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 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. 

 

Saint Dionysios of Olympus and the Monk Who Summoned a Demon

 

There was a monk at Beroea who was only slightly educated. One day a book on divination came into his hands, and out of curiosity he read a little bit of it, thereby invoking the demons. As he slept that night, he saw in a dream a giant creature, blacker than any Ethiopian, who said to him:

"Because you have called upon me, I have come. If you will make obeisance to me, I will do what you ask!"

Now the monk recognized that this was the devil, and said to him:

Saint Gerasimos and the Woman Who Suffered from a Violent Demonic Possession

 

The Well of Saint Gerasimos

A short time after the repose of Saint Gerasimos in 1581, there came to his monastery a certain woman seeking to be cured of being tormented by an unclean spirit.  Daily she would go to the tomb of the Saint, fall before his relics, and fervently entreat him to deliver her from her oppression that tormented her by using violence.

One night, the spiteful demon, desiring only the destruction of the unfortunate woman, dragged her along the ground and cast her into the well which can found in the courtyard of the monastery. As this was being done, the nuns heard the voice of Saint Gerasimos say to them: "Come quickly, because the demonized woman is in extreme danger and needs help!"

The Demon Possessed Village

After the repose of Saint Peter the Athonite (June 12) in 734, two grave-robbing monks stole the relic of the Saint, and having fled Mount Athos they came to the village of Photokomi which is located in Thrace. In this village was a well, where the monks sat down to eat bread after a weary journey. The relic of the Saint, meanwhile, was hanging in a sack on the branch of a nearby olive tree.

An Old Ascetic Recalls the Greatest Lesson He Learned in the Wilderness

These are the words of Elder Theodore the Cave-Dweller (+ 2016), the last ascetic of Agiofarago in Crete:

'If you asked me to tell you, what I learned after so many years in the wilderness, I would answer you with one word: the power of the Psalter. If I began my life right now, I would strive to do one thing: to memorize the Psalter. This is the parental womb of noetic prayer. This is the fertile soil where the seed of prayer is sown. When I would read, during my vigils, the Psalter, a demon would come, hissing like a wildcat in my ear. Especially when I said the verse: "Let God arise...," and the verse that says: "You are the Lord my God." Enraged, he would grab me by the throat, choking me. He would confuse my words, so I would not say them. So much did they burn him.'