To his thousands of followers in Italy and around the world he is the new Padre Pio.Like the country's ever-popular 20th Century saint, who displayed stigmata for the last 50 years of his life, Brother Elia is revered.
With his face, hands and feet appearing covered in blood each Easter, he has earned celebrity status and his fans range from the country's poorest to World Cup-winning footballer Francesco Totti.
The new Padre Pio? Brother Elia, who suffers stigmata every Easter, is revered by 1000's
Yesterday was supposed to be a chance for as many as 10,000 people, including visitors from Britain, to meet Brother Elia, 45, at the headquarters of the Jesuit movement in Naples.
Now that Lent has begun, time is running out to see him before he takes to his bed over April to undergo his annual torment.
Instead, his appearance was cancelled at the last minute by the Catholic Church, which is growing increasingly fearful about the rapid spread of Brother Elia's fame.
"We had to turn away 33 coaches of people," said a spokesman for the Apostles of God, the religious movement established by Brother Elia in 2003. "The whole of the south of Italy wanted to see him, but an order came down from the regional church that the permission for the meeting had been withdrawn."
The Vatican is reported to have asked Brother Elia not to give interviews or to hold any public religious services until it has made up its mind on the veracity of his stigmata.
"For the last four years, the Vatican has sent doctors to his bedside over Easter to find out whether he really does show stigmata. Some of them said he did, others said he didn't so we still do not have a conclusion," said the spokesman.
Doctor Carlo Marcelletti, one of Italy's foremost heart surgeons who witnessed his suffering last year, said the phenomenon was "scientifically inexplicable".
Officially, the Vatican has refused to comment, but one source said the silence was "actually because we are not sceptical".
Fiorella Turolli, the author of a book on Brother Elia, said: "He suffers the Passion in exactly the same sequence as Christ. On Wednesday night he gets a crown of thorns pattern, and then he sheds tears of blood, and then signs of beating on his back. Finally on Friday he is a mask of blood and then the rebirth."
Brother Elia claims to have had his first vision of the Virgin Mary at age seven and claims he can talk to angels.
He used to work as a postman, a grocer, a flower-seller and a prison chef before he joined a Capuchin monastery in Calvi, Umbria.
His followers swear to his healing powers, and thousands queue outside his monastery from 3am every weekend.
"The number of visitors keeps rising," said Silvano Lorenzoni, mayor of Calvi.
Cesare Prandelli, the manager of Fiorentina football club, says Brother Elia healed his sick wife.
"It only took one look to know he was an extraordinary man," he said.
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