The Spiritual World: On the Existence of Demons (10)

...continued from part nine.

16. The Power of Church Exorcisms

Having been in the priesthood for more than 30 years and interacting with people of various statuses, I have heard more than once from some that evil spirits do not exist, and that the so-called possessed are either sick with natural ailments, or pretend to be so in order to avoid work, or to seek compassion for themselves in rich but superstitious people.

I will not enter into any considerations about the existence of spirits: for an Orthodox Christian this truth is beyond any doubt. I will only point out examples of such ailments that I have seen, which cannot be explained either by natural causes or by pretense: they were truly cruel, and yielded only to the power of the exorcism prayers laid down by the Church for the expulsion of evil spirits.

On August 12, 1856, I was with my wife in the provincial town of Oryol on business. In our absence, my eight children, especially the younger ones, were out playing, frolicking, and joking. My ten-year-old son Orestes stood out more than all of them. The household and neighbors laughed at him a lot and marveled at his various inventions. Two days later, toward evening, we returned home and, thank God, found all the children healthy. At dusk, the worker, as is his custom, went out to the field with the horses for the night, and I went to my vegetable garden with two children, Orestes and another, my nine-year-old son Arkadios, to guard the vegetables there from the cattle wandering around at night. I don’t know whether my sons prayed to God when they went to bed with me or not, but they soon fell asleep, and I didn’t sleep for a long time. Around midnight, suddenly my Orestes jumped up quickly, started running around the haystacks and seemed to be catching something. Seeing this, I said to him: "Orestes, why did you get up and what are you doing?" And he said to me: "Please wake up Arkadios: we'll catch this cat and kill it; it jumped from the haystack onto my chest, woke me up and hurt me badly."

The Spiritual World: On the Existence of Demons (9)

Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal (+ 1708)

...continued from part eight.

15. Cases of Possession by Evil Spirits

a) "Twenty-six years ago, in the village of Novovasilevsk, Berdyansk district, Taurida province, there lived Ekaterina Lavrentyevna Mazaeva, my grandmother, my mother’s biological mother," reports a certain G. Mamontov.

"I happened to visit her very often, and sometimes stay for a week or longer. Grandmother had a servant girl named Dunya. This Dunya is the heroine of my story.

Dunya was possessed by an evil spirit. I call it an evil spirit, as all the eyewitnesses called this someone else who was inside Dunya, because the voice was heard against her will; she did not open her mouth, no movement of her face or throat was noticeable, the voice came out as if from the inner parts of her body, and the pronunciation was Mordvin, while Dunya spoke purely Russian. The evil spirit called himself 'Svirid Stepanovich' and liked to talk to everyone. Svirid Stepanovich demanded that Dunya feed him what he liked, but Dunya was distinguished by her honesty and never took anything without asking my grandmother and constantly refused Svirid Stepanovich. Then he would start to worry, Dunya would fall, writhing in strong convulsions, screaming, groaning.

The Spiritual World: On the Existence of Demons (8)

...continued from part seven.

14. About Those Possessed by Evil Spirits

So-called possession is rightly included among the manifestations of evil spirits among people. The possessed, or those possessed by the evil spirit, are of two kinds: on some of them the evil spirit influences only from the outside, while in others it possesses the internal image, possesses their whole being, makes them utter blasphemies, speak in languages they have not learned at all, reveals to them various secret things, introduces them to various dark subjects of philosophy and theology.

The possibility and reality of possession are beyond any doubt. They are clearly affirmed both by Holy Scripture and by the teaching of the Church. Holy Scripture, on the one hand, tells us many facts of possession, on the other hand, it conveys that Jesus Christ Himself and His apostles recognized the possessed as truly possessed by evil spirits. Saul was possessed by an evil spirit; the evil spirit from time to time aroused in him melancholy, anger and envy in relation to David; or even if Saul became angry for some natural reason, the demon took possession of him and brought him into a rage. The possessed, of whom it is said in the Gospel that they cried out loudly that Jesus is the Christ, that He came to torment them before the time, that He is the Son of God, obviously represent an undoubted example of those possessed by an evil spirit.

