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.

 

The Power of the Cross Against Demons and Magic (St. Athanasius the Great)

By St. Athanasius the Great

(Excerpts from On the Incarnation)

- "Since the Savior has come among us, idolatry not only has no longer increased, but what there was is diminishing and gradually coming to an end: and not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer advance, but what there is is now fading away: and demons, so far from cheating any more by illusions and prophecies and magic arts, if they so much as dare to make the attempt, are put to shame by the sign of the Cross."

The Saint Who Starved and the Witch Who Devoured

In the Orthodox Church we commemorate a Saint on September 3rd who is relatively unknown to us, except for his name and how he died. His name is Saint Archontios, and he died as a martyr for Christ by being starved to death. The iambic verses composed in his honor in the Synaxarion of Constantinople poetically describes his martyrdom as follows:

Archontios starved and hence was worn out,
The ruler of this world is a noetic lamia.

A Byzantine Nativity Icon that Depicts a Belief in Witchcraft and the Evil Eye

The fresco above, dated to 1289 from the church known as Omorphi Ekklesia on the island of Aegina, might appear upon first glance to be a standard Nativity scene typical of late Byzantine iconography. A closer look, however, reveals a number of unusual iconographic features, which suggest that first impressions are wrong, and that it is actually rather an unconventional treatment of the subject.

First is that it depicts the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child at her breast, known in Greek as Galaktotrophousa, or Milk-Feeder. Though it is not unusual in itself, it is unusual to find it depicted in the late thirteenth century. But as one looks at the painting, what catches the attention is the treatment of the Cave of Bethlehem, the birthplace of the incarnated Logos, which is shown as a rocky mass fringed by a corrugated band with six eyes depicted on it. These eyes encompass the Virgin and her new-born child, and are focused on the interior of the cave, seeming to follow the drama which unfolds within it. This composition with the Galaktotrophousa and the watching eyes is unique in Byzantine art.

Another iconographic oddity, at first glance seems to be a standard genre feature. This is the figure of the dog on the right; with its long claws and gaping jaws the barking animal exudes an air of menace. Ferocious dogs of this kind appear in murals in the churches of San Pietro in Otranto, southern Italy and of Sts Anargyroi in Kipoula, Mani (1265), while a strange creature resembling a dragon rather than a dog can be found in the church of the Archangel Michael in Kouneni, Crete. The inclusion of this fierce creature in four near-contemporary Nativity scenes is unlikely to be a coincidence, and in view of the generally negative attitude to dogs held by the Byzantines, its presence here raises a number of questions. In hagiological and theological literature, descriptions of saints confronting the Devil in canine form and frequent comparisons of the Evil One to a dog suggest that this was a widely accepted belief in Byzantine society. The purpose of including such ferocious animals in Nativity scenes seems therefore to be a reminder that on the margins of this joyful event lurked the evil presence of a demonic creature. This teaching can also be found in the Nativity hymns of the Orthodox Church and patristic sermons on the Nativity.

This indicates that the Devil’s threat to the Virgin and to the Christ-child is clearly part of Orthodox belief, and it also provides a possible explanation of the inclusion of the rabid dog as a symbol of evil in the Nativity scene. The confrontation of the Christ-child with the agents of evil is also found in the Christmas liturgy itself. The prophecy par excellence of the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 11:1–8) describes the co-existence of wild and tame animals (‘then the wolf also shall graze with the lambs’) in verses 6–8, which end with the passage ‘and he shall play while giving suck at the hole of the asps and being weaned he shall raise his hand to the face of the basilisk.’

The basilisk, the king of reptiles, could according to legend cause death with his glance. This belief, which has its roots in Roman times and is found in early Christian texts, spread throughout the Byzantine world, as is clear from references in literature and from illustrated manuscripts of zoological treatises depicting this fantastic creature with its huge head and terrifying eyes. The myth of its deadly gaze led to the basilisk being linked with the popular belief of the evil eye (baskania), i.e. the harm caused by envy through the power of the gaze. This connection is clearly expressed in the commentary on the Psalter by Euthymios Zigabenos. Writing about Psalms 90(91):13 (‘You will overcome the asp and the basilisk and tread down the lion and the dragon’), Zigabenos, like other commentators, says that these fearful monsters are symbols of the Devil, and then he adds: ‘The basilisk is the baskania (evil eye), for just as he has destruction in his eyes, so baskania causes destruction through the eyes.’

Like many other peoples throughout history, the Byzantines believed that it was pregnant mothers and new-born children who were most susceptible to the workings of the envious eye because of the risks and dangers arising from pregnancy and childbirth. A whole series of apotropaic practices relating to babies and children indicates how widespread this belief was:red ribbons, for example, were tied to babies’ arms ‘as amulets to provide protection against diseases and the evil eye.’ On the other hand, although the church officially condemned such unorthodox religious practices, it offered prayers for the protection of mothers in labor and new-born children which – it is no coincidence – contained references to the evil eye.

