Life and Ministry
Elijah appears in Scripture (1 Kings 17:1) delivering God's message to Ahab, king of Israel. Orthodox tradition relates that from his youth he devoted himself to solitude, fasting, and prayer in the wilderness, and that his name signifies 'the Lord's strength.' Saint Epiphanius records the tradition that angels appeared at his birth and 'swaddled him with fire and fed him with flames.'
Confronting the apostasy of Israel under Ahab and Jezebel, who had established the worship of Baal, Elijah declared a drought that lasted three and a half years. During the famine he was sustained supernaturally — by ravens at the Brook Cherith, and afterward at the home of a widow of Zarephath in Sidon, whose flour and oil he caused not to fail and whose deceased son he restored to life.
At Mount Carmel, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest to determine whose deity would consume a sacrifice by fire. After the prophets of Baal failed, fire from heaven consumed Elijah's offering, the wood, and the water poured around it, leading the people to declare, 'Truly, the Lord is God!' The prophets of Baal were then put to death. He also called down divine judgment on the military captains sent by King Ahaziah.
Theophany at Horeb
Following his confrontation with Jezebel, Elijah journeyed forty days to Mount Horeb. There God appeared to him not in wind, earthquake, or fire, but as a still, small voice, and commissioned him to anoint his successors. His scriptural association with mountains — Mount Carmel and Mount Horeb — underlies the later custom of dedicating mountaintop chapels to him.
Veneration and Legacy
Elijah is greatly revered in Orthodoxy as a model of the contemplative life. Beyond his July 20 feast, he receives liturgical commemoration on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers, the Sunday before Christmas. The Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone describes him as 'The incarnate Angel, the Cornerstone of the Prophets, the second Forerunner of the Coming of Christ.'
Orthodox eschatology anticipates his return before the end of the age. The prophecy of Malachi establishes him as a forerunner whose coming precedes the final judgment; tradition holds that God will send Elijah, together with Enoch, before the coming of the Antichrist to bear witness for Christ and strengthen the faithful. John the Baptist is understood to parallel Elijah in his sternness, power, and ascetic life, and Elijah appeared together with Moses at the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor.
Among the Slavs, the first church honoring Elijah was built at Kiev under Prince Igor, by Russian tradition.
Relics & Shrines
Throughout Greece and other Orthodox lands, chapels and monasteries dedicated to the Prophet Elias ('Profitis Ilias') are frequently sited on mountaintops, which themselves often bear his name. These sites historically replaced locations of pagan worship of Zeus, including Mount Olympus and Mount Lykaion, the association deriving from Elijah's scriptural connection to the mountains.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: The scriptural account records the prophesied drought and its end, the sustaining of the widow of Zarephath's household, the raising of her son, the contest of fire on Mount Carmel, and the calling down of fire upon Ahaziah's captains. Rather than dying, Elijah was taken up into heaven: as he parted from Elisha at the Jordan River — which he had divided with his mantle so that the two crossed on dry ground — a chariot and horses of fire appeared, and he went up by a whirlwind into heaven, his mantle falling to Elisha as a sign of spiritual succession.
Traditional Accounts: By tradition recorded in Saint Epiphanius, angels attended Elijah's birth, swaddling him with fire and feeding him with flames. The custom of mountaintop chapels dedicated to him, especially strong in Greece, continues this association of the prophet with the heights.
