ELIA, saint. - Patriarch of Jerusalem, b. in 430, d. on 19 or 20 July 518. His life, closely linked with that of St. Flaviano II of Antioch, reflects the difficulties of those times, when the emperor Anastasio persecuted the orthodox in favour of Monophysitism.
E., an Arab and formerly a monk of Nitria, was expelled from it (457) by Timoteo Eluro of Alexandria and took refuge in Palestine, where he founded a monastery not far from Jericho. Appointed patriarch of Jerusalem (494), he would not approve the deposition of Eufemio of Constantinople decreed by Anastasio, nor did he enter into communion with the Alexandrian Monophysites; but at the same time he had no relations with the See of Rome, from which the Byzantines were then separated because of the schism of Acacio.
E. had to take part in the Monophysite Council of Sidon (511-12) and, according to a document perhaps unworthy of belief, rejected the Council of Chalcedon. He did not, however, join the party of Severo of Antioch. It is certain, moreover, that in 516 E. renounced his see rather than reject the Chalcedonian Council. E. was introduced by Baronio into the martyrology (4 July). The Syrians celebrate him on 18 February.
Ignazio Ortia de Urbina