab. To top it all off, the prophet Elijah learned from the mouth of God the name of his successor, whom he should anoint as a prophet. After some time, the Almighty sent Elijah a disciple - the pious Elisha, who began to fight paganism just as zealously.
King Ahab's New Sin
Meanwhile, the wicked King Ahab again entered the path of sin. He liked the vineyard of an Israeli named Naboth, but when he tried to buy it, the king was refused. His proud heart could not bear such shame. Having learned about what had happened, Queen Jezebel, through her minions, slandered Naboth, accusing him of cursing both God and the king. The crowd stoned the innocent man, and Ahab became the owner of the vineyard. But his joy was short-lived. The Lord, through the mouth of His prophet Elijah, denounced the slanderer and predicted a quick death for him and his deceitful wife. Once again the king shed tears of repentance. Three years later he was killed. His wife and children survived the wicked man for a short time.
The descent of heavenly fire on the servants of King Ahaziah
After Ahab, his son Ahaziah reigned. Like his father, he worshiped Baal and others pagan gods. And then one day, having become seriously ill, he began to call on them for help. Having learned about this, the Prophet Elijah angrily condemned him and predicted his imminent death. Twice the angry king sent detachments of soldiers to seize Elijah, and twice fire came down from heaven and destroyed them. Only the third time, when the messengers fell on their knees before him, did the Prophet have mercy on them. After Elijah repeated his diatribe, Ahaziah died.
Ascension to Heaven Alive
Other miracles performed by Elijah the Prophet are also described in the Bible. One day, with a blow of his cloak, he stopped the waters, forced them to part, and crossed to the other side along the dry bottom in the same way as Joshua had done before.
Soon, at God's command, a miracle happened - the prophet Elijah was taken alive into heaven. The Bible describes how a fiery chariot suddenly appeared, drawn by flaming horses, and the prophet Elijah ascended to heaven in a whirlwind like lightning. His disciple Elisha witnessed the miracle. God's Grace passed to him from the teacher and with it the ability to work miracles. The prophet Elijah himself is still alive in the villages of paradise. The Lord protects him as His faithful servant. Proof of this can be his appearance in the flesh where he, in the presence of the holy apostles and Moses, talked with the transfigured Jesus Christ.
It should be noted that before him, only the righteous Enoch, who lived before the Great Flood, was taken to heaven alive. This fiery path in the clouds was the reason why thunderclaps were often associated with his name. The Prophet Elijah, whose life is mainly described in the Old Testament, is mentioned several times in the New. It is enough to recall the scene on Mount Tabor, where he appeared to the transfigured Jesus Christ along with Moses, as well as a number of other episodes.
Veneration of the Prophet Elijah in Rus'
Since then, as soon as the light of Orthodoxy shone in Rus', the prophet Elijah became one of the most revered. The first churches in his honor were erected during the time of Prince Askold and the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. This is largely explained by the fact that the first Christian missionaries on the banks of the Dnieper and Volkhov faced the same problems as the prophet Elijah in Palestine - they had to rescue the people from the darkness of paganism.
When there were summer droughts in Rus', religious processions went to the fields and asked him for help. There was no doubt: the holy prophet Elijah, whose prayer put an end to the three-year drought in Palestine, had the power to send rain to our land.
The Prophet Elijah and his miracles inspired many Russian rulers to create temples in his honor. In addition to the saints already mentioned, Prince Askold and Princess Olga, Prince Igor erected the Temple of Elijah the Prophet in Kyiv. Similar temples are also known in Veliky Novgorod and Pskov.
Temple of the Prophet Elijah in Obydensky Lane
Among those currently operating, the most famous is the Moscow one, whose photo is presented in our article. It is generally accepted that it was built in 1592. The place where the temple is now located is called Ostozhenka, and once it was called Skorod. The fact is that logs were floated here along the river, and it was convenient and quick to build here. It turned out to be a quick house. One day is “routine” and you’re done. This gave the name to the lanes running here.
The wooden church of Elijah the Prophet built in this place was one of the most revered in the city. During the Time of Troubles, in 1612, within its walls the Moscow clergy performed a prayer service, asking for help from the Lord God in expelling the Polish invaders from Moscow. Historical chronicles often mention religious processions to the church on days of drought, as well as on patronal feast days. Representatives of the highest clergy often conducted services there.
The stone building of the temple was erected in 1702, and for three hundred years the flow of pilgrims to it has not dried up. Even in difficult years for the church, its doors were not closed, although there were such attempts. It is known, for example, that the authorities intended to close the church immediately after the end of the liturgy on June 22, 1941. But the Lord did not allow this.
During the period of persecution of the church, the Temple of the Holy Prophet Elijah became a place where parishioners of many churches closed in the capital flocked. They brought with them not only what was saved from confiscation, but also many pious traditions that had been preserved since pre-revolutionary times. Thus, as the community grew, it became enriched spiritually.
With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', in 2010 the “Program 200” was launched in Moscow - a project to build two hundred Orthodox churches. As part of this program, in 2012 in Northern Butovo, at the intersection of Grina and Kulikovskaya streets, the construction of another temple in honor of the Old Testament prophet Elijah began. The building is currently under construction and services are being held in temporary premises. Despite the forced inconveniences, the parish life of the church is very rich. A consulting service has been organized, whose activists are ready to give comprehensive explanations on all issues related to church services. An Orthodox film club has been opened. In addition, there is a Sunday school for children and whole line sports sections. The Temple of Elijah the Prophet in Butovo will, without a doubt, become one of the prominent religious and cultural centers of our capital.
The image of the prophet Elijah today
Nowadays the church carries out extensive propaganda work Orthodox culture. Books are published, films are made. Among other materials, the publication “The Holy Prophet Elijah. Life". There is a lot of interesting things for children and adults there. Modern icon painters have created a gallery of works representing the acts of Saint Elijah. Following established canons, they creatively rethink the religious and moral meaning of the image.
It is also impossible not to remember that the holy prophet Elijah is the patron saint of the Russian airborne troops. Every year on August 2, solemn services are held in the churches of the Airborne Forces units. More than a thousand years ago, the light of Orthodoxy shone in Rus', and over these years, Elijah the Prophet, whose earthly life was spent in Palestine, became a truly Russian saint, an intercessor in troubles and an example of selfless Christian service to God.
Date of publication or update 11/01/2017
The story of the life and miracles of the prophet Elijah.
Prehistory.
