Elisha: Name Day and Patron Saint

The Prophet Elisha lived in the ninth century before the Birth of Christ and came from Abelmaum, a village near the Jordan. At the Lord’s command the Prophet Elijah called him to follow, and he became Elijah’s disciple. When Elijah was about to be taken up to heaven, Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. He picked up the mantle that fell from his teacher and received his prophetic power, and he served as a prophet for more than sixty-five years, under six kings of Israel. Many wonders are told of him in the Scriptures. He divided the waters of the Jordan with Elijah’s mantle and made the bitter spring of Jericho fit to drink. He multiplied a poor widow’s oil so that she could pay her debts, and he prayed for the Shunammite woman to have a son and later raised that son from the dead. He healed Naaman, the Syrian commander, of leprosy. Elisha died in old age in Samaria, and a year later a dead man laid in his tomb came back to life when he touched the prophet’s bones. Like Elijah, he left no books, because his preaching was spoken. Saint John of Damascus wrote a canon in his honor, and a church was built for him in Constantinople. The Church remembers him on 14 June (27 June on the Old Calendar), and the faithful ask his prayers for the sick, for families in need and for those who long for a child.

What the faithful pray for

• the healing of the sick
• families in debt and in want
• couples who long for a child
• a faithful disciple’s heart toward one’s teachers
• a share in the grace of the Holy Spirit