From Prophet to Miracle-Working Saint

The versatile figure of Elijah as Jewish prophet, Christian saint and Muslim green man plays at once a controversial and a unifying role across cultures. This collection of essays delves into the rich Elijah traditions that connect late-antique Mesopotamia to modern Europe. It emphasizes how Elijahs many-sided character cannot be explained by his sparse mentions in the Bible. His enormous popularity rather depends on a network of artistic and performative interpretations that developed in different traditions and were divulged through cultic practices and feasts in which Elijah was the protagonist.

Vlad Bedros is lecturer at the Department of Art History and Theory of the National University of Arts, Bucharest, and researcher at G. Oprescu Institute of Art History, Romanian Academy. Barbara Crostini is Senior Lecturer in Church History, Art History and Cultural Studies at the Newman Institute, Uppsala. Andrei Dumitrescu is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at Stanford University, specializing in Byzantine and Medieval Art. Chana Shacham-Rosby is a teaching fellow in the Department of Jewish History at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.