Elianna, the martyred father
Old man driven away and reduced to begging by his only son, Simon the Sanhedrist, 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 I was born, and my mother in giving birth to me. My mother’s mother, who brought me up, named me with the two names of my father and mother joined together."[1]Reduced to begging, he goes against the apostolic troupe at Tekoah. He hid the identity of his son, friend of Judas.
"Man, it will not be a father to mention the name of his guilty son to have him despised. I must say that I am cold and hungry, although by working hard I had increased the wealth of the family to make my son happy."[2]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:
"That is your work. [...] It is not difficult or hard but it shows you how highly I esteem you. I dismissed, one after the other, three men who were helping me, because they were not honest."[3]Unfortunately, his new position will be a pretext for his son to have him killed, thus committing what he thinks is a perfect murder.[4] 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.[5]
Character and appearance
Short and elderly.
Apostolic path
He confides in Jesus who has not made himself known:"Really, you know Him because you are good. There are many who know Him in Israel, but how? With their eyes and their hatred. So they do not know Him. A man knows a woman when he knows everything about her and he possesses her completely. It is the same with Jesus of Nazareth, Whom I do not know with my eyes, but Whom I know better than many people because I believe that Wisdom is in Him."[6]
"you are a martyr of justice, one of the precursors of all those who will be persecuted because of Me. Do not weep, father!» And He kisses his white-haired head"[7]
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