256 ST. BLGIVA { room was brilliantly lit up, and he beard tbe well-known voice of Elgiya thanking the other speaker. He opened the door, and fonnd her alone. " Who were you talking to ? " asked he. " The Lord, who appeared to you when yon were waiting and praying at the door of the church, has visited me, and promised me eternal glory, and now I no longer fear the devil." She then asked him to bring her the last sacraments next day. This he did, and afterwards buried her in the church where she had so often prayed. AA,SS, Acts of SL Dunsian, May 19. Yepes, Diacurao de la Hiatoria^ Sermon 246. St. Elgiva (4), May 18 (^lfgiva, ./Elgysa, Alqina, Algiva, Algyfa, Edgiya, Elfgyfe, Ethklgiva, Ithel- OEOFU, etc.). Queen of England. Wife of Edmund the Elder, king of England (940-946). Mother of Kings Edwy (955-958) and Edgar the Peaceable 958-975). Grandmother of St. Edith 5). Some accounts say Elgiva died before her husband, and tiiat he married again. According to others, she survived him, founded the monastery of Shaftes- bury, with the help of her son Edgar, and died a nun there about 960 or 970. There seems to be some confusion be- tween her and Elgiva (2). St. Elibonbane, May 25. 0th cen- tury. Mother of St. Goneri of Bretagne. Mas Latrie. St. Elide, Aug. 24, nun. O.S.B. Mas Latrie. St. Elidru, Ethelreda. St. Elie, or ^LYA, perhaps Helyade. {See Helia.) St. Elined, Almheda. St. Elisabeth (1), Babet, Isabel, Nov. 5. Mother of St. John the Baptist, and cousin of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Kepresented : (1) As an old woman sitting as a member of the Holy Family, with her son, St. John, and the Infant Saviour on her lap ; (2) at the door of her house, welcoming the B. V. Mary, whom she was the first to greet as the mother of her Lord ; (3) dying in the desert. Elisabeth was of the race of Aaron, wife of a priest named Zacharias. " They were both righteous before Gk>d, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." They were old and childless when Zacharias in his turn went to the temple to burn incense. As he stood before the altar, the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and told him that he should have a son, whom he was to call John, and who should bring joy to him and to many others, and should turn many of the children of Israel to God, and be His forerunner. St. Zacharias hesitated to believe the pro- mise, and was struck dumb until the child was bom and named (St. Luke i.). The Greeks observe the festival of the conception of St. John on Sept. 23 ; some of the old Latin martyrologies mark it on the 24th. Six months after the apparition of the angel to Zacharias, the B. V. Mary came to pay them a visit at their home in the hill-country of Judea. St. Mary had already been told by the angel of the expectations of her aged cousin, and as soon as she arrived at the house, Elisabeth returned her greeting by the well-known blessing and recognition by herself and her unborn child. The B. V. Mary stayed with her about three months; after her return to her own house, Elisa- beth's child was born, and named John ; his father's power of speech was restored, and he spoke the prophetic hymn, be- ginning, " Blessed be the Lord GK>d of Israel " (St. Luke i. 68, etc). The gospel ascribed to St. James, but not reputed authentic, gives the legend that when Herod ordered the massacre of the children in Bethlehem, Elisabeth, fearing for her son, fled with him to the mountains ; but finding no cave in which to hide, and being unable to climb, said,
- ' O Mountain of the Lord, receive the
mother with the child," the mountain thereupon opened and received them into a place of security until the danger was past. Meantime the persecutors summoned Zacharias to give up his son, and as he would not toll them where be was, Herod ordered him to be killed in the temple. B.M, Protevangelion Gospel of James, xvi. 3-7. Migne, EncyclopSdie ThSologique, ii. 274, " Elisabeth." St. Elisabeth (2), Oct. 22, M. 2nd or 3rd century. Converted by seeing
