Exorcist, Exorcism

EXORCIST, EXORCISM. - An exorcist, in the current practice of the Latin Church, is one who has received the minor Order (v. ORDER) of the exorcistate, which confers the power to cast out demons, that is, to perform exorcisms (v.).

With the word ἐξορχοστής is designated one who commits perjuries (cf. Acts 19:13; Josephus, Antiq. Jud., 8, 2, 5). In the early times of the Church every believer, almost as a charismatic gift, had the power to cast out demons (cf. Justin, Apol., II, 6, 6; Irenaeus, Epideixis, 96, 97; Tertullian, Apolog., 23). In the middle of the 3rd century exorcists appear at Rome as a special class of the faithful (Pope Cornelius, Ep. ad Fabianum Antioch.: PL 3, 768), of whose existence other documents also inform us. According to St. Paulinus of Nola the martyr Felix, after having been a lector, had become an exorcist. The epitaph of Flavius Latinus, bishop of Brescia (d. at the end of the 3rd century) says that he was an exorcist for 12 years. Peter, who suffered martyrdom together with the priest Marcellinus (year 392), is remembered as an exorcist by St. Damasus (Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 292); St. Martin of Tours was ordained exorcist by St. Hilary, as Sulpicius Severus relates (Vita S. Martini, chap. 5). In a small community such as that of ad decimum the exorcistate and the lectorate were united in the same person: Proficius lector et exorcista, in H. Leclercq, Grottaferrata, in DACL, VI, coll. 1838.

On their institution and their respective offices there was not necessarily absolute uniformity in all the Churches: for example, the De septem ordinibus (PL 30, 148-62), falsely attributed to St. Jerome, does not mention either lectors or exorcists, but the fossors, as the lowest grade of the minor orders.

The ordination of exorcists, according to the Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua (of the 6th century, of Arles origin), consists in the handing over, by the bishop, of the book of exorcisms, accompanied by the words: «Accipe et commenda memoriae et habe potestatem imponendi manus super energumenos sive baptizatos sive cathecumenos. This ceremony is preserved in the Roman Pontifical, which, besides a final blessing, has added a admonitio praevia: Exorcistam oportet abicere daemenes et dicere populo ut qui non communicat det locum et aquam in ministerio fundere.

In these words the functions of exorcists are indicated: a) to drive out demons; this office was fulfilled above all when the catechumenate flourished (4th-5th century); the exorcists then performed the ritual manus impositio to drive out demons from the candidates for Baptism. With the decline of the catechumenate the importance of exorcists also declined, because, although in theory the office of exorcising the faithful was also assigned to them, nevertheless this function from the very beginning began to be reserved to priests, who according to current law exercise it with prudence and upon explicit authorization of the bishop (can. 1121); b) to dismiss those not communicating; originally this was the office of deacons; in the Ordo Romanus of the 10th century it is attributed to exorcists, but it soon fell into disuse; c) to hand water to the ministers during Mass; this was initially the office of subdeacons, which in the 10th century passed to the exorcists.

In the East, in the 4th century, exorcists are mentioned in the Council of Antioch (341) and of Laodicea (318); however, they were not part of the clergy nor were they ordained, as the Apostolic Constitutions expressly attest (VIII, 26, 1, 2): «exorcista non ordinantur». The power to drive out demons was considered a charism granted directly by God to some privileged soul, as the same Apostolic Constitutions point out: «Haec enim certaminis laus pendet a libera et bona voluntate et a Gratia Dei per Christum... qui enim acceptit chariama sanationum per revelationem a Deo declaratur» (ibid.). On the sacramental nature of the exorcistate v. ORDINE.

Antonio Piolanti