This saint was shaped into the very image of his Spiritual father, Nicetas of Thebes. After becoming a monastic, he lived as a hermit on the island of Oreos in Greece, spending several years in silence and prayer. When visitors were invariably drawn to him, he taught them to resist the evil thoughts suggested by the devil. To do so he equipped them with the weapons of humility, watchfulness, righteous anger, rebuke, and cleansing prayer that gushes forth from a heart given to divine eros.
Category: Name of Christ
Indicates saints who invoked the Name of Christ or the Jesus Prayer in their defeat of the demons.
Peter the Athonite
An elite soldier of the Byzantine army, the first Athonite was captured and imprisoned by Arab forces. Remembering in the darkness of his prison that he had vowed to become a monk in his youth, Saint Peter began his repentance and was enrolled in the Lord’s army. After being set free from prison by Saint Nicolas the Wonderworker and Saint Symeon the God-Receiver, Saint Peter was sent to sack the demonic stronghold on Mount Athos which Christ Jesus had given to His Holy Mother as her garden. After his arrival, he climbed the mountain and found a cave that had become a lair of beasts and demons. Without any hesitation, he settled there out of obedience and trust in the Lord, and the demons fled in the wake of such childlike faith. Infuriated by the onslaught of his prayer, the Devil sent his forces to attack him with frightful noises, and visions of arrows and high-pressured geysers. Saint Peter simply called out to the Theotokos and the demonic devices vanished. Realizing their attempts at artifice had failed, the demons stirred up all the wild animals and reptiles of the region and sent them against him as well, but they too were put to flight by the Name of the Lord and the sign of His cross. Victorious in battle, the holy ascetic steadily grew in virtue and the likeness of Christ. Knowing that he could not defeat Saint Peter, the Devil resorted to deception to try to get him to abandon his post. He disguised himself as a servant and presented himself to the Man of God reminding him of his parents and promising to find him a retreat closer to the city where they lived. Though he was affected by the vision, he told the youth that he had not been given leave to depart by the One who had sent him. Some years later, the demon tried yet again appearing to Saint Peter as an angel of light, but the ascetic replied that he was not deceived because he knew he was unworthy to entertain angels. Lashed by his humility as if with fire, the demon retreated yet again. By the end of his life, the Holy Mountain was being settled by an increasing number of monks, a testament to his success in battle. Even after death he continued putting the enemy to shame – a demon was cast out of a man when he touched the body of the Saint, and a man sent by the Devil to burn the holy relics was stopped by an unseen hand.
Hymnography
With what fair crowns of praise shall we crown the illustrious Peter of Athos? Name for him that led the Apostles’ choir and who himself led the Angel’s life, the rock of divine faith in Christ Savior; that summit of Holy Athos and its champion; the Virgin and Theotokos’s initiate; that indestructible anvil on the which were broken all the evil one’s treacheries; he who hath received bright crowns from heaven for all his victories.
(Lord, I have cried; First Troparion of Saint Peter)
Founded upon the unbreakable rock of faith with unwavering firmness, thou, O righteous Peter, wast not cast down by the assaults of the enemy or by all his multiform illusions; but rather, on stripping naked all his wickedness, thou leddest thy life in stillness and nakedness beyond the limits of nature, whereby thou hast put on the bright robe of gladness and joy by grace, and thou hast passed on to light never dimmed with eventide.
(Lord, I have cried; Third Troparion of Saint Peter)
Notable Athos, the holy inheritance of the Theotokos, glorieth in thy struggles, O all-blessed Peter. For ascending into this mountain, thou didst lift thy mind up to the everlasting mountains; and passing thy life in the unyielding practice of the virtues, though didst prove to be an immovable rock of patient endurance. For in thy steadfast purpose, O Father, thou didst endure the frenzied illusions of darkness and the many necessities of nature. Wherefore, at the sight of thine endurance Angels marveled, the demons trembled, and the Church is astonished, and crieth with exceeding gladness unto Him that gave thee strength: O Lord, glory be to Thee.
(For the Entreaty; Third Troparion)
Rejoice, star of Mount Athos most bright, thou Godlike dweller of the Mountain brought up thereon, thou sword cutting down the demons and hurling down their assaults; O unsleeping eye of stillness great in prayer; thou true and beloved friend of the pure Mother of our God, for, being cherished by her vigilant providence, thou didst dash the designs of the enemy. Blessed art thou, O Peter, mighty rock indestructible, thou living rule of invincible perseverance for hesychoasts. Implore Christ the Savior to grant pardon of our sins and great mercy to our souls.
