Elias the Hermit

Venerable Elias the Hermit was a desert-⁠dwelling monk of Egypt in the fourth century. He lived seventy-⁠five years in ascetic labor, in a mountain cave, and died in 371, aged over a hundred and ten. He is commemorated on 8 January by the old calendar, which is 21 January by the new, in the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Catholic Church.

He became a monk early and spent seventy-⁠five years in complete solitude, in the wilderness near Antinoe of the Thebaid, in Upper Egypt. Visitors who came to him, when he was already old, found him sitting under a rock overhang, where, because of the darkness, he could scarcely be seen. He trembled all over with age, for he was over a hundred and ten. Other hermits told of Elias that no one remembers when he settled on the mountain.

In old age he ate three small pieces of bread morning and evening and three salted olives, while in youth he took food only once a week. He departed to the Lord in peace, in deep old age.