CatholicSaints.Info

Also known as

• Elias of Enna
• Elias of Salinas
• Elia…
• Elijah…
• Giovanni Rachites

Memorial

• 17 August

Profile

Monk in the tradition of the Eastern Fathers. Escaping the persecutions of invading Muslim Saracens, Elias fled to Jerusalem where he received the monastic habit from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, taking the name Elias. He spent three years in a monastery in Sinai, then travelled to Alexandria, Egypt, to Persia, to Antioch, and finally back to Palestine. In 878, he moved to Calabria in Sicily in 859, and there spent an austere life devoted to prayer. In 884 he founded a monastery in the nearby Salinas area, and was well known as a spiritual teacher. He made a pilgrimage to Rome, Italy, and was on a pilgrimage to Constantinople when he died.

Born

• c.823 in Enna, Sicily, Italy as Giovanni Rachites

Died

• 903 in Thessalonica, Macedonia of natural causes
• buried in the Salinas monastery he had founded in Calabria, Italy
• the monastery was destroyed by earthquake in the 18th century

Canonized

• Pre-Congregation

MLA Citation

• “Saint Elias the Younger“. CatholicSaints.Info. 3 February 2019. Web. 27 October 2021. <>