Extraordinary events and bilocations

On this page you can read about some of the most important extraordinary facts belonging to the life of Fra Elia and beyond. In fact, to some people the friar appeared in bilocation, unconsciously leaving the sign of his ethereal passage.

One evening at my house… Dad caresses me

Suddenly I saw Elia look up at the kitchen door and smile. I looked too and, seeing nothing, turned to him as if to ask for an explanation.
Elia pointed to a painting 4-5 meters away from me and said, look what happened? I looked at the painting but seeing nothing I moved closer to get a better look, emptying my mind of all thoughts…At the same instant I felt on my head the weight of a large hand caressing me… “Who is caressing me, Elia?!”, I cried out laying my hand on my hair. His shining eyes full of happiness looked like two stars as he told me, “He is your father…there are also many Angels….” I felt my heart palpitate and my voice come out of my mouth as if from a world away.

The friar reflected in the glass

Comfortably seated in my study in front of the large panoramic window overlooking the lower city, I was quietly chatting on the phone with Giandamiano, Anna’s husband from Verona. It was already dark and the city lights blazed from below putting me in a cheerful mood. My husband was away from home for work. All of a sudden I heard a small noise…I immediately thought of Fra Elia who, having the keys to my house and always being in the mood to play tricks on me, could have come in, climbed slowly, slowly, the spiral stairs and…startled me. I immediately warned Gian, “I think Fra Elia is here…let’s keep talking….” And, as I uttered this sentence, I saw Fra Elia, reflected in the stained glass window, walk in behind me, in his white suit, on tiptoe, with all the air of someone who is ready to get up to something. Of course I pretended not to hear him and continued chatting with Gian. Still I kept an eye on him, and when he was a step away from my back I turned around but … he was gone!

Although it is impossible to comment on these, to say the least, incredible facts, I want to express my theory anyway: in my opinion it is all about energy. Let me explain in more detail: Fra Elia has a great, powerful energy and it can be seen at the moment when he drives out negative forces from houses, while large objects fly from one corner to another or when he frees “possessed” people from evil or even during blessed water baths, when more or less putrid liquids and solid, sticky material come out of the body of the sick person, causing electric discharges. As a result of these findings, I deduced that sometimes, precisely because of this powerful energy of his, his thoughts or prayers could also materialize and that therefore the apparitions of his figure are nothing more than the projection of his wishes or supplications to the Most High for the person in question.

After all, I am sure that I saw him appear and felt his presence even through his scent or moved objects or swinging chandeliers… and some explanation had to be given, otherwise I risked, if not going mad, at least doubting my full mental faculties…

The lady in the wheelchair

Mrs. Maria Pacifico of Benevento, age 32, immobilized in a wheelchair as a result of numerous accidents and suffering from terrible hip pain that she is unable to eradicate, telephoned me in Bergamo soon after my return from Campania and informed me of the following. “You will not believe it, but this night Fra Elia came to see me and treated me … I saw him and I assure you that I even touched his robe … he was beside my bed. Of course I thought I was seeing things as I stood stunned looking at him… Then he left and I also heard the door slam. I Fra Elia did not know him. I saw him for the first time last Sunday in church. As he passed he touched my head and I immediately smelled an intense scent of roses. After coming tonight the pains subsided and I felt the need to get in touch with him to thank him.”

The disappeared cancer

Grace of Taranto often came to Elijah’s to attend his prayer groups. She had liver cancer. One Sunday morning, as Elijah was praying at Mass with his friends, he had a vision of her suffering and melancholy. He thought of her with poignant sorrow and wished to be near her so that he could comfort her. At the same instant Grazia saw him beside her in her home in Taranto, smiled at him, they spoke to each other, and he laid his hands on her to give her energy and healing. Toward evening Elijah phoned her to ask how she was doing. “Well, Elijah…I saw you this morning beside me…thank you for coming…I must have dozed off because I did not say goodbye to you before I left….” After some time Elijah learned that Grace had recovered

His faith was wavering

Fiorella tells: On January 20, 2006, my friend Ingrid wrote to me: “This morning I found our Abbess very depressed, as she was suffering from a bad flu, which prevented her from going to the hospital for chemotherapy. We all know that Fra Elia is praying for her, but that day the nun, particularly despondent from the exhausting treatments, wondered if indeed Fra Elia was praying for her health. After lunch, she lay down on her bed for a nap … and immediately saw Fra Elia, very shining, who, in a reproachful tone, said to her, “How can you think that I don’t pray for you?” Immediately comforted, she felt much better.”

Adelaide: Fra Elia speaks in Aramaic

It is about 4 p.m. on a less muggy afternoon than usual. It stopped raining recently and the garden shows wide puddles and still dripping leaves. Fra Elia is not well. He goes outside and slips his bare feet into the water to cool his sores, which, like every Friday, open causing him to burn badly. But from outside someone smiles at us, Rose and me, who watch him through the window. Father John Cooper, former Father General of the Capuchins whom we met at his convent here in Adelaide in 2007, is coming.
It was not planned for Elia to come 2 days to Adelaide for a short rest, before returning home, but the opportunity happened and now here we are, to our health and Fra Cooper’s joy, who felt graced by the Lord for this unexpected meeting. He never thought he would see Elia again, right here in Adelaide, but God sees and provides and evidently had something in store.
After warm greetings we took our seats in the living room, Fra Elia, Father Cooper, Rose and myself (Fiorella).
The conversation immediately excluded the usual pleasantries, and Father Cooper, seated across from Fra Elia, after inquiring about the work of the Calvi Convent, Fra Elia’ religious family, and his mission in Indonesia, touched on a topic close to his heart, the study of Aramaic in order to better understand the words of Jesus.

Here is their conversation:
Fra Elia do you remember Jesus’ words on the cross when he says, My Father, My Father why have you forsaken me?
Yes, answers Fra Elia.
Well, St. Jerome, who had translated the words of Jesus on the cross, from a very ancient text, not being sure of the goodness of his translation, next to the translated phrase, also left the original words in Aramaic. There are three of them, one of which appears to be the word “run.”
In St. Mark’s Gospel (15-27), on the other hand, Jesus’ words would have been, “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani” and were translated “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”

While in the Gospel of St. Matthew (27-46) the words would have been, “Eli Eli lama sabachthani”
And they were translated, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”
In a nutshell one says: my God and the other my God…but what strikes me are the words added by St. Jerome next to the translated phrase… At this point Father Cooper pronounces them and Fra Elia, standing up smiling, corrects his pronunciation and, in turn, speaking in Aramaic, explains that the word is not precisely “run” but rather come like lightning…make haste…basically the meaning is the same as “run”…And then he continues: the correct meaning is as follows: “My Father, My Father come quickly to save me!” Not “…why have you forsaken me?”