ELIA di CORTONA. — Minister General of the Friars Minor, b. at Assisi or its environs ca. 1180, called of Cortona from the place of his death. Having entered among the Friars Minor, he soon came into great consideration with the Founder, who chose him as minister of the nascent Franciscan province of Syria from 1217 to 1220, where he founded residences and organized the apostolate among Christians and Muslims. After accompanying s. Francesco on his visit to the Holy Places, he returned with him to Italy in the spring of 1221 and, upon the death of Pietro Catani (10 March 1221), was chosen by the Saint to succeed him as vicar, an office he held until 1227, earning from the dying Poverello (1226) a
(for the course of death A. P. Fratte)
ELIA di CORTONA — Friar E., painted by Dono Doni (16th century).
Assisi, S. Convento.
special blessing. After the death of s. Francesco, he took part in the General Chapter of 1227, at which Giovanni Parenti was elected as the first Minister General of the Order.
At the behest of Gregorio IX, he presided over the construction of the basilica of Assisi, whose foundation stone the Pontiff laid on 17 July 1228; in 1230 the lower church was already completed, and on the occasion of the General Chapter of Pentecost the new temple was inaugurated and the body of the Seraphic Father was transferred there. E.’s partisans attempted, unsuccessfully and by force, to restore him to the head of the Order. With the support of Gregorio IX, he was elected Minister General (1232).
During his administration E. gave great impetus to missions among unbelievers, worked for the union of the Greeks with the Roman Church, and especially promoted the studies of the Order. Held in high esteem for his abilities, and a friend of the Emperor and the Pope, he was sent by the latter in 1258 as ambassador to Federico II. Yet many serious defects marred his conduct, especially his despotic government, which disturbed the tranquility of the Order and particularly displeased the priests and scholars, who succeeded in having him deposed by Gregorio IX in 1230 and Alberto da Pisa elected in his place. Having withdrawn to Assisi and then to Cortona, where in 1245 he built a church and convent in honor of s. Francesco, he later took the side of the excommunicated Federico II and was himself excommunicated by Gregorio IX in 1240 and again by Innocenzo IV in 1244. In that year E. went to Nicea and Constantinople as ambassador of Federico II. The Minister General Giovanni da Parma (1247–57) attempted to bring E. back into the Order, but he refused for fear of the just punishment. Around Easter 1253 he fell ill at Cortona and was exhorted by his friend Buono, prior of the abbey of S. Bartolomeo at Cegliolo, to repent of the evil he had done and of his apostasy from the Order. E. did so willingly and, having received absolution from the censure from Bencio, archpriest of Cortona, and the last Sacraments from his confrères, died on 22 April of the same year. He was buried there in the church of s. Francesco. Several treatises on alchemy have been attributed to him.
Studies: I. ARB, Vita di Iratu E., Parma 1783, 3ª ed., there 1819; it is the first modern critical biography; E. Lemop, Febre E. de Cortone, Perici 1901; P. Sabatier, Examen de la vie de fr. E. de Spessium vitae minis de trois fragments inédits (Opuscules de critique historique, 9), Parigi 1904; G. Gelubovich, Biblioteca bio-bibliografica della Terra Santa e dell'Oriente francescano, I. Quaracchi 1906, pp. 106–17; D. Spasacio, Fr. E. compagno vicario e incessore di s. Francesco, Milano 1923; L. Mirri, Fr. E. de Cortona, in Miscellanea Francescana, 31 (1931), pp. 86–93, 175–87, 233–43; S. Attal, Fr. E. compagno di s. Francesco, Roma 1936; it is the most recent work, but has little critical value. Riccardo Pratesi