From ancient times, the chosen people of God, having their origins from the twelve sons of Israel, constituted one kingdom, ruled indivisibly and solely by one king, starting from Moses and Joshua to Davin and Solomon. When, after the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam took over the kingdom, who turned out to be difficult for his subjects, for he burdened them with excessive taxes and work, severely punished them, even often sent them into exile, then ten tribes broke away from him and elected him as their king. the other was named Jeroboam. Jeroboam was formerly Solomon's servant.
One day Solomon wanted to put him to death for participating in the uprising, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt. After the death of Solomon, he returned to the land of Israel and was elected king of those Israeli tribes that broke away from Rehoboam. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Jerusalem over two tribes - Judah and Benjamin; Jeroboam, Solomon's servant, reigned over the ten tribes of Israel. The two tribes that remained faithful to the son of Solomon were called the kingdom of Judah, and the ten tribes that passed to the servant of Solomon made up the kingdom of Israel.
From the book Byzantine Icons of Sinai.
The tribes of Israel, although they were divided into two kingdoms, yet they all served one God, who created heaven and earth, and could not have another temple except the Jerusalem one, built by Solomon, or other priests except those appointed by God; therefore, people from the kingdom of Israel constantly went to Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice to the Lord their God. Seeing this, Jeroboam, the king of Israel, began to worry: “If these people always go to Jerusalem like this to worship God, they will want to go back to their first king, the son of Solomon, and they will kill me.”
Icon. Prophet Elijah. Gallery of icons.
Thinking about this, he began to look for ways to turn the Israelites away from Jerusalem. And he decided, first of all, to turn them away from God.
It is impossible, he said, to leave Jerusalem to them unless they first leave God.
Knowing that the people of Israel are easily inclined to idolatry, Jeroboam came up with such an insidious trick for their apostasy. He cast two young heifers out of gold, just as the ancient Israelites, upon leaving Egypt, carved a golden calf in the desert, which they worshiped instead of the true God. Having called all the people of Israel to him and pointing those gathered to those two heifers, Jeroboam said: “Israel! These are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Go no more to Jerusalem, but worship these gods.”
And he placed those heifers in various places: one in Bethel (southern Samaria), and the other in Dan (north Galilee), building beautiful temples for them and appointing priests for them; and even performed the duties of a priest himself. To further seduce sin-loving people, Jeroboam ordered that all sorts of lawlessness be committed in front of those calf-shaped idols cast from gold on the days of the holidays established in honor of them.
So the wicked king, for the sake of a temporary reign, himself fell away from God, and turned all ten tribes of Israel away from Him. After this, the king and other kings of Israel with all their subjects adhered to the same wicked idolatry as they had learned and become accustomed to under Jeroboam.
The most merciful Lord, who does not abandon the people who abandoned Him, but in His goodness seeks their conversion, sent His holy prophets to the Israelites so that they would expose errors and exhort them to get rid of the devil’s snares and return again to the worship of the true God. Among the prophets, in different times sent by God to Israel, was the great of the prophets, Saint Elijah.
Life and miracles.
According to reliable legends, the birthplace of the holy prophet of God Elijah was the country of Gilead in the eastern part of Palestine, and the city in which he was born was called Tishbite, which is why Elijah was nicknamed the Tishbite. Elijah came from the family of Aaron. The birth of Elijah was marked by a vision to his father, whose name was Shebakh. At the very time when Elijah’s mother was giving birth to him, Sheba saw white-shaped people talking to the baby, swaddling him with fire and feeding him, putting a flame of fire into his mouth. Frightened by such a vision, Sabah went to Jerusalem and told the priests about the vision. Then one of them, a perspicacious man, said to Savah:
Do not be afraid of the vision regarding your son, but know that that baby will be a vessel of God’s grace; his word will be like fire, strong and effective, his zeal for the Lord will be great, and his life will be pleasing to God, and he will judge Israel with weapons and fire.
Elijah received the upbringing that befits a young man from a priestly family; from the very youth Having surrendered himself to God, he loved virgin purity, in which he remained as an angel of God, immaculate before God, pure in soul and body. Loving to think about God, he often retired for silence to deserted places, where he talked for a long time with God in warm prayer towards him, blazing towards him, like a seraph, with fiery love. And Elijah himself was loved by God, just as God loves those who love Him.
And as a result of his life as an equal to the angels, Elijah acquired great boldness towards God: everything that Elijah asked of God, he received. Hearing and seeing, on the one hand, the iniquities committed in corrupt Israel: kings - perpetrating ungodly wickedness, judges and elders - acting untruthfully, the people - serving abominations of idols and stagnant in all sorts of spiritual and physical vices without fear and fear of God, bringing their sons and daughters as sacrifices to demons; and on the other hand, zealous worshipers of the true God, enduring all kinds of oppression and persecution, even death - about all this, the prophet of God was very heartbroken: he either mourned the death of so many countless human souls, or complained about the cruel persecution of the righteous; He especially grieved and suffered in soul over the dishonor inflicted on the true God by wicked people, and was more and more filled with zeal for the glory of God.
First of all, Elijah prayed to God to turn sinners to repentance. But since God requires voluntary conversion from sinful people, and the hard-hearted Israelis did not have such a desire for good, the prophet Elijah, who was very jealous of the glory of God and the salvation of people, asked God to punish the Israelis temporarily, so that at least by such means he would turn them away from wickedness. But knowing at the same time that the Lord, due to His love for mankind and long-suffering, was not quick to punish, Elijah, out of his great zeal for Him, dared to ask God to command him, Elijah, to punish the lawbreakers. The merciful Lord, like a loving father, did not want to sadden His beloved servant, who served Him filially and did not violate even His smallest commandment.
At that time, King Ahab reigned in Israel, having Samaria as his capital city. Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon. Jezebel, as a pagan, brought with her to her new fatherland the Sidonian idol, the god Baal (Baal is the main god among the Canaanite peoples). Ahab built a temple for him in Samaria, erected an altar for him there, he himself worshiped Baal as a god, and forced all the Israelites to bow to this idol.
And it was to this king that the prophet of God Elijah came and denounced him for the error that he, having abandoned the God of Israel, was bowing down to demons and, together with himself, was leading the entire people to destruction. Seeing that the king did not listen to his admonitions, the holy prophet added action to his words, handing over the enemy king and his subjects to punishment. He said:
The Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand! In these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except according to my word.
