The Seven Demons of Mary Magdalene

By John Sanidopoulos

"Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out" (Luke 8:2).

Based on this passage from the Gospel of Luke, it had been assumed by the medieval Church in the West that Mary Magdalene was to be identified with the sinful woman from Luke 7. The Greek Fathers, however, made no such error in confusing the identities of these women. Hence, Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but ill.

In her Greek life, which is kept in the Great Lavra Monastery in Mount Athos and begins with the verse from Proverbs 8:17 ("I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me find Me."), the following is said regarding the seven demons:

The Demonology of St. John of the Ladder (1 of 6) - The Evil Spirits

By John Chryssavgis

1. The Evil Spirits

The importance of the demonological theme in John's spirituality can be gauged from the account of his anthropology. At times, demons seem to dominate the stage, although he never succumbed to any obsession with demonology of the kind which characterized second and third century Gnosticism and which was responsible for the erection of a vast and complex system of demonic hierarchies. Still, John reflects an intense experience of demonic influence, which brings about splits and conflicts within man and impels him to struggle against its divisive claims. To split, to divert, to shift, to disrupt is its essential procedure; but the struggle is basically within man. Indeed, in the East it is accepted that demons approach us in the form corresponding to our own inward state. Satan says to Saint Anthony: "It is not I who trouble them [the monks], it is they who trouble themselves."1 Thus demonology does in some measure signify, though it is not reducible to, psychology. Nonetheless, John's demonological language is at times highly objectified, pointing, as will be seen, to real agents rather than imaginary shadows.