A Miracle of Saints Cyrus and John for Theopompos Who Was Demon Possessed

 

The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John

Miracle 14

On Theopompos Who Was Demon Possessed

By St. Sophronios of Jerusalem

There was a certain Theopompos who was gravely possessed by a demon and there was nobody who would not cry looking at him. Generally people are more despondent about those who have this kind of malady of the soul; likely because it does not concern the body, which is subject to natural diseases and to corruption due to its origin of the tree of transgression in the paradise (to xylon tes parakoes eiso paradeisou). However, the malady of the soul which is against nature. For it is a kind of alteration of the soul's incorruptible nature created by the grace of God, and a suffering resulting from a demonic machination.

Feigning Demonic Possession For Profit

In Canon 60 of the Penthekte Synod in Constantinople which was held in 692, we read the following:

 

Since the Apostle exclaims that he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him, it is clear that he who is intimate with His enemy becomes one by his affinity with him. Therefore, those who pretend they are possessed by a devil and by their depravity of manners feign to manifest their form and appearance; it seems good by all means that they should be punished and that they should be subjected to afflictions and hardships of the same kind as those to which they who are truly demonically possessed are justly subjected with the intent of delivering them from the energies of the devil.

 

The Kursi Monastery Where Jesus Healed the Gadarene Demoniacs at the Sea of Galilee

Kursi (Κυρσοί) is located near the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee on the bank of a wadi, Nahal Samakh, descending from the Golan Heights. It is an archaeological site containing the ruins of a Byzantine monastery and identified by tradition as the site where Jesus cast out demons from two men which then went on to possess local pigs which cast themselves into the sea (Mark 5:1-20, Matthew 8:28–34, Luke 8:26-39). The events take place in the land of either the Gerasenes, Gadarenes or Gergesenes (Mark 5:1, Matthew 8:28, Luke 8:26). Part of the archaeological site is now an Israeli national park. Kursi takes its name from the Talmudic site. A marble slab with Aramaic text discovered in December 2015 seems to indicate that the settlement had, as of ca. 500 AD, a Jewish or Judeo-Christian population.

The Demon and the Prayer Rope

 

By St. Paisios the Athonite

Once, there was a monk from the Monastery of Saint Paul who had gone to the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos on the island of Kefallonia. During the Divine Liturgy, he stood in the Altar and was praying with his prayer rope - he would noetically say the prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us - while outside they were chanting. They had also brought a possessed person into the church to be cured by Saint Gerasimos. While the monk was saying the prayer in the Altar, the demon was being seared outside and was shouting:

Saint Eumenios Saridakis, the Demon Possessed Girl and the Miraculous Icon of Saint George

One afternoon in the year 2005, a girl and her father from Larissa visited the Koudouma Monastery in southern Crete, asking to visit the Church of the Panagia.

Entering the church, the girl could not offer veneration, because something prevented her. The father explained to the Abbot that his daughter was suffering from demonic influence and the late Elder Eumenios from the village of Ethia in Crete appeared to her in a vision before this time (they had never heard of him) and urged her persistently to come to his tomb and he would heal her, because, as he told her, He had suffered the same from demons, "only I suffered from pride, while you from blasphemy."

How Is It That More Than One Demon Can Inhabit a Human Body?

By St. Theophan the Recluse

“My name is Legion, because we are many” (Mark 5:9). Spirits are not corporeal, so they do not fill or occupy places like bodies. This explains the physical possibility of many spirits staying in one person. The possibility of morality on the part of spirits is clear from their immorality or the absence of any moral principles, and from the human side – from the multilateral contact of his spiritual structure to the gloomy realm of impure forces.

But this only explains the possibility; the reality of the possession of demons is subject to conditions that we cannot determine. We can only say that the infestation of spirits is not always visible, it is not always revealed by the known actions of the possessed. There is an infiltration of spirits that is undetectable, hidden; there is also the power of the spirits over the minds, besides the body, when they lead them as they please, through the passions  at work in them; people think that they are all acting on their own, being a laughing stock of evil forces. What to do? Be a true Christian, and no enemy force will defeat you.

On the Monk Who Pretended He Was Demon Possessed (St. Paisios the Athonite)

In the old days there were Fathers who even pretended to be demon possessed, in order to hide their virtue and spoil the good opinion others had of them.

When I was in Philotheou Monastery [1956-1958], which was idiorhythmic at the time, there was a Father who had previously been an ascetic in Vigla.*

He, as soon as he realized that the Fathers there had taken a whiff of his asceticism and his spiritual advancement, left with the blessing of his spiritual father.