Having said this, Elijah left Ahab, and according to the word of the prophet, the sky closed and there was a drought: not a single drop of rain or dew fell on the ground. Due to the drought, there was a complete failure of the grain harvest, and famine ensued. For when one king sins, the wrath of God comes upon all his subjects (as before, as a result of the fall of David alone, the entire kingdom suffered). The prophet of God Elijah expected that Ahab, the king of Israel, having been punished, would realize his error, turn to God with repentance, and together with himself would turn the people who had been corrupted by him to the true path. But when Saint Elijah saw that Ahab, like Pharaoh, remained bitter, not only did not think of putting an end to wickedness, but, on the contrary, was sinking more and more into the abyss of evil, persecuting and even killing people who were pleasing to God with their lives, he continued the punishment for another and in the third year. At this time, the word of the first God-seer, the holy prophet Moses, said to Israel was fulfilled: “And your heavens, which are above your head, will become copper, and the earth under you iron,” because with the heaven closed, the earth had no moisture and did not produce any fruit.
Since the air was always hot, and every day there was intense heat from the scorching sun, all the trees, flowers and grass withered - the fruits died, the gardens, fields, and fields became completely empty, and there was no plowman or sower in them. The water in the springs has dried up, small rivers and streams have completely dried up, and in big rivers the amount of water decreased, the whole earth became waterless and dry, and people, livestock and birds died of hunger. Such punishment befell not only the kingdom of Israel, but also the surrounding countries. For when one house in the city catches fire, the fire spreads to neighboring houses. This happened in the heavenly realms: one nation of Israel incurred the wrath of God, and the whole universe suffered.
But all this happened not so much from the wrath of God, but from zeal for glory God's prophet and Elijah. For the most merciful and man-loving Lord, in His immeasurable goodness, seeing the misfortune of people and the death of animals, was already ready to send rain to the earth, but He refrained from doing so in order to fulfill the decision of Elijah, and so that the words of the prophet would not turn out to be false: “in these years There will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word."
The one who said this was so consumed by jealousy of God that he did not spare himself, for he knew that when the supply of food on earth was depleted, he, like all people, would have to endure hunger. But he neglected this, for he preferred to die of hunger rather than have mercy on unrepentant sinners who were at enmity against God.
What is the all-good God doing? He sends the prophet Elijah to some secluded place, far from human habitations, saying: “Turn to the east and hide by the stream Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan; from this stream you will drink, and I commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
The Lord did this so that Elijah would not die from hunger and so that, with the help of the ravens and the Horath stream, he would arouse in Elijah compassion for the people suffering and dying from hunger and thirst. Crows, in comparison with other birds, have a special property: they are very voracious and do not have a feeling of pity even for their chicks, for often the raven as soon as it hatches the chicks, leaves them in the nest, flying away to another place and dooming the chicks to death from hunger. Only the Providence of God, taking care of every creature, saves them from death. And every time the ravens, at the command of God, flew to the prophet and brought him food - bread in the morning, and meat in the evening, the conscience in Elijah - this inner voice of God in man - cried out to his heart: “Look, the ravens, being nature wild, tasty, voracious, not loving their chicks, as they care about your food: they themselves are hungry, but they bring food to you. You yourself are a man, you have no compassion for people, and you want to starve not only people, but also cattle and birds ".
Also, when after some time the prophet saw the stream dry, God said to him:
It’s time to have mercy on the tormented creature and send rain to it, so that you yourself don’t die of thirst.
But the zealot of God remained strong, he prayed to God that there would be no rain until the unpunished were punished, and until all the enemies of God perished on earth. Then again the Lord, wisely inclining His servant to mercy, sent him to Zarephath of Sidon, which was not under the authority of the king of Israel, to a poor widow, so that he would be convinced of the disaster he had caused not only to rich people and married people, but also to poor widows, who, not only during famine, but also during years of harvests of bread and all earthly abundance, often do not have daily food.
The Prophet, coming to the gates of this city, saw a widow carrying firewood, no more than two logs: for she had only a handful of flour in her tub and a little oil in a jug. Since Elijah was tormented by hunger, he asked the widow for a piece of bread. The widow, who told him about her extreme poverty recently, said that she wanted to cook for herself and for her son from the remaining flour into last time lunch, and then they will die of hunger. The man of God could have been moved by this and taken pity on all the poor widows suffering from hunger: but great jealousy for God conquered everything, and he did not show any mercy to the perishing creature, wanting to glorify the Creator and show the whole universe His almighty power. Having the gift of miracles from God through his faith, Elijah created such that the flour and oil in the widow’s house remained inexhaustible: and he ate from the widow until the famine ceased. The Prophet also resurrected the widow's deceased son through prayer combined with blowing three times on the deceased, as it is written about in the Word of God. “After this, the son of this woman, the mistress of the house, fell ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah: what do you and me, man of God? You came to me to remind me of my sins and to kill my son. And he said to her, Give me your son. And he took him from her hands, and carried him into the upper room where he lived, and laid him on his bed. And he cried to the Lord and said: Lord my God! Are you really a widow, with whom I am staying, will you do evil by killing her son? And prostrating himself over the boy three times, he cried out to the Lord and said: “Lord my God! Let the soul of this boy return to him!” And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of this boy returned to him, and he came to life. And Elijah took the boy, and brought him out of the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother, and Elijah said, “Look, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God.” and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true." (1 Kings 17:17-24)
There is a legend about this resurrected son of a widow, that his name was Jonah, that it was he who, having come of age, was awarded the prophetic gift and was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance; being swallowed up in the sea by a whale and thrown out by it three days later, he prefigured the three-day resurrection of Christ, as is narrated in detail in the prophetic book and in his life.
After three rainless and hungry years, the all-good God, seeing His creation completely destroyed on earth from hunger, had mercy and said to His servant Elijah: “Go, appear to Ahab; I want to have mercy on My creation and, at your word, send rain to the parched land, give it water.” and make it fruitful. Ahab is already inclined to repentance, is looking for you and is ready to obey you in everything that you command him."
The Prophet immediately went from Zarephath of Sidon to Samaria, the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel. King Ahab at that time had a housekeeper named Obadiah, his faithful servant and a God-fearing man. He hid one hundred prophets of the Lord from being killed by Jezebel, placing them in two caves, fifty in each, and feeding them with bread and water. Having called this steward to him, King Ahab (even before Elijah came to him) sent him to look for grass in the dried up streams, so that he would have something to feed the few horses and other livestock that were still alive. As soon as Obadiah left the city, he met the holy prophet Elijah, bowed to him to the ground and said that Ahab had carefully searched for him throughout his entire kingdom. Saint Elijah answered Obadiah: “Go, tell your master: “Elijah is here.”
Obadiah refused, saying: “When I leave you, then the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away, I don’t know where; and if I go to notify Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me.”
Elijah answered: “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand! Today I will show myself to him!”
