The Church’s calendar includes the feast days of several of the great figures of the Old Testament (though observing them is not obligatory): King David on December 29, for example, or Melchisedek on August 26. Abraham’s falls on the same day as John Henry Newman’s, October 9.
The Prophet Elijah’s feast day is July 20. I know that because it is my priestly ordination anniversary. I can’t say that I detect much of Elijah in myself, but that might be said of another priest ordained on that date, Cardinal Robert Sarah, who celebrates 50 years of priestly ordination this year. (Cardinal Peter Turkson, the other African curial cardinal, was also ordained on July 20, but in 1975, six years after Cardinal Sarah.)
