The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (726 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Eliyyahu ben Shelomoh Zalman
(Vilna Gaon)
:
Elkesaites
.
A Jewish Christian group which arose
c.
100 CE in the country east of the Jordan, having affinities with the
Ebionites
(e.g. in their
asceticism
and in their use of only the gospel of
Matthew
) and deriving their name from Elkesai who received a revelation from an angel 96 miles tall.
Ellor
or El
r
.
A complex of cave and rock temples in Maharashtra, India. Sacred to Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists, its thirty-four temples, monasteries, and sanctuaries come from all three religions. They were constructed from the 5th to the 9th cents.
El male ra
amim
(Heb., ‘God full of compassion’). A Jewish prayer for the dead. It is normally recited at funerals, for
Yahrzeit
, and on visiting family graves.
Elmo, St
.
The customary name for St Peter González (
c.
1190–1246), the patron saint of seamen. His ‘fire’ (i.e. electrical discharge on masts of ships) was taken as a sign of his protection. Feast day, 14 Apr.

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