Obadiah returned and told the king. Ahab hastened to meet the man of God. When he saw Elijah, because of the anger hidden in him towards the prophet, he could not restrain a cruel word and said to Elijah: “Are you the one who troubles Israel?”
The Prophet of God fearlessly answered Ahab: “It is not I who trouble Israel, but you and your father’s house, because you have despised the commandment of the Lord and are following the Baals.”
After this, the prophet of God, having within himself the power of Divine help, ordered the king: “Now go and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel and four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of the oak forests, eating from the table of Jezebel.”
Immediately the king, having sent messengers throughout the entire land of Israel, gathered countless people, and called all the wicked prophets and priests to Mount Carmel and came there himself.
Then the zealot of God, Elijah, addressed the king and the entire Israeli people with these words: “How long will you limp on both knees? If the Lord is God, then follow Him, and if Baal, then follow him.”
The people were silent, and could not answer anything, for every Israeli was convicted of error by his conscience. Then Elijah continued: “I am the only prophet of the Lord left, and the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty people; let them give us so many bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it up and put it on the firewood, but let them not add fire, and I will prepare another the bullock and put it on wood, but I will not put fire: and you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord my God. The God who gives the answer through fire is God.”
Having heard these words, all the people approved the decision of the prophet of God and said: “So be it, your word is good.”
When the bullocks were brought into the middle of the meeting, Saint Elijah said to the wicked prophets of Baal: “Choose one bullock for yourself, and you will be the first to prepare the sacrifice, for you are many, and I am alone, and I will prepare it after. Having laid the bullock on the wood, do not light the fire, but pray to your god Baal that he may send fire from heaven and burn your sacrifice.”
The shameless prophets did just that. Having cast lots, they took the calf, built an altar, put a sufficient amount of wood on it, slaughtered the calf, divided it into parts, placed their altar on top of the wood and began to pray to their Baal to send fire on their sacrifice. They called on his name from morning until noon, shouting: “Listen to us, Baal, listen!”
But there was no voice, no answer. They began to jump around the altar, but all in vain. At noon, the prophet of God laughed at them: “Shout louder,” he said, “so that your God will hear you; he must be not free now: either he is busy with something, or he is talking with someone, or he is feasting, or he has fallen asleep; shout like as loud as possible to wake him up."
The false prophets called Baal with a loud voice and, according to their custom, stabbed themselves with knives, while others beat themselves with whips until they bled. Before evening came, Saint Elijah the Tishbite said to them: “Be silent and stop; it is time for my sacrifice.”
The worshipers of Baal stopped. Then Elijah, turning to the people, said: “Come to me!”
Everyone approached him. The prophet took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of Israel, built an altar to the Lord from them, then, covering the altar with firewood, divided the calf into parts, placed them on the firewood around the altar, dug a ditch and ordered the people to take four buckets and pour water on the sacrifice and for firewood; so they did. Elijah ordered it to be repeated; repeated. He ordered the same thing to be done a third time, and they did it. Water flowed around the altar and the trench filled with water. And Elijah cried out to God, turning his gaze to heaven, saying: “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Hear me, Lord, hear me now in the fire! And send fire from heaven for the sacrifice, so that all these people will now know that "You are the only God of Israel, and I am Your servant, and I have offered this sacrifice to You! Hear me, O Lord, answer me with fire, so that the hearts of these people will turn to You!"
And fire fell from the Lord from heaven and destroyed everything that was burned - wood, stones, ashes, and even the water that was in the ditch - the fire consumed everything.
At the sight of this, the people fell face down on the ground, crying out: “The Lord is God!”
Elijah said to the people: “Seize the prophets of Baal, so that not one of them escapes.”
The people fulfilled his order, and Elijah took them to the stream Kishon, and slaughtered them there, and threw their wicked corpses into the water so that the earth would not be desecrated by them and so that the air would not be infected with the stench from them. After this, Saint Elijah ordered King Ahab to quickly drink and eat and harness the horses to the chariot to set off, because soon there would be a big rain that would wet everything.
When Ahab sat down to eat and drink, Elijah went up Mount Carmel. Bending down to the ground, he put his face between his knees and prayed to God and to send rain to the earth. Immediately, through his prayer, the heavens opened, as if with a key, and a great rain fell, which wetted everyone and gave the thirsty earth plenty to drink. Then Ahab, realizing his error, mourned his sins on the way to Samaria. Saint Elijah, having girded his loins, walked on foot ahead of him, rejoicing in the glory of the Lord his God.
The wicked queen, Ahab's wife, Jezebel, having learned about what had happened, was terribly angry with Elijah, and, swearing by her gods, sent to tell him that tomorrow at the very hour at which Elijah killed the prophets of Baal, she would kill him. Saint Elijah was afraid of death, for he was a man with all the infirmities characteristic of people, as it is said about him: “Elijah was a man like us.” Because of Jezebel's threats, he fled to Beersheba, in the kingdom of Judah, and went into the desert alone. After a day's travel, he sat down under a juniper bush to rest. Tormented by sadness, he began to ask God for death for himself: “Enough already, Lord; take my soul, for I am no better than my fathers.”
The Prophet said this not out of grief from persecution against him, but as a zealot of God, who does not tolerate human malice, the dishonor of God and the reproach of the Most Holy Name of the Lord: for him it was easier to die than to hear and see the lawless, despising and rejecting their God. With such a prayer on his lips, Elijah lay down and fell asleep under a tree. And then an angel of the Lord touched him, saying: “Rise, eat and drink.”
Having risen, Elijah saw warm unleavened bread and a jug of water at his head, got up, ate, drank water and fell asleep again. The angel of the Lord touched him a second time, saying: “Rise, eat and drink, for a long road is before you.”
Elijah got up again, ate more, drank water, and, refreshed with this food, walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God Horeb, where he settled in a cave. Here his interlocutor was the Lord God Himself, Who appeared to him in a light whirlwind, quietly blowing in clean air. When the Lord approached him, terrible signs of His appearance preceded him: first there was a strong storm, destroying mountains and breaking rocks, then there was fire, the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire - a breath of light wind; here was the Lord. When Elijah heard the passage of the Lord, he covered his face with his cloak, and leaving the cave, he stood near it. He heard the Lord saying to him: “Why are you here, Elijah?”
Elijah answered: “I am jealous of the Lord, the God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, destroyed your altars and killed your prophets with the sword; I am left alone, but they are also looking for my soul to take it away.”