Christ the Bridegroom and the Demonic Monster

Metropolitan Athanasios giving confession next to the icon of the Bridegroom

 By Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

I remember something that took place in Cyprus. When I first came to Cyprus from Mount Athos, in the first years, a teacher of transcendental meditation and yoga came to me. As a yoga teacher he was initiated into all these delusions of Satan along with Sophiology and Islam. He was in England, traveled around, and was a student of great gurus and various other delusional teachers of that time.

After a meeting with Elder Sophrony in Essex, his whole being was shaken. He was a Cypriot. He came to Cyprus with his wife and they confessed and laid the foundations of a spiritual life. But he had many demonic energies within him. Satan fought against him hard, with many thoughts and with a hardness of heart. This is because meditation - or "devilization" as Elder Paisios jokingly called it - is based on human egoism, arrogance, selfish ambition. So he cultivated arrogance inside him for years. He was a teacher, he had his own school with hundreds of students where he taught them meditation, esoteric philosophy and more. So there was a battle in his reasoning, in his thoughts and he could not allow his heart to be crushed to repent. He came to the monastery, he confessed, but he was fighting. As I was confessing, I had next to me an icon of the Bridegroom Christ, this modern icon which is the Bridegroom Christ with the red cloak and the rod in his hand. I found the icon in the monastery, would light a candle before it, and people would confess.

Saint Anthimos of Chios and the Demon Possessed Man

 

Saint Anthimos of Chios was a simple man who at the age of forty became a Great Schema Monk in Chios. A few years later, in 1910, he was chosen to become a Priest, but since he was illiterate he was sent to the area of Adramyttion (modern Turkish town of Edremit) in Smyrna, where his first cousin and her husband taught him to read and write. After learning to read and write over the course of some months, he was ordained a Priest in Smyrna and assigned to the Chapel of Saint Panteleimon.

Why A Priest Did the Service of Exorcism Every Wednesday Evening

Many years ago, Father Symeon Kragiopoulos* (+ 2015) read exorcisms every Wednesday night, then he would do a Service of Holy Unction, which was followed with a short vigil. To some it seemed strange to read exorcisms. Father Symeon would reply: "Today we all need exorcisms."

Saint Paisios the Athonite elaborates on this elsewhere:

Saint Hilarion the Great as an Exorcist

By St. Dimitri of Rostov

 

1. The servant and driver of a certain nobleman of Gaza was set upon by a demon as he was driving his carriage. He became stiff and could not move at all but remained able to speak. This servant was brought to the godly Hilarion in the desert, and as soon as the saint laid eyes on him, he said, "You cannot be cured of your infirmity unless you first believe in Christ the Lord, Who alone can heal you of your ailment."

The sick man cried out piteously, "I believe in Him; only let Him heal me!"

The saint prayed and healed the man by the power of Christ, and then instructed him in the faith. He told the servant to be baptized and sent him home freed from bondage to the devil and whole in body and soul.

Saint Athanasios the Demon-Destroyer, Archbishop of Trebizond

St. Athanasios the Demon-Destroyer (Feast Day - October 11)

On October 11, 2020 the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Oraiokastro, a municipality in Thessaloniki, revived the celebration of the memory of a long-forgotten saint who is known as Saint Athanasios the Demon-Destroyer, the Wonderworker, the Archbishop of Trebizond. (You can read the account of how this Saint was rediscovered here.)

To prepare for this first celebration, a Hierarch familiar with Pontian history, Metropolitan Paul of Drama, wrote the results of his research and with this had composed a Service of Praise in honor of the Saint. In the Prologue he tells us about the source of his information on Saint Athanasios, who was the Archbishop of Trebizond in the 9th century (specifically 867-886). He writes:

Saint Herakleides and the Demoniac Who Issued Forth a Snake and Two Crabs

A well-attested story from 1769 states the following. 

 

A certain Hadji named Savvas, an inhabitant of the Phaneromeni district of Nicosia in Cyprus, had a son named John, who was a victim of demonic possession. On the feast of Saint Herakleides the parents brought their child to the shrine of the Saint in hopes of eliminating his suffering. While the Divine Liturgy was being celebrated, a strange occurrence took place. The boy suddenly fell to the ground, convulsing and vomiting, then witnesses beheld his tormentor issue forth in the shape of a snake, a span length, and two crabs. The snake and the crabs were afterwards hung up publicly in the church to confirm the faith of believers and silence the unbelievers. 

 

The Holy Hieromartyr Herakleides, Bishop of Tamassos, is commemorated on September 17th. 

