The Holy Prophet Elisha (Eliseus)
Elisha lived nine hundred years before Christ. When the Lord willed to take the aged Prophet Elias to Himself, He revealed to him that He had designated Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of the tribe of Reuben and from the town of Abelmeholah, as his successor in the prophetic service. Elias informed Elisha of God’s will and draped him with his mantle, imploring God for a double portion of the grace of prophecy for him. Elisha immediately left his home and family and followed Elias. When the Lord took Elias in a fiery chariot, Elisha remained to continue the prophetic service with yet greater power than Elias. By his purity and zeal, he was equal to the greatest prophets, and by the miraculous power that was given to him by God, he exceeded them all. He parted the waters of the Jordan as Moses once parted the Red Sea; he made drinkable the bitter waters in Jericho; he brought forth water into the excavated trenches during the war with the Moabites; he multiplied the oil in the pots of the poor widow; he resurrected the dead son of the Shunammite woman; he fed a hundred people with twenty small loaves of bread; he healed the commander Naaman of leprosy; he called down leprosy upon his servant Gehazi because of the latter’s greed; he blinded the entire Syrian army and also forced another army to flee; he foretold many events to the nation as well as to individuals. He reposed in deep old age.
