Five Christian Saints Associated with Werewolves

St. Christopher with the head of a dog

The first mention of a werewolf is in Greek mythology, when Lykaon was turned into a wolf after dishing up a plate of human flesh to Jove, hence the Greek word Lycanthropy (wolf-man) for this phenomena. Before the age of exploration, the belief in werewolves or wolf-people was a common belief, even by the most educated. It was believed that those who lived at the edge of the world, beyond the boundaries of the Roman Empire, had particular traits not normally human, and among these peoples were what is called "dog-headed" people, known in Greek as Cynocephali, whose bodies were human but whose heads were like that of a dog or wolf, and they are often described as cannibals. Thus Saints who came from these unexplored and feared regions, or who were missionaries in these regions, became associated with werewolves.

The Witches' Days of Winter in Slovakia - November 25 to December 13

The time between the feast of Saint Katherine (November 25) and Saint Lucy (December 13) used to be called Witches’ Days in Slovakia, as women who could tell the fortunes of people were perceived as witches (bosorkas or strigas in Slovak, a male using magic was strigôň).

The first day was the feast of Saint Katherine, when people defended against evil with garlic. Garlic was eaten, used for smearing on doors, door-handles, locks, and latches. Women were strictly forbidden to do any work on this day, especially spinning and sewing, so that their fingers would not fester during summer works. A superstition said that if the first person to enter a house on Saint Katherine's was a woman, dishes will be smashed in it for the whole year to come. Young single men made rounds in the village in female clothing and in masks. Tools from a house where maidens were living were stolen and secretly removed and hidden.

The Haunted Monastic Cell Of A Heretic

 

By St. John Moschos

Abba John the Cilician told us that while he was staying at the ninth mile-post from Alexandria, an Egyptian monk visited them. He said:

"A brother from foreign parts came to the Lavra of the Cells and wanted to stay there. He prostrated himself before the priest and requested that he might stay the night in the cell of Evagrius*. The priest told him that he could not stay there.

The brother said: 'If I may not stay there, I will go away.'

The priest said to him: 'My child, the fact of the matter is that a cruel demon inhabits that place. It led Evagrius astray, alienating him from the true faith, and it filled his mind with abominable teachings.'

The brother persisted, saying: 'If I am to remain here, that is where I am going to stay.'

Then the priest said: 'May it be on your own head. Go and stay there.'

The Demonology of the Life of St. Symeon the Fool

St. Symeon the Fool for Christ (Feast Day - July 21)

Below are excerpts from the Life of Symeon the Fool by Leontios of Cyprus that concern topics of demonology. To read the entire text, see here.

The Battle Against Temptations

When they had stayed a few days, the Devil, the enemy of our souls, unable to bear the virtue of Christ’s servants, began to war against them: against John concerning his wife, and against Symeon concerning his great love for his mother. When one of them saw himself afflicted, immediately he said to the other, “Get up, brother. Let us pray.” And they prayed the prayer of the monk who prayed, “Grant them, O Lord, in their hearts the words of this prayer.” And immediately the two found that they knew it by heart. And they prayed it all the time in each temptation and in each of their requests to God. For it was the Devil who inflamed them, as the God-bearing Fool related, as he did when they ate meat and wine. And from the beginning, he suggested to them cowardice and despair concerning their asceticism, so that from time to time they sought to return from the desert to the monastery. And in their dreams, and sometimes in a delusion, the polymorphous snake made them see their own families weeping, driven mad, and many other things which it is not possible to narrate, unless someone has had the experience of such temptations. But as soon as they remembered the crowns which they had seen on one another and the teaching and tears of the old man (Nikon), their heart was soothed by them and encouraged, just as with holy oil.

Saint Glykeria and the Pagan Magician Paulinus

St. Glykeria the Great Martyr (Feast Day - May 13)

Dositheos in his Dodekavivlos records that the holy relics of Saint Glykeria were interred at Heraclea in Thrace. At Heraclea, a copper pot was used to collect divinely-flowing myrrh which gushed from the Saint's tomb. By means of this streaming myrrh, many received miracles, as also attested by Saint Theophylact of Ochrid. The Metropolitan of Heraclea, while in Constantinople, found an impressive gold pot. He bought it with the intention of substituting it for the copper vessel that received that sanctified outflow from the Saint's tomb. However, when the exchange was made, the miracles also ceased.

Why Saint George is Often Depicted Slaying a Dragon

By John Sanidopoulos

The well-known story of St. George killing the dragon is obviously a legend and not a fact of history, since dragons do not exist, unless we are speaking of the Komodo dragon, but it is unlikely the Komodo dragon would appear in the Middle East from Indonesia and pose the threat described in the tale.

The depiction in iconography of St. George as a dragonslayer is purely symbolic art, and this story is nowhere to be found in the rich hymnography of the Orthodox Church, which references the most realistic elements of the lives of the saints. For example, often in iconography we see St. John the Baptist depicted with wings, but this illustration is purely symbolic of him being an earthly angel and divine messenger. Another example is the depiction of halos around the heads of the saints, which is symbolic of their heavenly citizenship and the Divine Light of their deification and their being filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Patrick's Confrontations with Demons and Druids

By Jim Wies

Patrick was as fully aware as the Celts that the power of the druids was real, but he brought news of a stronger power. There are numerous stories from his life of confrontations between the power of God and the power of darkness. Here are just a few.