(Second Troparion of the Aposticha)
To the Mountain of Athos thou rannest eagerly, led by the marvelous providence of the Mother of God; and thy way of life astonished mortals mightily. For thou didst live in nakedness and didst put to open shame malign Belial completely with thy persistent endurance, O Father Peter, glory of the Saints.
(Sessional Hymns after the Second Reading from the Psalter, Doxastikon; Orthros)
Ye who dwelt in the desert and showed it forth as a city, O marvelous pair of Saints, O glorious Onuphrios, and divine Peter, blest are ye. For the one dwelt in Egypt as thou incorporeal, while the other on Athos heaped shame on the dragon’s head. Wherefore, ye are heirs of every heavenly blessing, the Angel’s beloved friends, their companions and peers on high, unto whom we cry out with faith: Intercede with Christ our God that forgiveness of all their transgressions be granted to them that with longing keep your holy memory.
(Sessional Hymns after the Polyeleos, First Troparion; Orthros)
Thy servant Peter, having thy help, O immaculate Lady, destroyed with a staunch spirit the enemy’s cunning treacheries.
(Ode Three, Of Saint Peter, Theotokion; Orthros Canon)
Thou wentest forth naked to the strife and contest, O Saint, and thou didst strip naked all the foe’s devices by thine unwavering constancy. Struggling in the shadow of Mount Athos in labors, thou didst cast the demon’s foul despite down in ruin. For this, O blessed Peter, did Christ show thee forth marvellous.
(Sessional Hymns after Ode Three, Doxastikon; Orthros Canon)
The ven’rable Peter, having found thee truly to be a gracious defender and a speedy helper in war, O Virgin unstained and pure, calling on thy hallowed name, he threw down the devil, running to the end the course of God-pleasing virtues; and now he doth behold the pure light of thy great majesty.
(Sessional Hymns after Ode Three, Theotokion; Orthros Canon)
The swarms of demons, beholding thy way of life, fell upon thee with all manner of treacheries; but their madness was defeated by thy constancy, O Peter, as thou didst fix thy gaze upon the grace of God.
(Ode Five, Of Saint Peter, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Raging against thee with all his power, the guileful enemy appeared with a multitude of archers frantic with martial fury; but thou, clothed with the whole armor of the all-pure Virgin, didst turn to flight his wanton audacity.
(Ode Five, Of Saint Peter, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
The godly-minded Peter, cleansed in mind and poetically beholding the thy glory, O only transcendently glorious and Lady graced of God, manfully endured the villainies of the demons and hurled their presumption to the ground.
(Ode Five, Of Saint Peter, Theotokion; Orthros Canon)
The crafty foe, waxing wanton against thee, set upon thee in the form of terrible serpents and wild beasts; but thou didst dash him to the ground with the invocation of the all-pure Virgin.
(Ode Six, Of Saint Peter, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Protected by the immaterial overseeing of the Theotokos, thou didst pass unhurt through the plots of the dragon, O God-bearing Peter, and didst water Athos with the sweat of thy struggles.
(Ode Six, Of Saint Peter, Theotokion; Orthros Canon)
In the form of thy domestic servant, and of an archangel of the Lord of Hosts, the enemy of what is good came to lead thee into error, unerring star that thou wast, but he was put to shame by thy prayers.
(Ode Seven, Of Saint Peter, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
How shall I laud thy life, and thy trophies against the demons? For thou didst contend like an immaterial being in a material body and threwest down the enemy’s tens of thousands of treacheries.
(Ode Seven, Of Saint Peter, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Thy hallowed reliquary is an inexhaustible source of healing, which endeth the cruel violence of grievous diseases and manifestly chaseth away unclean spirits; for the divine grace dwelling therein worth strange wonders.
(Ode Nine, Of Saint Peter, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Thou art the chief of hesychasts on Mount Athos, completing mighty struggles beyond all measure: Hence, O righteous Peter, we all call thee blest, as the unshaken rock of faith which to the end dashed to pieces the fierce assaults of the demons.
(Exapostalaria, Of Saint Peter; Orthros)
Peter, righteous boast of Athonites, the bright achievements and feats of they conflicts and victories and the high singular prizes won by thy way of life amaze our minds and confirm our souls in faith, while turning back in defeat demons’ troops. What labors thou didst bear! Living out thy life as incorporeal, naked and unsheltered from the ruthless elements.
(For the Praises, Of Saint Peter, First Troparion; Orthros)
Swayed by the Virgin’s divine behest , thou wentest zealously forth to Mount Athos to lead a life of relentless discipline far transcending the fallen world. Upon destroying the demons’ phantasies, thou didst receive bread of Angels for thy food. What grace most marvelous was bestowed on thee as thy reward from God, O God-bearing Peter, for thy pains in solitude.