 

 

Saint Ioanniki of Svyatogorsk and the Malicious Demoniac with a Distorted Face and Inhuman Voice

The following incident took place according to the testimony of Andrei Fedorovich Kovalevsky (1840-1901), who was a pious Kharkov landowner who pursued asceticism in the field of spiritual literature, and was acquainted with Saint Ioanniki of Svyatogorsk (+ 1882), about whom he wrote the following:

 

Once a man of enormous height was brought to [St. Ioanniki], a line Cossack from beyond the Kuban, with a brutally distorted face; he was hardly able to be dragged there by two stalwart Cossacks, his relatives. The demoniac roared in an inhuman voice, and the roar of a bear, and the howl of a wolf, and the grunt of a pig were alternately heard in the sounds of his voice, while his eyes sparkled with inexpressible malice. 

 

When Saint Nektarios Encountered a Demon Possessed Young Man Upon His Arrival in Aegina

Saint Nektarios went to Aegina at the end of the summer of 1904. His purpose was to establish the monastery which now bears his name.

As the boat approached that was bringing him to the island, a young demon possessed man, Spyros, fell before the doorstep of the pharmacy of Aegina and began to shout:

"He's coming, the bishop is coming! Run to welcome him! The saint is coming to save the island!"

They tried to calm him down, but they could not. Spyros continued to shout. A crowd of strangers gathered and kept growing. They looked sadly at the disheveled lad and marveled at what he said.

Some ran to Papa-Michalis, the pastor.

"Papa, Spyros is foretelling about a bishop. A bishop is coming, he shouts, who will save the island."

Papa-Michalis hurried to see what was happening. He entered the circle of those that gathered and approached Spyros. He was still shouting:

"The bishop is coming from Rizarios! God took pity on this place! The holy one of Pentapolis is coming!"

The priest watched the confused young man for a long time, who was foaming at the mouth when he tried to shout. Then he left troubled in his thoughts and headed to the port dock. At that time the ship came from Piraeus. Among the passengers Papa-Michalis distinguished the bishop.

He bent reverently and kissed his hand.

"Your Eminence, welcome to Aegina. First time coming here?"

"First," he replied with a smile.

"Here, let's go home ... Only ..."

"Do you want anything?"

"Yes, a little further on, an event shocked us."

"What happened?"

"There is a poor young man, crawling in the market, closing his eyes and prophesying the future. He is now disheveled and shouting that you will come and save the place. He even calls you a man of God, a saint!"

"Where exactly is this young man?"

"This way, Your Eminence."

They went and arrived at the doorstep of the pharmacy. Spyros was still shouting:

"The bishop is coming! He is coming to save this place! He will build a church! He will build the biggest Monastery!"

The Saint stood short of where the young man was. He raised his face to heaven and prayed. Then he raised his staff, the only sign of his high priesthood, and, shutting the mouth of the lad, said:

- "Spirit of the python, the wicked and impure, I urge you in the name of Christ the Crucified, to come out of this young man."

Immediately then Spyros groaned and stood up! He opened his eyes. Then he bent down and full of gratitude kissed the hand of the Saint, who healed him. 

An Exorcism With a Full Stomach? An Incident from the Life of Elder Gervasios Paraskevopoulos

 

Father Ephraim of the Skete of the Holy Apostle Andrew in Serai near Karyes of Mount Athos recalled the following story from the life Elder Gervasios Paraskevopoulos (+ 1964):

On one particular Easter Sunday evening, Father Gervasios Paraskevopoulos retired to his room to break his long and strict fast of Great Lent and Holy Week by eating some avgolemono soup, cheese and a paschal egg. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and it was a certain mother who came to him seeking help for her daughter who was demon possessed. Having eaten half of his soup, he took his epitrachelion and followed the mother to her house.

Elder Ephraim of Arizona and the Demon Possessed Canadian Woman

 

Elder Ephraim of Arizon gave the following testimony of an exorcism he performed for a Canadian woman:

"I had gone to Canada and there I spoke to the Greek community about the devil, about how he deceives us and leads us to sin. When I finished the speech and the people left, there was a big uproar. Some ladies then came and informed me that some old lady had been demonized. The demon-possessed woman was shouting and screaming, saying words about me:

'This man has revealed me, he brought me out! What are you looking for here in Canada? He came to take what was mine, which I had bound tightly. I will hurt him and take revenge on him!'