The Byzantine belief in witches, known in Greek as the Gelo, which was like a female demon, who endangers the life of new-born children and women during pregnancy and labor, may account for this. In an apotropaic text on the demon’s confrontation with Archangel Michael and her defeat at his hands, she gives a description of her powers, in accordance with the concept that in order to resist unfamiliar evil spirits one must first recognize their strengths: ‘I enter someone’s house in the form of a snake, a serpent … I go to wound women; wherever I go I cause them pain in their heart, and I dry up their milk … I kill infants.’ And she concludes: ‘When the holy Mary gave birth to the Word of truth, I went there to delude her, but I failed and was myself turned away deluded.’ As one of the Gelou’s appellations is given as ‘Baskosyne’ and a basic motive for her actions is envy, she is identified with baskania, the evil eye.

The reference in the exorcism to the attack on the Virgin, though probably a magical formula expressing the demon’s strength and immunity, which can only be overcome by the powers of God, could have suggested the idea of danger to the Christ-child from the forces of evil and in particular the evil eye. The fact that the boundaries between Orthodox beliefs and practices on the one hand and magical rituals and superstitions on the other are not always recognized by the general public or sometimes even by priests lacking in theological knowledge makes this a very plausible theory.

To return to the placing of eyes around the cave of the Nativity in the Omorphi Ekklesia, this should be interpreted as anapotropaic practice against envy and the Devil’s evil eye. The representation of an eye as a protection against baskania follows a basic apotropaic rule, in which the very thing which provokes the evil is used to destroy it. The fact that Christ is depicted at his mother’s breast supports this interpretation, since although this image basically emphasizes the doctrine of the Incarnation, it is at the same time a representation of an intimate and human moment in the life of the incarnated Logos, who is here no different from any other new-born infant; Christ is shown as an ordinary baby needing protection from the perils of the evil eye.

Finally, the interpretation of the eyes around the cave may also lie in the symbolism given to the sacred birthplace in ecclesiastical hymnography and homilies. In addition to its associations with Paradise and Heaven and with the cave of the Burial and Resurrection, the cave of the Nativity is also likened to the ‘dark underground life of mortals’. This comparison is extended in hymns to the individual figure of the hymnographer and thence to that of the believer, who is characterized as a cave, and specifically a cave of robbers, i.e. demons. Christmas homilies associate the idea of the believer as a ‘cave of devils’ with the Cave of the Nativity, as in this later text: ‘The Lord was born in a poor, humble cave, to transform man who is the cave and dwelling of the robber and the murderous demon, the fearful evil devil, into the temple and house of the Holy Spirit’ (Archbishop Anthimos of Athens, late 14th c.). It was thus the belief that the Cave of the Nativity was to be compared with sinful and demon-dominated man, and more generally that caves were the haunt of demons,that led to the placing of these apotropaic symbols at the cave mouth.

Read more about this image here.

A Witch Trial in Eighth-Century Constantinople

By John Sanidopoulos

Though we know the belief in witches was an issue in the Eastern Roman Empire of the eighth century from the short treatise of Saint John of Damascus titled On Witches, little known is that there was an actual witchcraft trial in Constantinople at around the same time the Damascene wrote his treatise. Iconoclasm provides the context for this episode, and it is recorded by Ignatios the Deacon (c. 770-c. 845) in the Life of Patriarch Tarasios, who had ordained him to the diaconate. The chief protagonist is not Tarasios, but his father George, who was an iconophile that served the iconoclast emperors Leo (717-741) and Constantine V (741-775). George had been promoted to the highest judicial seat and had an irreproachable reputation as a just judge who treated all equally and fairly before the law. On account of George's moral integrity, he himself was once made to stand trial on account of his correct observance of the laws. George's straight judgment and procedure had been disputed by the rulers who chose not to exercise justice. The case, briefly, was this.

On Witches (St. John of Damascus)

On Witches (Περὶ Στρυγγῶν = Peri Stryggōn, Migne PG 94 1604) is perhaps the shortest treatise among the written works of John Damascene (676-749), and perhaps the earliest ecclesiastical text on the subject of the folklore surrounding witches, though this, along with his treatise On Dragons, may have been part of a larger treatise addressing such subject matter. As far as I know, though it is very short, it has never been fully translated before into English. Even the best known and the most important treatise on witchcraft, the Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, published in 1487, does not even mention this text, although it does quote John Damascene as an authority on other subjects about a handful of times. Perhaps it doesn't mention this text because it refutes the myths and folklore about witches, as opposed to the contents of the Malleus Maleficarum, which was used to justify belief in such things and led to the deaths of thousands of falsely accused witches in both Europe and North America (most notably in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials from 1692-1693).

