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My wife and I watched "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" the other night. I thought it was pretty good. Not gory or bloody or gross, I thought it was accurate to what I've seen of Exorcisms on TV. Like on 48 hours, 20/20 and the rest; sometimes they are filmed for posterity and the victim sometimes gives permission for it to be released.

How does the East feel about possession, obsession, opression, etc... by demons? (These are terms from Latin dealing with various types of manifestations.)

I know there was a Romanian incident a few months ago in which a nun who was being exorcised died during the ritual. How is the Exorcism done in the East. Is it the same as in the West?

The Euchologion contains prayers for exorcism, see below. They are simply read over the possessed person or at the affected building. There is no set formal ritual as the Roman Rite has.


Prayer of interdiction of St. Basil the Great
that is read by a priest over one suffering from demons

O God of gods and Lord of lords, Creator of the fiery ranks, and Fashioner of the fleshless powers, the Artisan of heavenly things and those under the heavens, Whom no man has seen, nor is able to see, Whom all creation fears: Into the dark depths of Hell You hurled the commander who had become proud, and who, because of his disobedient service, was cast down from the height to earth, as well as the angels that fell away with him, all having become evil demons. Grant that this my exorcism being performed in Your awesome name, be terrible to the Master of evil and to all his minions who had fallen with him from the height of brightness. Drive him into banishment, commanding him to depart hence, so that no harm might be worked against Your sealed Image. And, as You have commanded, let those who are sealed receive the strength to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all power of the Enemy. For manifested, hymned, and glorified with fear, by everything that has breath is Your most holy Name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and into ages of ages. Amen.

Prayer for a building afflicted by evil spirits

0 Lord God of our salvation, Son of the living God, Who art upborne by the cherubim and art infinitely more exalted than all the principalities and virtues, powers and dominions: Thou art great and fillest all around Thee with dread; Thou art He that set heaven like a chamber; Thou art He that created the earth in Thy might and hast ordered the universe in Thy wisdom, Who hast shaken the nethermost parts of the earth from their foundations and made its pillars immovable, Who speakest to the sun, and it shineth not; Who sealest the stars; Who forbiddest the sea, and driest it up; Whose wrath melteth the principalities and virtues; by Whose power the rocks are ground to powder! Thou didst break down the gates of bronze, and the gates of iron didst Thou destroy; Thou didst bind mighty [Satan] and didst shatter his vessels; by Thy Cross didst Thou cast down the tyrant [of hell], didst draw forth the serpent with the hook of Thine incarnation and, having set him in Tartarus, didst bind him with bonds of darkness. Therefore, 0 Lord, Thou confirmation of them that place their hope on Thee, mighty rampart of them that trust in Thee: drive away, put to flight and cause to depart every machination of the devil and every satanic assault, every attack of the adversary and oppressive power, from this roof and from them that are sheltered thereby and walk about beneath it, who bear the sign of the victory of Thy Cross, which terrifieth the demons, and who call upon Thy good name. Yea, 0 Lord, Who expelled a legion of demons and commanded the deaf and dumb demon and the unclean possessing spirit to depart from man and to leave, never to return; Who destroyest all the array of our invisible foes, Who hast made wise the faithful who know Thee, [saying]: Behold, I give you power to tred on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: do Thou Thyself, 0 Master, Who art beyond all harm and temptation, preserve all who are in this habitation, delivering them from terror by night and the arrow that flieth by day, from the thing that walketh in darkness, from the mishap and demon of noonday; that Thy servants, handmaids and children, who enjoy Thine aid, may all, in oneness of mind, faithfully chant as with one voice: the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me; and again: I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.
For Thou, 0 God, art my confirmation, the mighty Lord, the prince of peace, the Father of the age to come, and Thy kingdom is eternal; and Thine alone is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Dear Dr. Eric,

There was some great film clips of Exorcism in Russia on a show on the History Channel. They showed both a young and older lady being exorcised. One thing I disliked about the show was the writer/narrator's comments that some of the women (I am paraphrasing here) just wanted to go a bit wild, and when they got it out of their system, then stated to the priest they were possessed, at which point the exorcism ritual would start. To me, that is the work of the evil one, trying to make us disbelieve in evil and attributing it to just poor choice.

The evil one is everywhere!

In Christ,

Michael

There are, of course, the Prayers of Exorcism that are prayed by the priest over the one to receive the Mystery of Baptism.

I have met a Byzantine Rite priest from North America who is a proper exorcist. He is on list kept by the bishops where he is in case of need. He has to work out if there is real demonic action in progress or other causes are at play. There is a prayer filled rite to follow and it does not involve doing anything like what happened in Romania.

