ELIAS MINIATIS: Greek bishop; b. at Lixuri (5 m. n. of Argostoli, on the island of Cephalonia) 1669; d. in the Morea 1714. He was educated at Venice, where he was ordained deacon and appointed notary of the metropolis of Philadelphia, whose bishops then resided at Venice. After acting as a teacher in Cephalonia, Zante, Corfu, and Constantinople, and after serving in various diplomatic missions, he was consecrated bishop of Kernike and Kalabryta in the Morea, but held office only three years.

 

Of his works only two are known, both edited posthumously by his father. The first of these, "Teachings for the High and Holy Quadragesima and Other Sundays and Chief Feasts of the Year," was first published, according to Sathas, in 1727, although it seems actually to have appeared much earlier. The book went through many editions, and in its completest form (the edition of A. Mazarakis, 1849), contains twenty-one sermons for fasts and twenty for Sundays and festivals. In his doctrines Elias was orthodox. He emphasized the freedom of the will and the twofold nature of Christ, while in his concept of the atonement he recognized a sort of satisfaction, which should reconcile the justice and love of God. He also postulated the intercession of the mother of God with Christ the judge. The second work was the "Rock of Offense" (1718), which was a polemic against the Roman Catholic Church, treating in its first book the history of the schism, and in the second the supremacy of the pope, the procession of the Holy Ghost, unleavened bread, and similar topics.

(PHILIPP MEYER.)

 

Bibliography: The Mazarakis edition of the "Teachings" contains a sketch of the life. Consult also: J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Græca, ed. G. C. Harles, xi. 787, Hamburg, 1808; A. Pichler, Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen dent Orient und Occident, i. 481 sqq., Munich, 1864.