Inspired by the holy reputation of Saint Athanius Bishop of Tarsus, Saint Anthusa desired to learn the Christian Faith from him. Saint Basil having appeared to her in a dream while still living, the girl recognized him while on a journey to Cilicia. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, she immediately requested baptism at which point a miraculous spring burst forth from dry land, and it was in these waters that the Holy Bishop baptized Saint Anthusa. Upon coming out of the font-not-made-with-hands, two angels appeared and clothed her with the white robe of the neophyte. After explaining to her mother that she had become a Christian, she was confirmed in her virginity by Saint Athanasius, and blessed to flee to the desert where she spent twenty years in extreme asceticism amongst the wild beasts who gamboled at her pure feet. While Saint Athansisus was put to death during Valerian’s persecution, Saint Anthusa put to death her passions in constant striving against the flesh and the Devil. The Evil One often appeared to her in the guise of a hermit monk asking her to come and pray with Him. But the purity of her nous was such that she could see through his schemes, and she routinely put him to flight with the Name above all Names. As a reward for her contest and her voluntary martyrdom in the desert, an angel appeared to her one day at prayer explaining that she was to receive the martyr’s crown. With that assurance, the athlete of Christ laid down in peace and gave her soul into God’s hands. Her incorrupt body was found in her cave four years later by Christians who were astonished to see that her flesh was still warm as if she were just asleep.
Category: Prayer
Indicates saints for whom their defeat of the demons was related to prayer.
Abraham of Smolensk
After giving away all of the possessions he inherited from his wealthy parents, Saint Abraham became a monk and gave himself over the strictest of ascesis. Along with his body, his passions also withered as a result of night-long vigils and constant pleas for the Lord to have mercy on the world. His disciple, Saint Ephrem, described his appearance as that of a living relic. After being made a priest, his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and His insightful sermons brought him fame and renown with the faithful. Stoking the jealousy of his enemies, the demons inspired them to accuse him of heresy to the Bishop. The Bishop was deceived for a time, but the inherent disorder of the sinful decision infected the land and resulted in a drought and an epidemic. Made aware of his error, the Bishop repented and restored Saint Abraham. As a result, God delivered them via a miraculous heavy rain. Thus, the machinations of the Evil One came to nothing.
Martyr Bassa
Caught up in the fervor of persecution associated with Emperor Maximian’s birthday, Saint Bassa and her three sons were ordered to offer sacrifice and pour out libations to the Greek gods. Her husband, a pagan priest and thrall of the idols, turned them in when they refused to do so. Like the mother of the Maccabean martyrs, Saint Bassa encouraged her children to defeat the demons that had overtaken their father by patient endurance and by offering themselves completely to Christ who was waiting to receive them. By obeying their Mother they conquered the foe and received the martyr’s crown. Their mother joining them not too long after, first having dashed the idol of Zeus into a thousand pieces by her prayer.
Hymnography
Possessing an unhesitating mind, thou didst set out to wrestle with the wily adversary, and thou didst destroy him in the deep of thy blood.
(Ode Four, First Troparion of the Martyr; Orthros Canon)
With longing we call Bassa blessed, that dove that was guileless indeed, that turtle-dove that loved God, that swallow which escaped the winter and nets of demons, soared up with her godly younglings, and nested in the Heavens, in the spiritual dominion of God.
(Ode Nine, Fourth Troparion of the Martyr; Orthros Canon)
Arsenius the New of Paros
A member of the Kollyvades party, Saint Arsenius faced both persecution from those monk who opposed the practice of frequent communion as well as from the Turks whose revolution was sweeping across the region. As a result, he and his elder, Daniel of Zagora were often on the move. When they were able to settle in a monastery, he took on ascetic efforts comparable to that of his namesake, Saint Arsenius the Great, eating just enough to live, sleeping only a few hours at night, and spending the rest of his time wrapped in prayer. When Daniel died, Saint Arsenius also displayed his ongoing obedience out of love by remaining in the monastery and teaching the brethren – as much by deed as by word. Never a stranger to opposition even amongst his own brethren, the Saint perfected the evangelic virtue of love for enemies, and because of that as well as the voluntary suffering of asceticism that he took upon himself, God gave him the ability to protect the whole of island of Paros from the attacks of demons by his prayer.
Nilus of Erikoussa
A member of the royal family of Emperor Theodore I Lascaris, Saint Theodore rejected the political and religious pressure of the Latin interlopers ushered into power by the Crusaders by becoming a monk and retreating into the wilderness. After being formed in the monastic life at the Monastery of the Sleepless Ones (Akoimetoi), he took on the extreme ascesis of the wandering pilgrim, traveling most especially to the Holy Places in Palestine, Mt. Sinai, and throughout Greece. When, along the way, he settled for a time in a particular location, it was always in an inhospitable place infested with demons. There he would wage unceasing battle against the natural conditions, his flesh, and the demons which he drove away by his prayer and patient endurance. He was especially known for restoring the 7th Century Monastery of the Giromerion where he found a miraculous icon of the Theotokos Hodigitria (She who shows the way – pointing to the Christ Child) which had been preserved from the time of the Iconoclast Heresy. As the keeper of this icon of the Champion Leader and her Son, Saint Nilus was all the more terrible to the enemies of mankind who could not bear to remain in his presence.