The Lord, comforting Elijah in his sorrow, revealed to him that not all the people of Israel had abandoned Him, but He had seven thousand His secret servants who did not bow their knees to Baal. At the same time, the Lord announced to Elijah about the imminent destruction of Ahab and Jezebel and their entire house and commanded Elijah to appoint a worthy man named Jehu to the kingdom of Israel, who would destroy the entire family of Ahab, and to anoint Elisha as a prophet. So, having consoled His servant, the Lord departed from him.
The saint of God, at the command of the Lord, left Horeb, and on the way he met Elisha, the son of Saphat, plowing the land with twelve pairs of oxen; Having laid his cloak on him, Saint Elijah declared the will of the Lord to him, called him a prophet and ordered him to follow him.
Elisha said to Elijah, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you.”
Saint Elijah did not prevent this. Elisha, having come home, slaughtered a pair of oxen, which he himself had plowed, gave a treat to neighbors and relatives, and then, saying goodbye to his parents, went to Elijah and began to serve him.
At this time, King Ahab, under the influence of his wicked wife Jezebel, added new ones to his previous iniquities.
An Israelite named Naboth had a vineyard near King Ahab's property in Samaria. Ahab suggested to Naboth: "Give me your vineyard, from it I will have vegetable garden, for it is close to my house, and instead of it I will give you a better vineyard than this, or, if you wish, I will give you the amount of silver it is worth.”
Naboth answered: “The Lord preserve me, so that I may give you the inheritance of my fathers!”
Ahab returned to his house, embarrassed and offended by Naboth's answer, and could not eat bread out of frustration. Jezebel, having learned the reason for it, laughed at him: “Is this really your power, King of Israel, that you are not able to show your will even on one person? But stop grieving, eat the bread and wait a little: I myself will give the vineyard into your hands.” Naboth."
Having said this, she wrote an order on behalf of the king to the oldest citizens of Israel and attached the royal seal to it. It was written that they should bring a false accusation against Naboth, that he had slandered God and the king, and, presenting false witnesses, stone him outside the city. And that unjust murder was committed on an unlawful order. After the execution of the innocent Naboth, Jezebel said to Ahab: “Now inherit the vineyard without money, for Naboth is no longer alive.”
Ahab, having heard about the murder of Naboth, was a little saddened, and then went to the vineyard to take it into his own possession (The estate of those executed for crimes against the king went to the benefit of the king). On the way, at the command of God, the holy prophet Elijah met him and said to him: “Since you unjustly killed the innocent Naboth and illegally took possession of his vineyard, therefore the Lord says: in the very place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick and your blood; also your wife Jezebel will be eaten up by dogs, and your whole house will be destroyed."
Ahab, hearing these words, began to cry, took off his royal clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and imposed a fast on himself. And Ahab's small repentance before the Lord had such force that the execution of the appointed punishment for the whole house was postponed until Ahab died. For the Lord said to His prophet Elijah: “Do you see how Ahab humbled himself before Me? I will not bring trouble in his days; in the days of his son I will bring trouble upon his house.”
After this, Ahab lived for three years and was killed in battle with the Syrian king Benhadad. From the scene of the battle he was taken by chariot to Samaria, and the blood flowing from the chariot was licked by dogs, as the prophet of God had predicted. Likewise, everything that was predicted about Jezebel and the entire house of Ahab was later fulfilled in due time, after the taking of Saint Elijah into heaven.
After the death of Ahab, his son Ahaziah reigned, who turned out to be the heir to both the throne and his father’s wickedness, for, listening to the wicked mother Jezebel, he worshiped and made sacrifices to Baal, which greatly angered the God of Israel. One day, due to carelessness, Ahaziah fell from the window of his house and became very ill. He sent envoys to Baal, who lived in the idol Baalom and gave false answers to those who approached him with questions. He sent to that demon to ask about his health, whether he would recover from his illness. When the ambassadors of Ahaziah were going to Baal, on the way, at the command of God, the prophet Elijah appeared before them and said: “Is there no God in Israel, why are you going to ask Baal? Return and tell the king who sent you - this is what the Lord says: from your bed, on which you lie down, you will not rise up, but you will die on it.”
Having returned, the messengers conveyed these words to the sick king. The king asked them: “What is the appearance of the man who came out to meet you?”
They answered: “That man is covered in hair and is girded with a leather belt around his loins.”
The king said, "This is Elijah the Tishbite."
And he sent the oldest captain of fifty and with him fifty men to take Elijah and bring him to him. They went and saw Elijah on Mount Carmel, for he was accustomed to dwell primarily on this mountain. Seeing Elijah sitting at the top of the mountain, the captain of the fifty said to him: “Man of God, the king says: come down.”
Saint Elijah answered the commander of fifty: “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and burn you and your fifty.”
And immediately fire fell from heaven and set them on fire. The king sent another captain of fifty with the same number of people, but the same thing happened to them: fire falling from the sky set them on fire. The king sent the third captain of fifty with fifty men. This captain of fifty, having learned what had happened to those sent before him, came to Saint Elijah with fear and humility, and falling on his knees before him, begged him, saying: “Man of God! Here I and these thy servants who came with me stand before you; have mercy on us: we did not come of our own free will, but were sent to you; do not destroy us with fire, as you destroyed those sent before us.”
And the prophet spared those who came in humility; He did not spare those who came before because they came with pride and power, they wanted to take him as a prisoner and lead him with dishonor. The Lord commanded Saint Elijah to go with these others fearlessly and tell the king the same thing that he had said before. Having come to the king, Elijah said to him: “Thus says the Lord: since you sent to ask Baal about your life, as if there was no God in Israel whom you could ask, then for this you will not rise from the bed on which you lie, but you will die."
And Ahaziah died according to the word of God spoken by the lips of the prophets. After Ahaziah, his brother Joram took over the kingdom, because Ahaziah had no sons. On this Jehoram the line of Ahab ceased, having been destroyed by the wrath of God in the days of the holy prophet Elisha, as it is written about in his life.
When the time approached at which the Lord determined to take Elijah alive in the flesh, Elijah and Elisha walked from the city of Gilgal to the city of Bethel. Knowing from the revelation of God about the approaching hour, Elijah wanted to leave Elisha in Gilgal, humbly hiding from him his upcoming glorification from God. He said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to Bethel.” Saint Elisha, who also knew by the revelation of God about the upcoming miracle, answered: “As the Lord lives and as your soul lives! I will not leave you” - and both went to Bethel. The sons of the prophets who lived in Bethel, coming to Elisha alone, said to him: “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master and exalt him above your head?”
After this, Elijah said to Elisha: “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to Jericho.”
