What is the purpose of the recitations that are read to exorcise unclean spirits?

In the ancient baptismal liturgies, there were two explicit concepts: exorcising unclean spirits from the baptism candidate; and bringing him into Christ’s Kingdom. This is what we see in the baptism liturgies of the Coptic, Armenian, Byzantine, and Ethiopian rites. Egeria the Spanish nun, tells us that the candidate for baptism was subject to an exorcism ritual throughout Lent.¹³³⁴ St. Gregory the Theologian also says, “Do not reject the medicine of exorcism, nor refuse it because of its length. This too is a touchstone of your right disposition for grace.”¹³³⁵

St. John Chrysostom and St. Theodore of Mopsuestia describe how the candidate for baptism stands in fear, either standing with his hands lifted up or kneeling down, barefooted, standing on sackcloth, as one entreating God to deliver him from slavery to the devil and his angels.

St. Theodore of Mopsuestia says, “when the words called the words of exorcism are pronounced you stand perfectly quiet, as if you had no voice and as if you were still in fear and dread of the Tyrant … and remain in that state in order to move the judge to mercy. And you take off your outer garment and stand barefooted in order to show yourself the state of the cruel servitude in which you served the devil for a long time, according to the rules of captivity and in which you did all his work for him according to his requirements … As to the words of exorcism they have the power to induce you after having made up your mind to acquire such a great gain, not to remain idle and without work.”¹³³⁶

1332 St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions 1.11.17, 8.2.4 (FOTC 21:18, 200 fn 29). 1333 St. Augustine of Hippo, De Symbole Sermon De Catechumens .

1334

Egeria, The Pilgrimage of Egeria: A New Translation of the Itinerarium Egeriae with Introduction and Commentary , trans., Anne McGowan and Paul F Bradshaw (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2018) 46.1: p. 113.

1335 St. Gregory of Nazianzen, Select Orations of Gregory Nazianzen 40.27 On Holy Baptism (NPNF II/7:369).

1336 Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Lord’s Prayer and on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist , trans., Alphonse Mingana (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1933): p. 31.

In the Coptic rite, the priest prays on the oil to anoint the candidate saying, “Look upon Your creation, this oil, and let it become for the casting out of demons and their magic, sorcery and all idolatry …” When he anoints the heart, hands, and back, he says, “May this oil bring to naught all assaults of the adversary. Amen.”