Hieromartyr Marcellus, Bishop of Apamea
When the Emperor Theodosius ordered the destruction of pagan temples throughout the empire, Saint Marcellus set about the work with divine zeal, pulling down shrines and building churches on their ruins to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. One temple, however, the Temple of Jupiter resisted all such efforts because the demon who dwelt there and accepted the worship of the Romans refused to be driven out. Filled with the spirit and power of the Prophet Elijah, the holy Bishop had three column of the colonnade uncovered, piled wood around the bases of them, had the wood covered with water, and then called on the lord to reveal Himself by fire. Like with the prophet of old, fire descended from heaven and set the bushels alight. Not long after the whole of the temple collapsed under the weight of Divine Judgment. Sometime later, Saint Marcellus, the scourge of demons, was set upon and martyred as he was overseeing the destruction of yet another pagan temple dedicated to idol worship.
Radegunda, Queen of the Franks
A Thuringian princess, Saint Radegunda was given in marriage to the Frankish King, Clotharius, the son of Clovis. The King was a man of loose living, but, nevertheless, The Saint was devoted to him as if to Christ Himself, and thereby she was never parted from the true King of Heaven. Her way of life as Queen was so pious that her husband was chided by his nobles who said that he was married to a nun and not a queen. While initially offended, he eventually came to admire her holy bearing and realized that she was a source of blessings for him and his kingdom. After Clotharius had her brother executed for allegedly seditious behavior, Saint Radegunda was allowed to retire to a monastery where she was tonsured a nun and lived out the rest of her days devoted to asceticism. Because of her voluntary martyrdom she was granted the grace to heal the sick and cast out demons which she frequently did through small gifts such as candles or leaves that she had blessed by her prayers and offered as alms.
Tikhon of Zadonsk, the Wonderworker and the Bishop of Voronezh
A professor of Rhetoric at a seminary in Novgorod, Saint Tikhon was vouchsafed a vision of the uncreated light which ignited in him a desire for the monastic life and heychia. The Lord, however, had need of him in the vineyard of his Church, and so, not long after becoming a monk, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Voronezh. He gave himself so completely to this work that, having completely exhausted himself with his pastoral efforts, he was forced to retire to a monastery after only five years. There he lived like an angel in the flesh – a model of perfect obedience and humility despite his exalted rank. Often he was so caught up in the contemplation of God that he had to be physically jostled to pry away his attention. Once he was tempted to take up again his ministry as Bishop for the good of the Church, but the Theotokos instructed him to remain in the monastery through an appearance to a venerable old monk. If ever he was assailed by dark thoughts suggested by the Evil One, he drove them away by repeating verses from Psalm 118 (LXX). At the end of his life, he withdrew to the complete reclusion of his cell where he prayed without ceasing for the salvation of the whole world.
Dorotheus of Gaza
A disciple of the great monastic elders of Gaza, Saints Barsanuphius and John, Saint Dorotheus longed for a life of strict ascesis, but his weak bodily constitution wouldn’t allow it. Lest he fall into despair and thereby make himself a target of the Devil, the Great Old Man (Barsanuphius) consoled him and instructed him to make every effort to deny the will of the flesh through an inner ascesis of the heart. So, beginning at cutting of his will in small things, he was able to progressively cut off his will in larger things. Eventually this led him to a heavenly detachment and impassibility through which God was able to act to crush the invisible enemy. This also cultivated within him other virtues, chief among them that of humility, compassion, and resilience which he used to guide his own disciples, especially Saint Dositheus. On one occasion, the noonday demon ferociously assailed him with an overwhelming sadness and acedia. The Saint cried out to the Lord for help, and he was granted a vision of an angel in the form of a Bishop who struck Dorotheus on the breast three times repeating the Psalm verse, “With patience I waited patiently for the Lord, and He was attentive unto me, and he hearkened unto my supplication” (Psalm 39 LXX). As soon as this had happened, the angel disappeared, the demon fled, and the Saint’s heart was flooded with the Uncreated Light, joy, and peace. From that time forward he was never subjected again to sadness, acedia, or fear. The Saint’s most famous teaching on unity with both God and neighbor is known today as the Circle of Saint Dorotheos of Gaza wherein he describes a person as a point on the circumference of a circle. The person moves inward towards God represented as the point at the center of the circle. As the person draws nearer to God, they also draw near to others making the same journey as their paths converge. Thus he taught that, while our salvation is a gift from God, it also lies in our neighbor. Such a blessed unity cannot be overcome by the Enemy of Mankind.
Theodora of Sihla
Married but unable to bear children, Saint Theodora and her husband entered a monastery in Moldavia. Not long after, however, the Turks invaded and she fled into the mountains with her Spiritual Mother. Dwelling in the wilderness, they showed manly courage battling both the conditions and the demons which never ceased to assault them. Emerging victorious over the passions and the adversary, she lived life as a new Mary of Egypt, dedicated to the Jesus Prayer. She spent her nights in prayer and her days in fasting, drinking only rainwater that gathered in the cleft of a rock that miraculously flowed like a spring. The Turkish scourge continued to ravage the region, and she gave up her cell to other nuns that had been driven from their monastery as well. Seeing this as a chance to regain some ground, the demons renewed their attacks, but they proved as powerless as before, unable to even get the attention of the athlete of Christ who treated them with utter disdain. Similar to her Egyptian predecessor, she was discovered by two monks that had been guided to her retreat by a pillar of light. Asking for a cloak to cover her nakedness, she greeted the men and begged for them to send a priest to her with the Holy Gifts. After receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, she departed this life in peace, her body giving off the fragrance of paradise.