Elusa

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For in Latin homonymous Gaulsh bishopric, see Eauze

Elusa is a Roman Catholic titular see in the former Roman Province of Palaestina Tertia, suffragan of the archbishopric of Petra.

This Ancient city is called Chellous in the Greek text of Judith, i, 9. It is also mentioned by Ptolemy, V, xv, 10 (in Idumaea), Peutinger's "Table", Stephanus Byzantius (as being formerly in Arabia, now in Palaestina Tertia), St. Jerome (In Isaiam, V, xv, 4), the pilgrim Theodosius, Antoninus of Piacenza, and Joannes Moschus (Ptatum Spirituale, clxiv).

In the fourth century, as is to be learned from St. Jerome's life of St. Hilarion, there was at Elusa a great temple of Aphrodite; the saint seems to have introduced Christianity there ("Vita Hilarionis" in P.G., XXIII, 41).

Early in the following century a Bishop of Elusa after redeeming the son of St. Nilus, who had been carried off from Mount Sinai by the Arabs, ordained both him and his father (P.G. LXXIX, 373-93). Other bishops known are Theodulus, 431; Aretas, 451; Peter, 518; and Zenobius, 536 (Lequien, Or. christ., III, 735).

Today the ruins of the city are seen at El-Khalasa (Khalasah), about nineteen miles south of Bersabee(*), in a large plain belonging to nomad tribes. Many inscriptions have been found there (Revue Biblique, 1905, 246-48, 253-55). In the vicinity, according to the Targums, was the desert of Sur with the well at which the angel found Agar (Genesis 16:7). (See Revue Biblique, 1906, 597).

(*) Google Earth shows Elusa to be about nineteen kilometers southwest of Beersheba, at 31:05:49N 34:39:17E.

[edit] External Links

• The Madaba Mosaic Map - Discussion 109. Elusa - (al Khalasa)
• Stops on the Incense Road - Elusa
• Elusa - article in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.