Saint Columba and the Loch Ness Monster

The event described below by St. Adomnan (c. 690) in his Vita Sancti Columbae is said to have happened in 565 AD:

Concerning a Certain Water Beast Driven Away by the Power of the Blessed Man's Prayer

Also at another time, when the blessed man was for a number of days in the province of the Picts, he had to cross the river Nes [Ness]. When he reached its bank, he saw a poor fellow being buried by other inhabitants; and the buriers said that, while swimming not long before, he had been seized and most savagely bitten by a water beast. Some men, going to his rescue in a wooden boat, though too late, had put out hooks and caught hold of his wretched corpse. When the blessed man heard this, he ordered notwithstanding that one of his companions should swim out and bring back to him, by sailing, a boat that stood on the opposite bank.

The Power In Crossing Ourselves

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Mysterious is the power of the Cross no matter how unexplainable, it is true and indisputable.

Yet, St. John Chrysostom speaks of the custom of his time that the sign of the Cross is attached "on the emperor's diadem, on the accoutrements of the soldiers and tracing it on parts of the body: the head, the breast [chest] and the heart and also on the table of oblations and over beds." "If it is necessary to expel demons", says he, "we use the Cross and it also helps to heal the sick."

St. Benedict made the sign of the Cross over a glass which contained poison and the glass burst as though it were struck by a stone.

St. Paul the Simple Battles a Powerful Demon

St. Paul the Simple (Feast Day - March 7 and October 4)

By Palladius of Helenopolis 

(Lausiac History, Ch. 28)

The great and blessed Anthony had become convinced that the soul of this servant of Christ had become almost perfected in all things, even though he was somewhat simple. After a few months Anthony was moved by the grace of God to build a cell for him three or four miles away from his own cell, and said to him, "See now, by the help of the grace of Christ you have become a monk. Now live by yourself, and even take on the demons."

So a year after Paul the Most Simple came to live with him he was highly experienced in a disciplined way of life and was found worthy to battle against the demons and against all kinds of diseases.

Saint Haralambos and the Demon Possessed

Many of the weighty difficulties which befall man have their cause, known or unknown, in his past. However, the causes of these weighty difficulties, let us say mental disorders, are nothing else than the transgression of the moral law of God.

Holy New Martyr Anastasios of Nafplion (+ 1655)

St. Anastasios of Nafplion (Feast Day - February 1 and June 4)

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Verse

The limbs of your flesh were cut Anastasios,

Like bread you will rise in the eschaton.

Anastasios, the holy neomartyr, was born and reared in Nafplion of the Peloponnese. He was a painter by trade. In his homeland, he was betrothed to the daughter of a a certain Christian. However, a few days later, he heard of some faults of his fiancee, and he dissolved the engagement. The parents of his former betrothed (not being firmly grounded in Christianity) took recourse in the magic arts to inveigle him into loving her and joining her in wedlock. Consequently, within a short period of time, the charm began to take effect and the young man went completely mad, roaming about aimlessly. The Hagarenes noticed this behavior and took advantage of his insanity, making him a Muslim by circumcision. Despite this, God pitied Anastasios, and, in a matter of days, He granted him complete restoration of his mental faculties. When Anastasios regained his senses and saw that he was wearing a white turban on his head like the Muslims, he shouted without hesitation into a crowd of Turks: "I was a Christian, I am a Christian, and a Christian I will always be!"

Why is Saint Anastasia Known as the "Deliverer From Potions" (Pharmakolitria)?

By John Sanidopoulos

The Great Martyr Anastasia of Sirmium was martyred sometime between 290 and 304, but after her relics were transferred to Constantinople in the fifth century, during the reign of Emperor Leo I, and to Rome in the sixth century, her popularity quickly rose throughout the Christian world. In Constantinople, they were installed in the fourth century Anastasis Church in the Portico of Domninus, near Constantine's forum. In old Rome, they were installed in the fourth century titular basilica of Saint Anastasia, built perhaps by Constantine's sister, Anastasia, to honor either the Resurrection of Christ or the original Roman martyr of the same name. In 824 Theodore Krithinos, oikonomos of the Great Church, travelled to Rome on an embassy to the Pope, and while there discovered an anonymous long Passion narrative of St. Anastasia written in Latin. After translating it to Greek, he brought it to Constantinople, which helped spark a revival in devotion to the Saint. Because of these events, churches throughout the Roman Empire were dedicated to her, and in each were iconographic portrayals of her holding a medicine bottle. Why?

The Life of Saints Cyprian and Justina the Martyrs

Sts. Cyprian and Justina (Feast Day - October 2)

Sts. Cyprian and Justina are the patron saints of those afflicted from spells, curses, witchcraft and magic. St. Cyprian is credited with writing some of the exorcism prayers of the Orthodox Church as well. Often practitioners of magic and especially voodoo who claim to also be Christians invoke St. Cyprian as their patron, though such practices are condemned by the Orthodox Church.

IN THE REIGN of Decius (249-251) there lived in Antioch (of Pisidia) a certain philosopher and renowned sorcerer whose name was Cyprian, a native of Carthage. Springing from impious parents, in his very childhood he was dedicated by them to the service of the pagan god Apollo. At the age of seven he was given over to magicians for the study of sorcery and demonic wisdom. At the age of ten he was sent by his parents, as a preparation for a sorcerer's career, to Mount Olympus, which the pagans called the dwelling of the gods. Here there were a numerous multitude of idols, in which demons dwelled.