Elias of Reggio, St.

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ELIAS OF REGGIO, ST.

Known also as Spelaiotes (cave-dweller); b. Reggio di Calabria, Italy, c. 865; d. Melicuccà in Calabria, Sept. 11 c. 960. At the age of 19 he became a monk, living briefly as a hermit near Rome, then with a companion, Arsenios, at Armo, south of Reggio. Both then spent eight years in a hermitage near Patras. Elias returned to enter the monastery of Saline in Calabria (see elias of thessalonika), but soon settled as a hermit in a cave near Melicuccà, where a group of disciples gathered about him.

Feast: Sept. 11.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Sept. 3:848887. g. minasi, Lo Speleota, ovvero S. Elia di Reggio di Calabria, monaco basiliano nel IX. e X. secolo (Naples 1893). s. borsari, Il monachesimo bizantino nella Sicilia e nell'Italia Meridionale prenormanne (Naples 1963).

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