E06535: Aldhelm, in his prose On Virginity, names *Elijah (Old Testament prophet, S00217) as an exemplary virgin. Written in Latin in southern Britain, for the nuns at the monastery at Barking (south-east Britain), c. 675/686.

Aldhelm, prose On Virginity, 20

Helias, vates virginitatis gratia decoratus et spiritu afflatus profetico, caeli claustra et obstacula nimborum precibus patefecit geminosque militum penticotharcos caelestis foci fulmine flagrantes et supernis arsuros incendiis crudeli flamma combustos extorruit, qui et deinceps, ut poeta heroico exametro refert,

Aurea flammigeris evectus in astra quadrigis
Sidereum penetravit iter

et infra

Humani metam non contigit aevi.

Sublatus in caelum in quadam secreti climatis regione dinturna membrorum vegetatione vitaliter degens hactenus generali mortis debito caruisse dinoscitur, quam cuncti volentis naturae legibus addicti et primae praevaricationis nexibus adstricti quasi inevitabile vectigal et fiscale tributum pendere coguntur.


'ELIJAH, a prophet adorned with the favour of virginity and inspired by the prophetic spirit, opened the locks of heaven and the obstacles of the clouds [i.e. produced rain] with his prayers, and (also) scorched the two captains of fifty men, blazing with the lightning of celestial fire, and consumed them with cruel flame - who are to be burned (in any case) with the heavenly conflagration; he who thereafter, as the poet [i.e. Caelius Sedulius] says in epic hexameter:

Borne aloft the golden stars in a fiery chariot
Entered the sidereal path... [Carmen Paschale I. 179-80]

And further on,

He did not arrive at the limit of human life [ibid., I. 183]

Elevated to the heavens in a certain region of secluded country, continuing alive in the perpetual vitality of his members, he is known to have remained aloof thus far from the general destiny of death which all people, subject of the laws of nature's will and fettered by the bonds of the first transgression, are compelled to pay as if it were an inevitable tax or a fiscal tribute.'

Text: Ehwald 1919, 249-50. Translation: Lapidge and Herren 1979, 76.