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.

The Dragon of Mega Spelaion

Mega Spelaion, or Great Cave, is a large cave near Kalavryta, in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Today a monastery is there known as the Monastery of Mega Spelaion, because according to tradition, it was in this cave that the Apostle Luke lived while evangelizing the area, and where he also wrote his Gospel and made one of his first icons of the Mother of God. Many centuries later two brothers who were monks, Saints Symeon and Theodore, found this miraculous icon with the help of a local shepherdess Saint Euphrosyne in the cave and a monastery was established. However, after the two brothers found the icon, deep within the cave, unknown to them, it is said there lived a dragon.

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:

The Incorrupt Right Arm of Saint Cyprian in his Church in Bucharest and Some of It's Terrifying Tales

In the Zlatari Church, or Church of Saint Cyprian, of Bucharest, Romania is a wonderworking relic that faithful Christians flock to in order to be delivered from curses and spells - the right arm of Saint Cyprian of Antioch, a former magician of the third century who converted to Christianity and became a Christian Bishop.

 

The church itself, a Romanian historic monument known as “a church of miracles” due to the alleged powers of Saint Cyprian’s arm, got its name from the goldsmiths, or “zlătari,” who lived in the neighborhood and built the original wooden church in the 17th century. It was rebuilt in 1850, after nearly being destroyed by earthquakes earlier in the 1800s, and is known for the beautiful frescoes by Gheorghe Tattarescu that decorate the walls and the door.

 

Saints Lucian and Marcian: Two Former Magicians Who Died for their Faith in Christ

Sts. Lucian and Marcian the Martyrs (Feast Day - October 26)

The Holy Martyrs Lucian and Marcian, living in the darkness of idolatry, applied themselves to the vain study of the black arts; but were converted to the faith of Christ by finding their charms lose their power upon a Christian virgin, and the evil spirits defeated by the sign of the cross. Their eyes being thus opened, they burned their magical books in the middle of the city of Nicomedia and, when they had effaced their crimes by baptism, they distributed their possessions among the poor, and retired together into solitude, that by exercising themselves in mortification and prayer, they might subdue their passions, and strengthen in their souls that grace which they had just received, and which could not safely be exposed to dangers, and occasions of temptations in the world till it was fenced by rooted habits of all virtues, and ascetic exercises.

The Christian History of the Gargoyle

Gargoyles and Saints of Siena Cathedral

In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastical animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is directed from the wall. When Gothic flying buttresses were used, aqueducts were sometimes cut into the buttress to divert water over the aisle walls.

A Case of Vampirism in the Lives of the Saints?

By John Sanidopoulos

The English author and clergyman Montague Summers published a heavily researched book on vampires in 1928 titled The Vampire, His Kith and Kin. In the second chapter he goes into some detail about the history of excommunication, and the belief of many, especially among simple-minded Orthodox Christians, as to how this contributes to a curse especially seen after death that results in the folkloric belief in vampirism, where the body of the excommunicated deceased may show signs of foul incorruption and an undead state. The activities of these vampire-like beings, known among the Greeks as vrykolakas, are said to nearly always be harmful, verging from merely leaving their grave and "roaming about", through engaging in poltergeist-like activity, and up to causing epidemics in the community. Among other things, the creature is believed to knock on the doors of houses and call out the name of the residents. If it gets no reply the first time, it will pass without causing any harm. If someone does answer the door, he or she will die a few days later and become another vrykolakas. For this reason, there is a superstition present in certain Greek villages that one should not answer a door until the second knock. Legends also say that the vrykolakas crushes or suffocates the sleeping by sitting on them, much like a mara or incubus (cf. sleep paralysis) — as does a vampire in Bulgarian folklore.

The Confession of Saint Cyprian of Antioch

All you who take offence at the mysteries of Christ, take a look at my tears, and take notice of the power of all that is contained in them. All you who delight in the customs that come from demons, learn from me the vanity of the mockeries in them. For neither will any of you be able to be more god-fearing than I was formerly, nor be able to examine the things concerning the so-called gods more than I, nor be able to attain more energy from them. I am Cyprian, who from tender talons was dedicated to Apollo as a valuable gift and still as a child was initiated into the dramaturgy of the dragon. I was not yet seven years old when I entered the mysteries of Mithras, and seeing how I was an Athenian foreigner I was quickly made a citizen by my parents; when I was still ten years old, I carried the torch for Demeter and submitted to the white sorrow of Kore, and I served the serpent of Pallas on the Acropolis as I was promoted to temple servant. Then I arrived on Mount Olympus, the dwelling place, as they say, of the gods, and I was initiated into the communion of sound and the recounting of noises. I saw there trees that produce visions and herbs appearing to operate by divine intervention. I saw there the successions of seasons as the winds changed and the diversity of days brought about by certain opposing energies. I saw there bands of demons chanting, and others making war, and others lying in ambush, deceiving, and confounding, and I beheld there the phalanx of every god and goddess as I waited for forty days in that place from which, from kingdoms so to speak, they send out the winds to activate each of them on the earth and among all nations.

Read the entire text here.

The Demon That Was Subject to Saint Abercius

Saint Abercius was the Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180). During a pagan celebration one day, Abercius shut himself in his house and prayed with tears for the people who worshiped lifeless and dumb idols. As he prayed, the Lord appeared to him and instructed him to go and topple the altars of the idols. After doing as he was instructed in the middle of the night, when morning came the angry pagans went to the house of the Saint in order to kill him. Instead of fleeing, Abercius went to the marketplace and publicly proclaimed the truth of the Christian faith over pagan superstition. To give evidence to his words, he healed three demon possessed men. When the people saw his words confirmed by the power of grace bestowed upon him, they listened to him, received the Christian faith, and about five hundred people were baptized Christians.

The Saint Who Was Buried By Twelve Demoniacs

St. Andrew who is at Krisi (Feast Day - October 17)

Saint Andrew, who came from Crete, lived during the reign of the iconoclast Emperor Constantine Copronymos (741-775), and at a young age became a monk. As a defender of holy icons, Andrew went to Constantinople to denounce the wicked Emperor Constantine Copronymos for taking a stand against icons and persecuting those who venerated them. As the emperor stood in the Church of the Holy Martyr Mamas, Andrew entered the church, stood before him, and openly rebuked him before all. "It would be better for you, O Emperor, to attend to military matters and to govern the people, than to persecute Christ and His servants," he said. For this, St. Andrew was beaten severely, tortured and dragged through the streets, during which an iconoclast struck him in the leg with a cleaver and killed him.

St. Artemios and the Exorcism of the Black Crow

In the seventh century an Anonymous author compiled a number of miracles of Saint Artemios the Great Martyr (Oct. 20), whose healing activities were predominantly centered in the Church of Saint John the Forerunner in Constantinople and who "specializes" in healing hernias and diseases affecting the genitals of mostly male patients. Below is one example of many:

A certain sailor for many years had problems with his testicles and approached the holy Martyr. His name was Isidore and he was about 53 years old. But he was unaware that he was being agitated by an evil spirit.

Now in the aisle of the church at the left, the Saint is accustomed to make his rounds as if he were a Chief Physician in charge of a hospital, just as many have often been convinced by experience, and to be sure one night the Saint in full view approached the man, while many of those awaiting the cure looked on, at the very place where the possessed man was lying down. Then the Saint stood over him, as we were saying, with an invisible force. Isidore arose from his bed and ran toward the image, and holding up his outstretched hands, he hung suspended as though his hands were tied to chains, hovering one cubit above the floor, and yelling loudly, so that all were astonished by the sight and were cowed by fear.

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.