Elia di Ohren

Who they were

Saint Elia, also called Eliada, was the fifth abbess of the Benedictine monastery of Ohren at Trier. Little is known of her life beyond a scatter of later sources - a breviary, several calendars of saints and martyrologies - which record her death, traditionally dated to around 750, and fix her memory on 20 June.

She entered religious life at Ohren and, as abbess, is remembered as both an able superior and a spiritual guide to her sisters, under whom the monastery flourished as a centre of prayer and learning. A relic of her arm is still kept and venerated at the Franciscan monastery of Ohren.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: she has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Fifth abbess of the Benedictine monastery of Ohren at Trier; feast 20 June.