ICXC
NIKA

So there is no ritual demanding the demon tell its name or prayers to the Blessed Virgin or anything like that?

In the ritual, I have heard those who did the exorcism at St. Alexius Hospital in St. Louis where the "Exorcist" movie got its "ideas" , that the demon is commanded to give its name so the priest can control it in the name of Our Lord and Saviour and expell it.

The Rite of Exorcism suggested in movies is RC. The RC rite would be worth getting hold off to see what they do, when they do it. Have you had time to check the net?

ICXC
NIKA

The book "Hostage to the Devil" by Malachi Martin has an English translation of the Roman Ritual in the back of the book. There is one section of the Ritual devoted to the exorcism of people, and another section devoted to the exorcism of places.

In the Ritual, the priests asks Evil Spirit the following:

"Tell me, with some sign, your name, the day and the hour of your damnation."

The exorcist is also to command Evil Spirit to state whether it is kept within the possessed because of some magical spell or sorcerer's symbol or some occult documents.

Great book, but very scary.

SuperSlav

Any Great Book of Needs or Euchologion will have the various prayers for exorcism. A word of warning though and this was given to us in seminary, one should not attempt to confront a possible encounter with the Evil One without prayer and preparation . I have had to do a special house blessing and read the prayers of exorcism for reasons I care not publically to disclose. Some of the things you see in movies are not sensationalism. That is all I have to say regarding this subject.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

I agree with you Father as I have heard this too.
There is a story in 'A Saint for our Times' of a priest who tried to exorcise a poor girl in Greece at the beginning of the 20th century. The poor girl was cursed by her own father and that is how the demon entered her. Every time the priest tried the exorcism, the demon confronted him with his unrepented sins. Finally, the priest was giving up when the demon told him that he was not only one of the most powerful on earth (the other two being in Russia and China), but that only 'the one with the nails' could exorcize him. It turned out that he meant the then deceased St. Nektarios whose body was still intact and whose 'nails' were still growing.

This is dangerous stuff and not to be treaded upon lightly. God bless you dear Father and all those clerics who have prayerfully encountered evil and fought it with the power of God.

Kyrie Eleison!

Respectfully kissing your right hand,
Alice

I definitely wouldn't try it!!!

I told my wife that if I ever would become a priest that's a job I would never want. I would also be afraid of the demon announcing my previously forgiven sins!

Thanks to all you priests that have done battle with the demons!

Dr. Eric,

Like any good tactician, Satan maps our strengths and weaknesses, our battle is preventing repetition... ,

A good read, those Screw Tape Letters...

james

I have also heard that if a demon tries to engage a person, that the person SHOULD NOT respond to it. That the person shuold immediately call out to the angels, saints, the Theotokos and Our Lord, Saviour, and God Jesus Christ for immediate and assured assistance!!!

Dear Friends,

As a child, we had moving furniture in our third-storey bedroom and other quaint events that led to a minor exorcism by a priest at the time . . .

After that, all quiet on the front . . .

Recently, I was taped for a local show called, "Ghostly Encounters" and related the whole story, including a description of the Byzantine exorcism - this will be aired in April on one of our local TV channels.

I mentioned the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that we had in our room - I still have it. The show is using child actors to recreate the scene as I related it - and they recently contacted me to ask where they could get a copy of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help for use in the recreation!

Isn't that cool?

Also, Dr Eric's question about the naming of the Mother of God and the Saints - in the Orthodox monastic tradition there is a practice for any monk in his cell to ask a visitor knocking at his door to say the Jesus Prayer before he or she will let them in.

There is a story about a visitor to an Eastern hermit in a forest.

The hermit had to leave for a while and so told him to stay in his hermitage, but to let no visitor in until they would say the Jesus Prayer . . .

As the visitor sat alone in the hermitage, he heard a loud knocking and a very coarse voice said, "Let me in!"

He responded by saying, "Say the Jesus Prayer please . . ."

The voice then shouted, "Let me in!!" And whoever it was began pounding ferociously on the door to the hermitage.

"Say a Prayer!" the frightened man inside responded.

By the time the hermit returned to the hermitage, he found his visitor huddled in a corner, shaking like a leaf.

"So - it is good you didn't let him in . . ." the hermit said . . .

Alex

I believe that several years ago then-Cardinal Ratzinger instructed Catholics to never address a demon directly, but only pray for the intercession of Christ and the saints [especially St Michael the Archangel], unless a cleric and appointed and trained as an exorcist. Seems some Italian charismatics were getting in way over their heads....
-Daniel