Saint Elisha, Prophet

Elisha, son of Shaphat, was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen when the prophet Elijah threw his cloak over him, in the ninth century before Christ. He left everything, slaughtered his oxen to feed the people and followed Elijah. The Second Book of Kings tells how he asked for a double portion of his master's spirit and saw Elijah taken up in a fiery chariot, then picked up Elijah's mantle and parted the Jordan with it.

For some fifty years Elisha served as prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel. He purified the waters of Jericho, multiplied a widow's oil, raised the son of a woman of Shunem and fed a hundred people with twenty loaves. He healed Naaman the Syrian of leprosy in the Jordan, a miracle Jesus recalled in Nazareth. Scripture says that even after his death his bones restored a dead man to life.

The Carmelite Order, which looks to Elijah and Elisha as models of prayer on Mount Carmel, celebrates his feast on June 14, and the Eastern Churches honor him on the same day.

His healing of Naaman is read in Lent, and Christians have long seen his miracles of bread and oil as signs of Christ's own mercy.