Elias of Enna

Venerable Elias the Younger of Enna, in the world John Rachites, is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox and the Catholic Church. He was born in 822 or 823 at Enna in Sicily and died on 17 August 903 at Thessalonica. He lived a very adventurous life in the ninth century and is remembered on 17 August.

Because of the Muslim conquest of Sicily, John was forced to leave Enna, the city which the Saracens took in 859 despite its strength as a stronghold. The Arabs still managed to imprison Elias, who was taken to Ifriqiya to be sold as a slave. After regaining his freedom, Elias decided to preach the Gospel, several times risking his life, and came to Palestine, where he received the monastic habit from the Patriarch of Jerusalem. After three years in a monastery of Sinai he undertook an adventurous series of travels, going first to Alexandria in Egypt, then to Persia, Antioch and again to Africa. After 878 Syracuse also fell into Muslim hands. Elias then returned to the island, where he met his aged mother at Palermo. At Taormina he met Daniel, a new disciple. Going north, he lived in Calabria, where in the year 884, in the Valley of Salt, more precisely on Mount Aulinas (now Mount Saint Elias near Palmi), he founded a monastery later named after him. Further Arab invasions forced him to take refuge at Patras in Greece, then at Santa Caterina in Aspromonte. He then went on pilgrimage to Rome.

His exploits, wonders and preaching on three continents spread his fame to Constantinople, where the emperor Leo VI the Wise invited him to visit. Elias, however, now seventy, set out for Constantinople but fell ill and died at Thessalonica. His most faithful friend and companion, the monk Daniel, buried him in the monastery on Monte Aulinas, at Palmi, founded by the saint. A Greek text of his life was edited by Giuseppe Rossi Taibbi. In Italy the church of Saint Elias at Palmi, the Orthodox monastery of Saints Elias and Philaret at Seminara and the church of Saint Elias at Reggio Calabria are dedicated to him.