Life
The Holy Prophet Elijah the Tishbite, one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, was active in Israel in the ninth century before Christ, during the reign of the godless King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. He came from Tishbe in Gilead, and his name means “The Lord is my God” — which is at the same time the message of his entire prophetic calling.
When Ahab introduced the cult of the Phoenician god Baal into Israel, Elijah appeared before the king and foretold a three-year drought as God’s punishment for the apostasy of the people. He then hid himself beside the brook of Cherith, where ravens miraculously fed him, and afterward dwelt with a widow at Zarephath in Sidon, for whom he miraculously multiplied the oil and the meal and raised her dead son to life.
The culmination of Elijah’s prophetic activity was the confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Before the entire people he set the challenge: let each god send fire from heaven upon the altar. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal prayed in vain, but when Elijah offered his sacrifice and prayed to the God of Israel, the fire of the Lord descended and consumed the offering, the wood, the stones, and the water in the trench. The people fell on their faces and confessed: “The Lord, He is God!” Elijah then commanded that the prophets of Baal be seized and slain, and afterward prayed for rain that ended the three-year drought.
Elijah also showed a merciful face: he consoled the prophetess Elisheva, twice called down fire on his enemies (figuratively — by the force of prayer), and after the journey to Sinai, broken and exhausted, was comforted and fed by an angel. At Horeb (Sinai) God revealed Himself to him not in wind, nor in earthquake, nor in fire, but in a still, small voice — to remind him that God’s power is not always thunderous; it can also be quiet and gentle.
The end of Elijah’s earthly journey was unique in human history: the prophet did not die but was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire with horses of fire, before the eyes of his disciple Elisha, who inherited a double portion of his spirit. This translated prophet, together with Moses, appears at the Transfiguration of Christ on Tabor, bearing witness to Christ’s Divinity.
Christian tradition teaches that Elijah will appear before Christ’s Second Coming, as one of the witnesses who will call the people to repentance.
Tropar (Tone 4)
An angel in the flesh and a cornerstone of the prophets, the second Forerunner of the coming of Christ, glorious Elijah — who from on high didst send grace to Elisha — who drivest away diseases and cleansest lepers — thou art revered, poured out thy grace also on those who honor thee.
Kontakion (Tone 2)
A prophet and eyewitness of the mighty works of God, Elijah the greatly renowned — thou who didst arrest the rain-bearing clouds with a word — intercede for us with the one Lover of Mankind.
About the Feast
Ilindan is celebrated on August 2 by the New Calendar, in the height of summer heat. This is one of the rare feasts that in the popular mind clearly bears the imprint of natural phenomena — Saint Elijah has always in Serbian and more broadly in Slavic tradition been connected with thunder, lightning, and rain. The people say that it thunders when Saint Elijah chases the devil with his fiery chariot, which is a Christian reworking of the memory of the prophet who called down heavenly fire on altars.
Ilindan is a popular patron feast especially in villages and in regions where agriculture and animal-husbandry were the foundation of life — farmers prayed to Saint Elijah for rain in dry years, and for protection of the harvest from storms and hail. The feast falls in midsummer, between the first and second harvests, when the fields are empty but the fruit is still ripening.
The feast table for Ilindan may be unrestricted or Lenten depending on the calendar circumstances of that year. The slava bread and koljivo are obligatory, and among special dishes are summer foods — stuffed peppers, beans, stuffed cabbage, and fresh vegetable appetizers. In some regions a sheep or lamb is slaughtered for Ilindan as a votive offering — the so-called “kurban” — an old custom that has been preserved in Serbian village communities to the present day.