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.
Category: Obedience
Indicates a saint for whom their defeat of the demons was related to their obedience to God, a saint sent by God to help them, or a Church authority that God had placed over them.
Hilarion, Abbot of the Monastery of Dalmatus
As a young monk in the Monastery of Dalmatus, Hilarion was giving the obedience of keeping and tilling the garden like our first father, Adam. While working the earth by the sweat of his brow, Saint Hilarion also tended the garden of his soul through holy hesychia. According to his faithfulness, he was given the grace to cast out a demon from a child by his prayer. Thus, his way of life and his boldness before the Lord signaled to all his future as the abbot of the famous monastery.
Hymnography
Passing through the gulf of the passions and escaping dry through the surging billows of the demons, O righteous Father, though didst cast anchor in the haven of dispassion.
(Ode One, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Armed with abstinence as weapon and prayer as breastplate, thou didst put to flight the ranks of invisible enemies.
(Ode Three, Second Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Thou didst set the steps of thy heart upon the rock of faith and didst remain unshaken, unafraid of the assaults of the demons.
(Ode Four, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
In thy weaponless grappling with the spiritual Goliath, who was lifted up in wickedness, thou didst fell him with faith as with a sling; and wresting from him the weapons of his defeat, thou didst behead him as a boaster.
(Ode Six, First Troparion; Orthros Canon)
With the sweat of asceticism thou didst wholly quench the burning coals of the enemy’s darts; and having kindled the fire of faith, thou burntest up the vaunting of heretical belief.
(Ode Six, Third Troparion; Orthros Canon)
Athanasius the Wonderworker
Saint Athanasius renounced the world for the life of a wandering monk. Like the bee of Saint Basil the Great, the saint went from place to place collecting the honey of God-pleasing teachings and virtues of holy men who he then began to imitate. Eventually, he settled in a monastery in Bithynia revitalizing the communal life and discipline by his faithful example as a common monk. He showed perfect obedience to his abbot to whom he revealed all the inner workings of his heart and mind so that he was not carried away by any stray thought. Thus, he was able to resist all the assaults and temptations of the demons.
Germanus, Bishop of Paris
Saint Germanus was made a monk and priest after living a pious and faithful life as a young man. Dedicated to a life of strict austerity, his rigorous approach to the ascetic life sometimes caused problems between him and his Bishop. Nevertheless, the remained in obedience to his Father in Christ even when he was imprisoned by him. On one occasion, his cell door opened of its own accord, but he would not leave until he received a blessing to do so. In the middle of the Sixth Century, he was called to Paris by King Childebert and made Bishop of the city. Despite his new responsibilities, he did not ease his rule of prayer or way of life, adding the care of his flock as an additional labor. For his faithfulness, God granted Saint Germanus the ability to work miracles, heal the sick, and cast out demons by his prayer. He made sure that those whom he had delivered remained near to him for some time, so that he could continue in prayer with and for them and ensure that they had both been set free and had begun to live a life of repentance.
Andrew the Fool for Christ
A slave of slavic origin who resided in Constantinople in the service of a high ranking member of the Imperial Guard, Saint Andrew took on the extreme Davidic ascesis of feigned madness after he was granted a vision one night during prayer. In this vision, God revealed that he had been enlisted in the struggle against out true enemies, “the principalities,…the powers,…the world rulers of this darkness,…and…the evil spiritual forces of the supernatural realms.” He was told to pursue this course as a fool for Christ, and he obeyed immediately the next day by tearing his clothes and wailing in a loud voice. Irony of ironies, his master thought him possessed and had him committed to the Church of Saint Anastasia Pharmocolytria where he was held in chains. There his struggle began in earnest – he gave himself over to various kinds of bizarre behavior by day and to prayer by night. Having bursted into the view of the Evil One like a burning sun, one night he was set upon by a horde of demons trying to snuff out his torch in its infancy. Andrew, however, sought the aid of the holy and glorious Apostle John the Theologian who drove off the demons with a thunderous clap from the physical chains that bound the holy Fool. The friend of Christ also promised Saint Andrew that he would be his ever-present help in his ongoing battle against the darkness.
Once his captors realized that he was a threat to the demons only rather than to himself or others, they released him, and Andrew began to freely wander the city. This allowed him to deepen his humility by voluntarily bearing the spitting and insults of the crowds in imitation of our Lord and Master at the Passion. In fact, in another vision in which he was taken up into the third heaven, the Lord revealed that this was his particular mission for the overthrow of the Prince of this world. When the people began to repent of their sins through the Holy Fool’s prophetic ministry and imitate his downward path of humility according to their measure, the demons reproached him for despoiling their possessions. Andrew responded by rebuking them with the Lord’s authority. Enraged at their impotence, for they had no claim on him, they contrived to cause the Saint to fall into a pit of the earth. But the Holy Fool was delivered by the calling upon the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul who drew him out of the pit as the Lord drew the Prince of the Apostles from the sea.
Sometime later, a plague broke out in the city, and Saint Andrew spent his days walking up and down the streets praying with tears for the people, their healing and the forgiveness of their sins. One day, while at prayer, he was transported by the Spirit, like another Saint Philip, to Anaplous to meet with Saint Daniel the Stylite who suggested that they join together in their prayers for the deliverance of the capital city. The Lord answered by fire from heaven, casting out the demon who had instigated the epidemic.
By the end of his life, he was able to distinguish between different demonic spirits at a glance as well as the state of the souls of those with whom he interacted. This allowed him, as an experienced soldier in the army of the Lord, to devise deft plans of spiritual combat to counteract the work of the evil one in the lives of the faithful if they would but heed his instruction.
Seraphim of Dombos
Fleeing his reputation as a wonderworker and physician of souls that brought him endless streams of visitors, Saint Seraphim moved constantly establishing new communities of monastics wherever he went. After having resolved to stay in a specific place, the Mother of God appeared to him explaining that his current location was ill-suited to his purposes and instructing him to return to one of his previous stops to establish a permanent settlement. He obeyed immediately, a virtue he had consciously cultivated since he entered the monastery, and set to work. When the crowds returned, he was granted the particular gift of helping those possessed by demons, freeing them through prayer and fasting.