Elisha Window Carmelite Monastery Boxmeer, The Netherlands
Full Window As the successor of Elijah, Elisha was active as a prophet in the 9th century BC. A man of God, he lived like Elijah on Mount Carmel. The stories about him can be found in the Book of Kings (2 Kgs 1-2; 13:21.
Middle Section In the window, Elisha is portrayed in the Carmelite habit, with a staff in his hand, standing near a tree with one of its branches cut off. The staff of Elisha had healing power (2 Kgs 4:29) and the cut off branch relates to the miraculous finding of a lost axe (2 Kgs 6:1-7). Elisha is usually depicted as a prophet with a bald head because the biblical story recalls some small boys calling him "old baldpate" (2 Kg 2:23-24).
Upper Section The crest and name of the donor.
The donor, Karel Anton Friedrich v. Hohenzollern.
Lower Section The text testifies to the great influence that Elisha had on his contemporaries and the generations after him: "... in his lifetime, he did not fear the king or any power, no one overcame him nor contradicted any of his words, and once dead, his body prophesied." (Eccl 48:12-13. This last sentence refers to the passage where it records that a dead body came to life again after being touched by the bones of Elisha (2 Kgs 13:20-21).
		Curator: Sunny Bruijns, O. Carm. February 2006