159 Representations of travel motivation marking him as an extraordinary individual chosen by God, just as God chose Elias to be granted prophetic abilities and thereby ‘sanctifying’ him.543 Like we observed for Gregory of Decapolis in his Life, by using a divine revelation as a motivation for mobility the hagiographer moreover shows that Elias possesses another essential ideal of sainthood. It indicates Elias’ submission to God’s will and his piety. At the same time it shows God as a guide of Elias’ life. Three of the major long-distance journeys for which Elias was motivated to travel after a divine revelation illustrate how the hagiographer uses a technique of narrative framing to emphasise these journeys. These long-distance journeys include his travels to the Holy Land, his return to Sicily and the founding of a monastery in Calabria, and his journey to Rome. All three journeys start with an initial incentive to go to the respective destination, but Elias does not reach it or fulfil the divine revelation immediately. Instead other events are narrated first and later the narrative comes back to these initial incentives when the saint completes his mission. This forewarning and looking back has an emphatic effect, marking these journeys as significant within the narrative. The first instance does not start with a divine revelation, but the narrative tells how Elias himself felt a desire to reach Palestine to venerate the places connected to Christ’s passion (i.e. pilgrimage) and to become a monk, after an episode in which he is freed from slavery.544 The hagiographer could have chosen to leave it at that and represent Elias’ own desire to go on pilgrimage and become a monk as a motivation to travel. Instead, he chose to include a divine revelation and thereby stressed Elias’ sainthood. Namely, the hagiographer writes how Elias first doubts whether to go. Subsequently, a divine voice appeared: Καὶ ὡς τοῦτο καθ' ἑαυτὸν διελογίζετο, φαίνεται αὐτῷ ὁ καθοδηγῶν αὐτὸν λέγων· ‘ὡς ἀγαθὰ καὶ θεάρεστα ἐβουλεύσω·; πορεύου οὖν ἐν εὑρήνῃ τὴν ὁδόν σου καὶ ἔσει θεραπεύων ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν πᾶσαν νόσον καὶ πᾶσαν μαλακίαν.545 Αs he considered this [desire to go to Palestine] by himself, he who guides him appeared to him, saying: ‘you deliberate such good things and things pleasing to God! So travel your road in peace and from now on you will heal every disease and every sickness. Here the hagiographer presents a divine approval of Elias’ desire to travel and adds a divine imperative to start the journey and a promise of being able to heal illnesses. This is thus one of the passages in which the hagiographer illustrates the special interest of God in Elias by 543 The hagiographer narrates that God granted Elias the ability of prophecy because God had known Elias before he was born and he [God] had sanctified (ἁγιάσας) Elias since infancy, thus stressing that Elias was chosen by God as an extraordinary and holy (ἅγιος) individual. Life of Elias the Younger 3. 544 Life of Elias the Younger 14. 545 Life of Elias the Younger 14, lines 273-277. 3
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