ELISABETTA. — Name of two biblical women. The etymology from the Hebr. Elíšéba is “God of the oath,” “My oath is God.”
1. E., wife of Aaron (v.), daughter of Aminadab, of the tribe of Judah, mother of Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar, sister of Nassar. The Septuagint in Ex. 6:23 and Nim. 2:3 calls her Ἐλισάβεδ.
2. E. (saint), wife of Zacharias, mother of John the Baptist (Ἐλισάβετ). She was of priestly lineage (of the daughters of Aaron, Lc. 1:5), a relative of the b. Virgin Mary, apparently on her mother’s side. Nicotero Callisto (Hist. Eccl., II, 3: PG 145, 760), relying on apocryphal legends, claims that the mother of Our Lady, Anna, and that of E., called Sobe, were sisters in the strict sense. The Greek Menologion (8 Sept.) also shares this view.
St Luke informs us that E. and her husband were “just, blameless” (1:6 ff.). E. was barren, and both were advanced in years, without hope of offspring. But the angel Gabriel, appearing to Zacharias, had foretold to him: “Your wife E. will bear you a son whom you shall call John” (1:13).
After conceiving him, E. hid herself for five months (apparently in order to be more closely united to God); in the sixth she received the visit of the Virgin Mary, who had been informed by the angel of her pregnancy. At the meeting with the Virgin, E. was filled with the Holy Spirit, perceived a mysterious rejoicing of the unborn child, greeted Mary as “blessed among women” and “mother of my Lord” (1:42 ff.). Our Magnificat (v.), which a few secondary manuscripts attribute to E.; she remained with her for three months until the birth of the child, whom E. wished to call John. Strauss’s mythical school claimed that the story of E. was a myth modeled on the account of Aaron’s wife E. and of Mary, his sister (Ex. 6:23; 15:20)—a tendentious and arbitrary assertion.
The Latin Church celebrates the feast of E. and Zacharias on 5 Nov. V. VISITAZIONE.
Pietro De Ambroggi