The Demon and the Prayer Rope

 

By St. Paisios the Athonite

Once, there was a monk from the Monastery of Saint Paul who had gone to the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos on the island of Kefallonia. During the Divine Liturgy, he stood in the Altar and was praying with his prayer rope - he would noetically say the prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us - while outside they were chanting. They had also brought a possessed person into the church to be cured by Saint Gerasimos. While the monk was saying the prayer in the Altar, the demon was being seared outside and was shouting:

The Church of Saint Paraskevi of the Dragon in Arta of Epirus

 

The Church of Saint Paraskevi of the Dragon is located 11 kilometers north of Arta in Epirus, above the settlement of Ampelia Ammotopou and 2 kilometers approximately northeast of the provincial road Artas-Hanopoulos-Ammotopou. Isolated in the southern area of Xirovouni, on the smooth slopes of Gelperina, it connects its establishment with the adjacent cave or "dragon hole" as the locals call it.

The legend of the building of the temple, as well as the nickname "of the dragon", is based on the well-known and particularly popular theme of dragon slaying which symbolizes the victory over evil, most popularly associated with Saint George.

According to folk tradition, a dragon lived in the cave, which once a year appeared at the village festival and grabbed the most beautiful maiden. The inhabitants begged Saint Paraskevi to free them from this evil, so the Saint clashed with the monster and killed it. In her honor, the residents erected the small church.

Saint Christina and the Reptiles of the Magicians

Julian, the governor of the city of Tyre, wanting to defeat the young maiden Christina, the invincible Martyr of Christ, at any cost, called magicians and sorcerers, who knew how to bewitch all kinds of reptiles, and ordered them to use their spells to gather a multitude of snakes, vipers and scorpions, and to hurl them all at the Martyr to tire her out with their poisonous bites. When they released the reptiles on the Saint, not a single one hurt her, even though they crawled around her and wrapped themselves around her body. In the immediate vicinity stood a senior witch doctor who, with his incantations and spells, enticed the reptiles to bite the virgin. However, all the reptiles, according to God's order, attacked that soothsayer, bit him and he died at that moment. And the Saint said to the reptiles: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you reptiles: snakes, adders and scorpions, go each to your place, without hurting anyone!"

An Exorcism by Saint Amphilochius of Pochaiv (+ 1971)

 

 

His feast day is May 12th.

Saint Eumenios Saridakis, the Demon Possessed Girl and the Miraculous Icon of Saint George

One afternoon in the year 2005, a girl and her father from Larissa visited the Koudouma Monastery in southern Crete, asking to visit the Church of the Panagia.

Entering the church, the girl could not offer veneration, because something prevented her. The father explained to the Abbot that his daughter was suffering from demonic influence and the late Elder Eumenios from the village of Ethia in Crete appeared to her in a vision before this time (they had never heard of him) and urged her persistently to come to his tomb and he would heal her, because, as he told her, He had suffered the same from demons, "only I suffered from pride, while you from blasphemy."