Elisha answered him: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you,” and they both came to Jericho.
The sons of the prophets, who were in Jericho, approached Elisha and said to him: “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master and exalt him above your head?”
Elisha answered: “I know the same thing, be silent.”
Saint Elijah said to Elisha: “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.”
Elisha said: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you,” and they went together. Following them at a distance from them went fifty men of the sons of the prophets; when both prophets reached the Jordan, Elijah took his sword, rolled it up and struck the water with it; the water parted on both sides, and they both passed through the Jordan River on dry ground.
Having crossed the Jordan, Elijah said to Elisha: “Ask what you can do before I am taken from you.”
Elisha answered: “Let the spirit that is in you be doubly upon me.”
Elijah said: “You are asking a difficult thing. If you see me taken from you, it will be so for you, but if you don’t see it, it will not be.”
As they walked and talked like this, suddenly a chariot and horses of fire appeared and separated them from each other, and Elijah was taken into heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha looked and exclaimed: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and his cavalry!” (With these words he seemed to be saying: you, father, were all the strength for Israel: with your prayer and zeal you helped the kingdom of Israel much more than a great many war chariots and armed horsemen helped it). Elisha no longer saw Elijah.
Then he took hold of his clothes and tore them in grief. Soon Elijah's cloak, thrown from above, fell at his feet. Having picked him up, Elisha stopped on the bank of the Jordan, and, like Elijah, dividing the water on both sides, he crossed the dry land and became the heir of the grace that acted in his teacher. The holy prophet of God Elijah, taken together with his flesh to heaven on a fiery chariot, is still alive in the flesh, preserved by God in the villages of paradise. He was seen by the three holy apostles during the Transfiguration of the Lord on Tabor, and ordinary mortal people will see him again before the second coming of the Lord to earth. He who escaped death from the sword of Antichrist, and not only as a prophet but also as a martyr, will be awarded in the ranks of the saints greater than now, honor and glory from the righteous rewarder of God, in the three Persons of One, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to whom be honor and glory now , and ever and ever. Amen.
(Based on the book "The Holy Prophet Elijah" by Tabernacle Publishing House)
There are few saints in whose lives the destinies of the Old and New Testaments are so closely intertwined, as in the prophet Elijah. Born nine centuries before the coming of Christ the Savior into the world, the prophet Elijah saw the glory of His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Matthew 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30). The holy prophet was the first in the Old Testament to perform the miracle of resurrecting the dead (1 Kings 17:20-23), and he himself was taken alive to Heaven, thereby prefiguring the coming Resurrection of Christ and the general destruction of the dominion of death. His ardent call to repentance and menacing denunciations were addressed to his contemporaries, his compatriots, mired in wickedness and idolatry. The inhabitants of the Earth will hear the same accusations and call to repentance before the Second Coming of Christ, when many, having deviated from true faith and piety, will live in the darkness of errors and vices. Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Church, the holy prophet Elijah is revered for his indestructible firmness of faith, the impeccable severity of his virgin life, and his fiery zeal for the glory of God. He is often compared to “the greatest of those born of women,” the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, about whom it is said that he came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17).
The holy prophet Elijah was born in the 10th century BC in Thesbia of Gilead and came from the tribe of Levi. According to legend, his father Sovakh, at the birth of his son, saw how bright angels talked with the baby, swaddled him with fire and fed him with a fiery flame. From a young age, Saint Elijah retired to the deserted Mount Carmel, where he grew and strengthened spiritually, spending his life in strict fasting, prayer and contemplation of God.
After the death of King Solomon, the state was divided into two kingdoms - the Kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria. And if in Judea the former piety was preserved to some extent, then the kingdom of Israel very quickly deviated from the faith of its fathers to serving the pagan gods. Impiety especially increased under King Ahab, whose wife Jezebel, being a pagan, vigorously propagated the cult of the idol of Baal.
The holy prophet Elijah, zealous for the glory of the True God, entered public service as a formidable and bold denouncer of the sharp increase in idolatry and moral depravity. He announced to the king that, as punishment for the iniquities of the Israelites, there would be neither rain nor dew for a long time, and this disaster would end only through the prayer of the prophet (1 Kings 17:1). Ahab did not listen to the prophetic voice and did not repent. Then the terrible sentence of Saint Elijah was carried out - for three and a half years the people of Israel suffered from heat, drought and famine. The prophet himself, by the command of God, took refuge from the wrath of his fellow tribesmen and the persecution of Ahab in a secluded place near the stream Horath, where every morning and every evening ravens brought him food - bread and meat. According to the explanation of St. John Chrysostom, the Lord commanded the ravens to take care of the prophet’s food in order to teach him to be more merciful and lenient. “Look, Elijah,” says the saint, as if on behalf of God Himself, “at their (the ravens’) love for mankind; those who do not have love for their own chicks serve you as if they were hospitable... Imitate the change of the ravens, and be lenient towards the Jews.”
About a year later, when the stream of Horath dried up, the Lord sent the prophet Elijah to the small Phoenician city of Zarephath of Sidon to a poor widow who, along with her family, was in dire need. The Prophet Elijah, wanting to test the faith and virtue of the widow, ordered her to bake bread for him from the last remnants of flour and butter. The widow fulfilled the command, and her selflessness did not go unrewarded: according to the word of the prophet, there is flour and oil in this house miraculously constantly replenished during all times of famine and drought. Soon the Lord sent a new test of the widow’s faith: her son died. In inconsolable grief, she decided that the holiness of the prophet Elijah, incompatible with her sinful life, became the cause of the boy’s death. Instead of answering, the holy prophet took her dead son in his arms and, after three times intense prayer, resurrected him (1 Kings 17, 17-24).
After three years of drought, the Lord sent Saint Elijah to Ahab to announce the end of the disaster. At the same time, the prophet ordered the king to conduct a “test of faith.” All the inhabitants of Israel and all the priests of Baal gathered on Mount Carmel. When two altars were built, Saint Elijah invited the priests of Baal to pray to their gods for fire to descend from heaven onto the sacrifice. The priests prayed all day, but there was no fire. Then the holy prophet Elijah ordered to pour a large amount of water on the altar he had prepared, so that it filled the entire ditch around the altar. Then he turned with fervent prayer to the True God and immediately fire came down from heaven and burned the sacrifice and even the stone altar and the water around it. Seeing this, the people fell to the ground in fear and exclaimed: “Truly the Lord is God!” (3 Kings 18, 39). The prophet Elijah ordered the capture of the priests of Baal and killed them at the stream of Kissova. Through the saint’s prayer, the sky opened and it began to rain.
