Elias of Jerusalem

Saint Elias was bishop and patriarch of Jerusalem from 494 until he was deposed by the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I, in 516, for supporting the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. He died in exile, in 518 (according to some sources). He is commemorated together with Flavian II of Antioch on 20 July in the Orthodox Church and on 4 July in the Roman Martyrology; our calendar gives 4 July.

He was an Arab by birth and had been educated in a monastery in Egypt. He developed church and monastic life. Near the bishop's residence he built a monastery and gathered into it the students of the church of the Holy Resurrection, who until then had been scattered in various places near the Tower of David. He gave each a cell and what was needed. Near the new monastery a church of the Mother of God was built. He was a firm defender of Chalcedon. Under his leadership the Church of Jerusalem could withstand the Monophysites, although they had the strong support of the emperor. Patriarch Elias refused to recognize the election of Severus as patriarch of Antioch in 512. Monophysite monks and the governor of Palestine, Olympius, who acted on instructions from Constantinople, rose against him.

At the Synod of Sidon (512, according to one source, 516 according to another), together with Flavian II of Antioch, he successfully defended the teaching of two natures in Christ proclaimed by the Council of Chalcedon. He was the chief opponent of the Monophysites at the third council, that of Tyre (514 to 515). In 516 he was deposed, and in his place the deacon John (Patriarch John III) was put, on condition that he anathematize the decisions of Chalcedon. But on the day when, at the Liturgy, in the presence of the emperor's nephew, he was to do this, two leaders of Palestinian monasticism, Saint Sabbas and Saint Theodosius, came to the church with ten thousand Chalcedonian monks. The anathema was not pronounced. The emperor sent the patriarch into exile, where he remained until his death.

The Serbian source tells that Elias and Flavian were exiled by Anastasius, who held the Synod of Sidon in 516 and deposed both of them from their thrones, and they died in exile. They foresaw the death of the emperor Anastasius and their own. At the same time they wrote to each other, from distant places, that the emperor Anastasius had died that day and that they too should go with him to the Judgment of God. After two days both saints died, in 518.