The Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrated the feast of the glorious Prophet Elijah the Tishbite

On Sunday,2 August 2026, the Patriarchate celebrated the feast of the glorious Prophet Elijah the Tishbite at his ancient Holy Monastery, situated near the ancient Monastery of the Seat of the Most Holy Theotokos, between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

On this feast, the Church commemorates the Prophet Elijah, who came from Tishbe in the land of Gilead, beyond the Jordan. Of priestly descent, he was a man of the wilderness and of an ascetic character, filled with zeal for God, and was therefore rightly called “the Zealot”. He rebuked King Ahab and his wife Jezebel; he called down fire from God, which consumed even the stones of the altar of the idolaters on Mount Carmel, and he slew the four hundred and fifty prophets of shame. He shut up the heavens so that no rain fell for three years and six months; he raised to life the son of the widow of Zarephath in Sidon; in obedience to God’s command, he anointed Elisha to succeed him as prophet, casting his mantle upon him. With that same mantle, the Prophet Elisha crossed the River Jordan, while the Prophet Elijah was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot. His name is mentioned many times throughout both the Old and the New Testaments. At…