Despite the prophet’s ardent zeal and the abundance of God’s grace that strengthened him, he was not alien to natural human weakness, especially manifested in the Old Testament, before the coming of the Savior. The Prophet Elijah, after a miracle on Mount Carmel, expected Israel to turn to God, but it happened differently. Jezebel's hardened heart burned with anger and she threatened to kill the prophet for exterminating the priests of Baal. The weak-willed Ahab, who repented of the terrible sign, took the side of his wife, and the prophet Elijah had to flee to the south of Judea, to Bathsheba. All his efforts to eradicate wickedness seemed helpless to him, and in great sadness he went into the desert and there he cried out to God: “Enough already, Lord, take my soul, for I am no better than my fathers” (3 Kings 19:4). The Lord consoled the saint with a vision of an Angel, who strengthened him with food and commanded him to go on a long journey. The prophet Elijah walked for 40 days and 40 nights and, having reached Mount Horeb, settled in a cave. Here the Lord, with a special vision, again called him to be more merciful. In sensory images - a storm, an earthquake and fire - the meaning of his prophetic ministry was revealed to him. To contrast with these visions, the Lord appeared to him in the breath of a quiet wind, making it clear that the hearts of sinners are softened and turned to repentance more by the action of God’s mercy, and the formidable manifestations of God’s power are more likely to lead to horror and despair. In the same vision, the Lord revealed to the prophet that he was not the only one who worshiped the True God: there were still seven thousand people in Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal. At the command of God, the prophet Elijah again went to Israel to consecrate Elisha to the prophetic ministry.
The holy prophet Elijah came to the court of the Israeli kings twice more. The first time was to expose Ahab for the illegal murder of Naboth and the appropriation of his vineyard (1 Kings 21). Hearing the prophet’s reproof, Ahab repented and humbled himself, and for this God softened His anger. The second time - to expose the new king Ahaziah, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, for the fact that in his illness he turned not to the True God, but to the Ekron idol. The holy prophet predicted to Ahaziah the fatal outcome of his illness for such unbelief, and soon the prophet’s word came true (2 Kings, 1).
For his fiery spiritual zeal for the glory of God, the prophet Elijah was taken alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire. His disciple Elisha witnessed this ascent and, together with the mantle of Saint Elijah that fell from the chariot, received a prophetic gift twice as great as that of the prophet Elijah.
According to Church tradition, the prophet Elijah, together with the forefather Enoch, who was also taken alive to Heaven (Genesis 5:24), will be the Forerunner of the Second Coming of Christ to Earth. For three and a half years, Saints Enoch and Elijah will preach repentance and perform many miracles. With their preaching they will convert people to the true faith. They will be given the power, as during the earthly life of the prophet Elijah, to “shut the heavens so that it will not rain in the days of their prophecy” (Rev. 11:6). After three and a half years of their preaching, the Antichrist will fight with them and kill them, but by the power of God they will be resurrected after three and a half days.
Iconographic tradition often depicts the holy prophet Elijah ascending to Heaven on a fiery chariot.
The Russian Orthodox people have always treated the memory of the holy prophet Elijah with reverence. He was revered by the Slavs even in the pre-Christian era of ours national history. The first temple in Kyiv, even under Prince Igor (before the Baptism of Rus), was dedicated to the holy prophet Elijah; in the chronicle of St. Nestor this temple is called cathedral, that is, the main one. In Constantinople, where there were many Varangian-Russians in the service of the Greek emperors until the 10th century, a church was also built in the name of the prophet Elijah, which was intended for baptized Russian people, as is known from the agreement between the Kievites and the Greeks in 944.
After the Baptism of Rus' in 988, Elias churches began to be erected in large numbers throughout the country. Since ancient times, the believing Russian people have revered the holy prophet Elijah as the patron saint of the harvest, and therefore with special zeal and love they turn to the saint of God on the day of his memory with a prayer for the blessing of the new harvest. The depth of veneration for the holiday of the prophet Elijah is evidenced by handwritten church calendars (calendars), in which this holiday is called “the holy ascension of the prophet Elijah” or “the fiery ascension of the holy prophet Elijah.” Usually on the day of the holiday, processions of the cross and blessing of water are held in the places where the Elias churches are located.
The following is known from Russian history about the history of the establishment of one of these religious processions. In 1664, Moscow and its environs suffered a terrible drought, which lasted from May 15 to July 20 (old style). The authenticity of this event is confirmed by historical evidence.
The disaster that occurred prompted Muscovites to fervent nationwide prayer, and the residents of Moscow decided to especially honor that saint, on whose memorial day the drought would end and the rain would fall. On July 20, heavy rain began, the earth came to life and many people thanked God for his mercy. Seeing in this event the providence of God and the bold prayers of the holy prophet Elijah, it was decided to carry out a procession from the Assumption Cathedral to the church of the prophet Elijah on Voronkovo Field. When establishing this religious procession, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich said: “Just as the prophet Elijah once sent down rain on the fields of the kingdom of Israel, just as now that prophet has irrigated the parched fields of the Russian state.”
Elijah the Prophet Day is a holiday of believers, which is usually celebrated on August 2. The saint is considered a kind of mediator between God and people. In ancient times, people respected and feared Ilya, because he could punish by sending lightning. There are many different signs, traditions, etc. associated with this holiday. Believers also read prayers to St. Elijah the Prophet, which help to resolve various situations favorably. It is best to have an icon of the saint in your home, which can be purchased at a church shop.
What do they pray to Elijah the Prophet for?
This saint is considered a heavenly patron who has the power to control rain, lightning and thunderstorms. He could punish with showers bad people, destroying the crops on their lands. At all times, peasants turned to the Prophet for his blessing to cultivate their lands. If there were fears about the richness of the harvest, they asked Elijah to send rain. On August 2, young and single girls turned to Elijah the Prophet to find their soulmate, get married successfully and be happy. In general, it is believed that you can turn to the saint with any question, such as problems with money or health. Many believers claim that prayer requests to the Prophet more than once helped them avoid sudden death.
