Disciple and successor of Elijah, prophet of the kingdom of Israel in the ninth century BC.
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Elisha was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah threw his mantle over him; he asked leave to kiss his father and mother, then slaughtered his team and followed the prophet. When his master was taken up in the chariot of fire, he who had asked for a double portion of his spirit gathered up the fallen mantle. The second book of Kings gives him a long ministry, made of healings — the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian washed away in the Jordan — and multiplications of bread that prefigure the Gospel. He is venerated as a saint in the Churches of East and West, and as a prophet in Judaism and Islam.