E06536: Aldhelm, in his prose On Virginity, names *Elisha (Old Testament prophet, S00239) as an exemplary virgin. Written in Latin in southern Britain, for the nuns at the monastery at Barking (south-east Britain), c. 675/686.

Aldhelm, prose On Virginity, 20

Heliseus vero eiusdem Heliae duplo ditatus spiritu et gemina praeditus gratia, in cuius exortu aurea quadrupes in Galgalis bombosae vocis mugitum reboasse describitur significans idolatriae lapsum et simulacrorum caeremonias explodendas, nonne propter pudicitiae virginalis infulam magistri fretus melote inormem Iordanis gurgitem dirimit, puberes cum gannaturae ludibrio vati insultantes rabidis ursinae ferocitatis rictibus tradidit, cadaveri gelidae mortis faucibus suffocato etiam ipse leto sopitus vitalem reddidit spiritum?

'But ELISHA, enriched with a double portion of the spirit of Elijah and endowed with a two-fold grace, at whose birth the golden calf is said to have bellowed out a moo with booming voice in Gilgal, signifying the fall of idolatry and the banishment of the veneration of effigies – did he not, because of the distinction of his virginal modesty (and) relying on his master's [i.e. Elijah's] mantle, divide the mighty waters of the Jordan; (did he not) deliver the children (who were) mocking the prophet [i.e. Elisha himself] with yelping derision, to the savage jaws of the bears' ferocity; (and did he not) – though he himself was at peace in death – give back the spirit of life to a corpse crushed in the chill jaws of death?'

Text: Ehwald 1919, 250. Translation: Lapidge and Herren 1979, 76.