There are different prayers before the icon of Elijah the Prophet, which can be read both in church and at home. If a believer chooses the first option, then it is worth considering some rules. Go to the temple with an open heart and good intentions. Before entering, be sure to give to people in need. When entering the temple, cross yourself and bow. After this, go to the icon of Elijah the Prophet and light a candle in front of the image. Free yourself from extraneous thoughts and concentrate on your request. If you pray at home, then place the icon in front of you and light a candle next to it. Again, concentrate on your request and read the prayer, and it sounds like this:
“Oh, holy prophet of God Elijah, pray for us, the Lover of God, that He may give us, the servants of God (names), a spirit of repentance and contrition for our sins, and by His omnipotent grace help us to abandon the paths of wickedness and to succeed in every deed of grace, and in the fight against our passions and lusts, may he strengthen us; May the spirit of humility and meekness, the spirit of brotherly love and kindness, the spirit of patience and chastity, the spirit of zeal for the glory of God and good care for our salvation and our neighbors, implant into our hearts.
Turn away from us by your intercession the righteous wrath of God, so that having lived in peace and piety in this world, we will be worthy of the participation of eternal blessings in the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him befits honor and worship, with His Beginning Father and the Most Holy Spirit, forever centuries. Amen".
If the weather has been sunny for a long time and the harvest is suffering, then you can turn to the saint for help, for which read the prayer to Elijah the Prophet for rain:
“O great and glorious prophet of God Elijah, for the sake of your zeal for the glory of the Lord God Almighty, you did not tolerate the idolatry and wickedness of the children of Israel, you denounced the lawless king Ahab and, as a punishment for them, a three-year famine on the land of Israel, through your prayer you asked from the Lord, yes, rejecting vile idols and having retreated from untruths and iniquities, they will turn to the One True God and the fulfillment of His holy commandments, wonderfully nurturing the widow of Sarepta during the famine and resurrecting her son after she died through your prayer, and after the passage of the appointed time of famine, the people of Israel were gathered to Mount Carmel for apostasy and wickedness, reproaching , the same prayer for your sacrifice, asking for fire from heaven and miraculously turning Israel to the Lord, disgracing and killing the cold prophets of Baal, and then again resolving the sky with prayer and asking for abundant rain on the earth and making the people of Israel rejoice!
To you, wonderful servant of God, we zealously resort to you, sinners and humility, languishing in the rainlessness and heat: we confess that we are unworthy of God’s mercy and blessings, but more worthy than the cruel punishments of His wrath, sorrow and need and all sorts of evils and diseases.
We did not walk in the passion of God and in the ways of His commandments, but in the lusts of our corrupted hearts we created countless types of sin; Our iniquity has surpassed our head, and we are not worthy to appear before the face of God and look into heaven.
We confess that we, like ancient Israel, have apostatized from the Lord our God, if not by faith, then by our iniquities, and if we do not worship Baal and other vile idols, then we are servile to our passions and lusts, serving the idol of gluttony and lust, the idol of greed and ambition, the idol of pride and vanity, and follow the ungodly foreign customs and the destructive spirit of the times.
We confess that for this reason heaven was closed and created like copper, as if our heart was closed with mercy and true love for our neighbor; For this reason, the earth has hardened and become barren, because we do not bring to our Lord the fruits of good deeds; for this reason there is no rain and dew, as if the imams are not the tears of tenderness and the life-giving dew of the thought of God; For this reason, every grain and herb has withered away, as if every good feeling has dried up in us; For this reason, the air is darkened, just as our mind is darkened with cold thoughts and our heart is defiled with lawless lusts.
We confess that you, the prophet of God, have asked unworthy of us.
You, having become a servile man to us, became like an angel in your life and, as if incorporeal, you were caught up into heaven, but we, with our cold thoughts and deeds, became like dumb cattle and created our soul like flesh. You surprised angels and men with fasting and vigil, but we, indulging in intemperance and lust, become like senseless cattle.
You burned with the utmost zeal for the glory of God, but we neglect the glory of our Creator and Lord and are ashamed to confess His venerable Name.
You have eradicated wickedness and evil customs, but we are slaves to the spirit of this age, supplying the ungodly customs of the world more than the commandments of God and the statutes of the Holy Church.
And what sin and untruth have we not committed?
Our iniquities exhaust the long-suffering of God.
Moreover, the just Lord was angry with us and punished us in His anger. Moreover, knowing your great boldness before the Lord and trusting in your love for the human race, we dare to pray to you, most praiseworthy prophet: be merciful to us, unworthy and indecent.
Pray to the Greatly Gifted and All-Bountiful God, may he not be completely angry with us and not destroy us with our iniquities, but may he bring abundant and peaceful rain to the thirsty and parched land, may he grant it fruitfulness and the goodness of the air. By your effective intercession, bow to the mercy of the Heavenly King, if not for the sake of us, sinners and vile ones, but for the sake of His chosen servants, who have not bowed their knees before the Baal of this world, for the sake of gentle and senseless babies, for the sake of dumb cattle and birds of the air, suffering for our iniquity and melting away from hunger, heat and thirst.
Ask us with your favorable prayers from the Lord for the spirit of repentance and heartfelt tenderness, the spirit of meekness and self-control, the spirit of love and patience, the spirit of the fear of God and piety, so that, having returned from the paths of wickedness to the right path of virtue, we walk in the light of God’s commandments and achieve those promised to us good, by the good will of the Beginning God the Father, by the love of His Only Begotten Son and by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen".
Prayer to Elijah the Prophet for money
If you have financial problems, then you can turn to the saint to help correct this situation. To perform the ritual, take a coin of 5 kopecks and throw it on the floor, and then say the following words:
“Ilya, generous, be generous,
Grant me prosperity and wealth for my family,
I have an irreplaceable nickel,
Let that nickel give me more than one ten,
Your dozens will give me financial wealth.
Perun the Thunderer dragged away poverty and failure,
And Elijah the Prophet brought prosperity and luck to my family.
Amen".
After this, pick up the coin and keep it in your home, placing it on any banknote. The result is a talisman that will attract material wealth.
Signs and traditions for Elijah's Day
It is forbidden to work on this holiday, since it will not only not bring results, but may also anger the saint, who will send a downpour and destroy the harvest. You cannot drive livestock out to pasture, as various evil spirits can move into them. If there is a thunderstorm on August 2, under no circumstances should you swim, stand under the trees, shout or have fun at this time. To protect their home from Elijah's wrath, people 
the day before they fumigated the house with incense, and during a thunderstorm, they closed the windows and doors and lit a candle near the images. It is believed that on August 2, summer ends and autumn begins, so the weather changes, the behavior of birds and people prepare for the harvest. During bad weather, it is imperative to collect rainwater, since there is an opinion that it has enormous power that protects against. If a person gets caught in the rain on Elijah’s day, it means that he will not be affected by illnesses or problems throughout the year. One of the most important prohibitions of this day is that you cannot swim in open water. It is believed that the water is already cold, and mermaids can be pulled to the bottom.