(For the Praises, Of Saint Peter, Second Troparion; Orthros)
Cyril of the White Lake
As a zealous young monk, Saint Cyril sought a blessing from his elder to fast more than the brethren. His elder, however, encouraged him to first build a firm foundation on the common life so as to avoid temptation and delusion. As such, he developed a rule of prayer with his elder in which the two of them got up together at night and kept vigil, reading the Psalter and making prostrations until the start of the daily office the next morning. This obedience and perseverance made it such that, when the demons attacked through frightful images, he was able to overcome them with the sign of the cross and through the Jesus Prayer. In such ways, he slowly but surely overcame his foes – both his flesh and his bodiless enemies – and was transformed into the likeness of Christ. Later in life, when he had become abbot at the Monastery of the White Lake, the devil sought to assail the Man of God by attacking his spiritual children. The demons continually suggested evil thoughts and attitudes about Saint Cyril to a monk who kept them secret for more than a year. Finally unable to take it anymore, who went to the Saint to confess, but was not able to speak for shame and by the artifice of the evil one. Seeing the clearly the state of the man’s soul, Saint Cyril described his sins to him in detail. The man then fell to his knees in repentance and received forgiveness of his sins, and was thus delivered from torment. For his life of faithfulness, God granted the Saint the gift of healing which he offered liberally to those in need sprinkling them with holy water and anointing them with oil. By these same methods he also cast out a multitude of demons with authority.
Martyr Thalleleus
A holy unmercenary who healed the sick of all backgrounds free of charge, Saint Thalleleus asked only that all would turn their hearts unto Christ who is the true Great Physician. By his ministry he truly showed that, when the Lord so wills, the order of nature is overcome. By his prayers the sick were healed. In his sufferings at the hands of Governor Theodore, the eyes of his torturers were blinded, and the strength of the tyrant failed. Like the Three Holy Children, fire was for him a cooling dew. When he was abandoned at sea, the waters placidly carried him back to shore. Beasts meant to devour him gamboled at his feet. Having been made victorious over the visible creation, he, as a co-worker with God, also put the invisible creation back into order, casting out demons by the sign of the cross and through the proclamation of the Name of Christ, the One who heals all ills.
Hymnography
Guarded by piety and strengthened by the grace of the All-compassionate God, O Thalleleus, thou didst set out for struggles with a courageous mind, destroying the strongholds of the enemy and carrying off the victory.
(Ode One, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
We know thee to be a most holy temple and dwelling of the Three-Sun Glory, O blessed Thalleleus, who didst dash to pieces the temples and idols of the evil demons.
(Ode Four, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Thou didst turn to flight the hordes of demons, O wise Thalleleus, having the holy Angels as fellow workers at the time of thy struggles, by whom thou wast shown to be a crown-bearer and didst attain to glory.
(Ode Six, First Troparion; Orthros Canon)
By the working of miracles, thou deliverest the faithful from diverse sicknesses, freeing them from temptations and driving away the battalions of demons by thine entreaties, O adornment of Martyrs.
(Ode Seven, Third Troparion; Orthos Canon)
Piously proclaiming one nature and one will and counsel and might of the Divine Trinity, O glorious Thalleleus, thou didst wisely destroy the blasphemy of many gods; and having patiently endured many pains, thou wast greatly glorified.
(Ode Eight, First Troparion; Orthros Canon)
By the stroke of the sword, thou wast offered up as an unblemished and holy victim unto the sacrificed Lamb, and slowest the serpent who once in Paradise destroyed Adam and Eve with the death of disobedience.
(Ode Eight, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Pachomius the Great
Saint Pachomius the Great, the founder of the coenobitic life and a bright star in the Orthodox firmament, laid the foundation of his God-pleasing life by embracing asceticism out of an all-consuming love for the Lord. Under the direction of a particularly severe spiritual father, his manner of life consisted of long hours of prayer, alone and especially during the night, and with intense fasting, all for the purpose of keeping the remembrance of God first and foremost in his mind and heart. During his night vigil he was often attacked by the demons, but he was able to put them to flight by rebuking them and lifting up praise to God. When their attacks became more severe, he resolved not to sleep until God had routed the invisible enemy, offering his suffering the the Lord as a sweet smelling sacrifice. Seeing such a firm foundation built upon the rock of Christ, the Lord sent an angel with a rule for living the monastic life in a community as well as people who would be governed by that rule. The rule was marked by a heavenly adaptability which made it appropriate for the novice as well as the most advanced while also allowing both to live the common life together. As the leader of the community, the man of God was given the gift of insight which allowed him to be a true physician of the soul, the healing of which he regarded as far superior to the healing of the body. In response to his prayer, the Lord healed the sick and delivered those who had been possessed by demons. In all of this, Saint Pachomius cultivated humility by submitting everything to the will of God, refusing to resort to coercion of God or man. If the Lord heard his prayer and acted, then thanks be to God; if not, he never let his countenance fall or his heart be troubled. In either circumstance he saw only one true remedy, the Name of Christ and the cultivation of life in His presence. This closeness to the Lord allowed him faithfully uncover illnesses of soul and body and their sources — whether the demons or the passions — and to apply the correct course of treatment.
