The Glorious Prophet Elijah (Elias) feast in the
Orthodox Church - St. Elijah's day
It's the feast of the glorious prophet Elijah in the Orthodox
Church. Every year on the 20-th of June we do celebrate the feast
whether we commemorate in short the glorious life of the prophet
with which the mercyful God has bestowed the prophet.
Elijah is actually considered the greatest old testament prophet
before the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
St. Prophet Elias is among the two people who did not died but was
taken to heaven, the first one that has not faced physical death
but by God's mercy because of his great righteousness has been
taken to heaven is Enoch.
The whole short version of
saint Elijah's life is availabe for reading here
Elijah is very famous for his God inspired "contest" against the
Baal Prophets whether he has shown the idolaters who the real
Living God is.
Here are a few interesting extracts from the Saint's Living:
During these two years a famine prevailed in the land. At the
close of this period of retirement and of preparation for his work,
Elijah met Obadiah, one of Ahab's officers, whom he had sent out to
seek for pasturage for the cattle, and bade him go and tell his
master that Elijah was there. The king came and met Elijah, and
reproached him as the "troubler of Israel." It was then proposed
that sacrifices should be publicly offered, for the purpose of
determining whether Baal or the Israelite God was the true God.
This was done on Mount Carmel; the result was that a miracle took
place convincing those watching that Baal was false and that the
Israelite God was real. The prophets of Baal were then put to death
by the order of Elijah.
Another very notable moment (and marvelous God's manifestation in
Elijah's life) is his Glorious take into haven by God Almighty.
God taking Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind by a chariot and horses
of fire.
Read the short revised version below:
The time now drew near when he was to be taken up into heaven (2
Kings 2:1-12). He went down to Gilgal, where there was a school of
prophets, and where his successor Elisha, whom he had anointed some
years before, resided. Elisha was distraught by the thought of his
master's leaving him, and refused to be parted from him. The two
went on and came to Bethel and Jericho, and crossed the Jordan, the
waters of which were "divided hither and thither" when smitten with
Elijah's mantle. Upon arriving at the borders of Gilead, which
Elijah had left many years before, it "came to pass as they still
went on and talked" they were suddenly separated by a chariot and
horses of fire; and "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,"
Elisha receiving his mantle, which fell from Elijah as he ascended.
Elijah's chosen successor was the prophet Elisha; Elijah designated
Elisha as such by leaving his mantle with him (2 Kings 2:13-15), so
that his wish for "a double portion" of the older prophet's spirit
(2:9), an allusion to the preference shown the first-born son in
the division of the father's estate (Deuteronomy 21:17), had been
fulfilled.