Elianna, the martyred father
Old man driven away and reduced to begging by his only son, Simon the Sanhedrin, because of his faith in the Christ. Simon will end up killing him before descending into hallucinatory madness. If this son is, as we suppose, Simon Boetos, it would mean that Elianna is also from the Family Boetos, one of the great priestly Families.
"I have never been happy! My father died before my birth and my mother during my birth. The mother of my mother, who raised me, gave me the two names of my father and mother combined."Reduced to begging, he goes against the apostolic troupe at Tekoah. He hid the identity of his son, friend of Judas.
"Man, it is not a father who will say the name of his guilty son to make him despised. I must say that I am hungry and cold, I who through work had increased the well-being of the house to make my boy happy."[1]On Jesus's initiative, he is taken in by Simon of Tekoah. He wants to work, and Simon entrusts him with the collection of dues:
"Here is your job. It is neither difficult nor tiring, but it shows you the esteem I have for you. I have dismissed, one after another, three employees because they were not honest."Unfortunately, his new position will be a pretext for his son to have him killed, thus committing what he thinks is a perfect murder.[2] At the time of the Passion, the opened tombs allow the Spirit of Elianna to appear to his son and reproach him for his parricide. The latter will go mad.[3]
Character and appearance
Short and elderly.
Apostolic path
He confides in Jesus who has not made himself known:"You truly know Jesus, because you are good. Many know him in Israel, but how? With their eyes and their hatred, and so they do not know him. Such is Jesus of Nazareth, whom I do not know by sight, but whom I know more than many because I believe that in Him is the Wisdom."[4]
"You are a martyr of justice, one of the forerunners of all who will be persecuted because of Me," says Jesus while making his sign of the cross on him.[5].
His name
Eli in Aramaic means "My God". Anna means "Grace, confess".
Where is he mentioned in the work?
GRM 520 GRM 521 GRM 535 GRM 632
Notes and references
Note: Quotations from the work of Maria Valtorta on this page currently use machine-translated text and will gradually be replaced by the official English translation. Until then, the official translation may be consulted through the reference link provided with each quotation.