Hymnography
When thou hadst been raised above all things of sense and perception, thou most purely didst converse with the Master, having passed far beyond the flesh; for with they valiant mind, thou didst conquer passions and cats down and trample underfoot demons’ audacity, O all-honored Father Pachomius. And now as thou dost dwell on high in the tabernacles of Heaven’s courts, keep all in remembrance who honor thy memorial with joy, as thou, O blest one, dost boldly stand in the holy presence of Christ.
(Third Troparion of the Saint; Lord, I have cried)
We, the multitudes of monastics, honor thee, our teacher, O Pachomius, our Father; for through thee have we learned to walk the path that is truly straight. Blessed are thou, who hast labored for Christ, and hast triumphed over the might of the enemy, O companion of the angels, and co-dweller of the righteous and the just. Together with them, do thou intercede with the Lord that He have mercy on our souls.
(Doxastikon of the Saint; Lord, I have cried)
Not enduring to behold the earnestness of thine asceticism, O righteous and God-bearing Father, the hordes of the adversaries devised diverse temptations for thee.
(Ode Three, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Thou didst trample upon the devices of the spirits of destruction, O Father, since thou wast clad in the power of thy Master and fenced about with the precious cross.
(Ode Six, First Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Philip of Argyrion in Siciliy
Sent by the Pope of Rome to the region of Argyrion in Siciliy as an evangelist in the Fourth Century, Philip began his work there by freeing the residents from the influence of demons who had infested the area. The saint climbed to the summit of a mountain from which he could see the whole community and called upon the Name of the Lord as well as the intercession of Saint Peter. The demons fled from the Holy Name en masse crying out in fear. Having taken the upper hand in the spiritual battle, Saint Philip freed more than 400 individuals, laying hands on them and casting out the demons that had tormented them. By doing so, he laid a firm foundation for the Church in the region and became known as a persecutor of the enemy.
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis on Cyprus
Before becoming a Bishop, the great interpreter of the Holy Scriptures established a monastery in Palestine, the land of his birth. However, the village and even some of those who lived the angelic life under his guidance, were tormented by demons. Thanks to his gift of clear sight, Saint Epiphanius drove them out by calling on the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. Later, by the same means, he cast out a demon from a man in the presence of a philosopher from Edessa with whom he had been debating. Seeing this miracle this philosopher abandoned the worldly wisdom of the Greeks for heavenly wisdom, was baptized, became a monk, and eventually was named the saint’s successor as abbot of the community.
Hymnography
Thy most godly life, O Father, and thine Orthodox mind and heart, in their concord, enabled thee to work signs and miracles through thine intercessions, and to drive the brazen assaults of the demons far away and end the pains of demons hard to cure. And thou wast fair adorned with the exalted grave of hierarchy by Christ Jesus, the Friend of man, the divine Saviour of our souls.
(Third troparia of Saint Epiphanius; Lord, I have cried)
Although thou, as an offspring of Judaic worship, hadst been obedient to the Mosaic laws, yet the grace of Christ, which shone forth in thee, O Father Epiphanius, clearly made thee a disciple of the Gospel of Peace. Thereupon, perceiving in thy wisdom the fulfillment of the two Testaments, thou didst pass over from servitude unto freedom. Wherefore, make entreaty in our behalf, that we be delivered from the tyranny of the enemy, and that our souls be saved
(Doxastikon of Saint Epiphanius; Lord, I have cried)
Evading the empty and paltry glory of men, thou madest thy dwelling in the wilderness as thy Master did, and wisely wentest forth to temptations like the Master’s, having thine infirmity invisibly strengthened for wrestling against demons.
(Ode Five, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
When the evil spirit was cast out, it troubled the ruler of the Assyrians, but became a herald of thy virtue and divine grace, O Father; for God knoweth to glorify them that glorify Him.
(Ode Six, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)