St. Serapion of Vladimir on the Persecution of Witches

Serapion of Vladimir (+ 1275) was a Bishop of Vladimir. He was Archimandrite of the Monastery of the Kiev Caves from 1247 until 1274, and was Bishop of the Diocese of Vladimir, Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod from 1274 until his death the following year.

Five sermons by Serapion have been preserved. His main theme is the disaster of the Mongol invasion, seen as divine punishment for Russia because of its people's sins. Four of the sermons appear to have been written in 1274/5, when he was bishop. The fifth is presumably older, and was most likely written shortly after the destruction of Kiev in 1240. In one of his late sermons, he denounces the persecution of witches.

Saint George and the Powers of Witches and Vampires

“It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?”

―Bram Stoker, Dracula 1897

Today is the Eve of the Feast of Saint George! Which means that if you are still alive after tonight, you survived what is known in Eastern Europe as the most dangerous night of the year, as the powers of vampires and witches and every evil were at their height on the Eve of the Feast of Saint George.

Saint Walpurga and the Witches of Walpurgis Night

Saint Walpurga

The daughter of Saint Richard the Pilgrim and sister of Saint Willibald, Saint Walpurga (also known as Saint Walpurgis or Walburga) was born in Devonshire in 710 A.D. An English princess, Saint Walpurga studied medicine and became a Christian missionary to Germany, where she founded an double monastery in Heidenheim. As a result of Saint Walpurga's evangelism in Germany, the people there converted to Christianity from heathenism. In addition, the monastery became an education center and soon became famous as a center of culture. Saint Walpurga was also known to repel the effects of witchcraft. She perished in 777 and her tomb, to this day, produces holy oil (known as Saint Walburga's oil), which is said to heal sickness; Benedictine nuns distribute this oil in vials to Christian pilgrims who visit Saint Walpurga's tomb.

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.

Orthodox Fresco Condeming Witchcraft and Traditional Folk Magic

A fresco of the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, condemning witchcraft and traditional folk magic.

Movie Review: "The Witch: A New England Folktale" (2015)

The Witch, which is subtitled "A New England Folktale", is the feature length debut of filmmaker Robert Eggers, and has earned A24 Films their biggest opening ever. It is the latest of the popular and critically acclaimed arthouse horror films, which include It Follows, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Babadook, and Goodnight Mommy, all of which I highly recommend. Of all these films, however, this is also the most controversial.

A Cinema of Evil: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Witchcraft & the Occult

"The Witch"

It's not often Christians read a pagan perspective of topics like this, which I think is important, so with the recent and simultaneous release of The Witch (my review here) and Risen (my review here) I thought this article was informative and interesting to get another perspective on how a pagan views Hollywood's love affair with witchcraft and the occult. This was written a few days before the release of The Witch.

Peg Aloi

February 17, 2016

Patheos: The Witching Hour

There can be no denying that contemporary culture is fascinated by horror. This popular genre of literature, film and TV has many sub-categories: supernatural, paranormal, monsters, ghosts, the undead, serial killers, and, of course, the occult. Witches and witchcraft are a common topic: but do they fall into the category of the occult? The supernatural? Monsters? I find myself asking this question often, as I witness the ebb and flow of witchy storylines in movies and TV.

The Truth About Witches and Witch-Hunters

Halloween is a good time to start debunking some of the myths about witchcraft.

Julian Goodare
30 October 2010
The Guardian

Witchcraft attracts attention, especially at this time of year; everyone "knows" something about it. As a historian, I'm interested to see my subject, the past, being put to all kinds of uses in the present. Here are some ideas about witch-hunting that are distinctly dodgy.

It's sometimes suggested that witch-hunting was a more or less conscious male device for repressing women. In fact, although there is a relationship between women and witch-hunting, it's a complex one. Witch-hunters didn't target women as such, they targeted witches – and about 25% of witches were men. Witch-hunting certainly functioned as an encouragement to conform to patriarchal values, but witch-hunting wasn't a cynical male conspiracy.

St. Gregory of Nyssa on the Apparitions of Spirits of the Dead, or Ghosts

In his treatise On the Soul and the Resurrection, St. Gregory of Nyssa is said to have been taught by his sister St. Macrina regarding eschatological topics as she lay on her death-bed following the repose of their brother, St. Basil the Great. Commenting on the details of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, St. Macrina makes the following observation:

Book Review: "Very Short Introduction to Paganism"

Christopher Howse
September 16, 2011
The Telegraph

The new Very Short Introduction to Paganism (Oxford, £7.99) would be scarcely a pamphlet if it was confined to paganism lived as a religion in the modern world. Wicca, the most popular form, goes back as far as 1948.

In that year Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) turned his attentions from the magic of the Ordo Templi Orientis (represented by Aleister “The Beast” Crowley, pictured above) and devoted himself to the witchcraft he claimed was the old religion of Europe.

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.