The wonders made by Ilie in his lifetime made him one of the saints, the "warrior saint" of the Orthodox calendar, with the power of thunders and lighting. Like the ancient Greek God Zeus, he rides in a chariot of fire during thunderstorms and sends bolts towards sinners and demons. His chariot is pulled by two or four white stallions with beautiful white wings. 

As Ilie rides in the skies, the demons tremble and hide, usually in the body of animals, possessing them, with an affinity for cats and dogs. “Santilie”, as the saint is also known has no mercy and hits trees, people, houses and cattle with his bolts, in his eternal search for demons. 

There is a strange distortion of the saint’s legend here, which claims that God or Virgin Mary cut his right arm, made him deaf or pulled out one of his eyes, in order to reduce his power that was destroying the world. This didn’t change his temper, as he continued to hunt down demons and kill them, with his fiery whip (held in the left hand).

The Romanian tradition says that it is best to close all windows and doors during thunderstorms, so the demons chased by Ilie won’t find a place to hide. Also this is where practicality comes in, as you’re not supposed to sit near a tree during thunderstorms, not for the obvious reason, but because in the tree’s shadow you’ll find the demons’ hideout. 

The general belief is also that making a cross sign during storms protects you from Ilie’s fiery whip, as God said to the saint “Ilie, strike everything you like, but never hit the cross!”. 

Romanian Traditions at Saint Ilie’s eve:

• In some places in Romania, an old tradition was kept: just before the beginning of Saint Ilie’s celebration day, girls strip of their clothes and leave at night toward the places where hemp was seeded, where they roll naked, quickly getting dressed afterwards. Then, they go home and get some sleep. In case they dream green hemp overnight, they’ll marry young men, but if the plant is dry, their husbands will be old men.
• As dawn kicks in, people pick up healing herbs, which they take home and dry in the shadows. Some even pick up other plants, used for spells, after being dried and washed with the blood of a dead bird. At Saint Ilie, women take basil to church and place it near icons. At the end of the religious ceremony they set it on fire and they use the ash to cure the children’s blisters by rubbing their mouth with it; these are mostly pagan beliefs that were assimilated by the Christian belief.
• The apple tree is protected by Saint Ilie, so you mustn’t eat apples when he’s celebrated. Also, know that if it thunders that day, all hazelnuts will go dry and all the other fruit will bear worms. Women must take apples to church, so they’ll be blessed and become golden fruits in the afterworld.
• In case you eat apples just before Saint Ilie, you’ll be eternally picking up these fruits in the afterworld and in case you try to eat them, they’ll disappear. Over 120.000 Christian Romanians celebrate their name at Saint Ilie’s day, when the holy man rose to the skies.

Author: Alex Stanescu

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