Orationes sive exorcismi

Prayers or Exorcisms of the Great Basil for Those Suffering from Demons and Every Ailment. The God of gods, and Lord of lords, the creator of the fiery orders and the artificer of the immaterial powers, the craftsman of the heavenly and the earthly, whom no man has seen nor can see, whom every creature fears and trembles before, who once cast down the archistrategos who became arrogant and, through disobedience, rejected his service, dashing him to the earth, and who consigned the angels who revolted with him, becoming demons, to the darkness of the abyss in Tartarus, grant that this exorcism, performed in your fearful name, may bring fear to precede his wickedness, and to all his phalanxes that fell with him from the upper light-bearing realm, and turn him to flight, and command him and his demons to withdraw completely, so that they may work no harm upon the sealed image; but let these sealed ones receive strength of might to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon every power of the enemy. For your most holy name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is hymned, magnified, and glorified in fear by every breath, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Another prayer of the same. Let us beseech the Lord. I exorcise you, the primal evil of blasphemy, the chief of rebellion, and the author of wickedness. I exorcise you, who were cast out from the upper light-bearing realm and brought down into the darkness of the abyss because of your pride.

I exorcise you and every fallen power that follows your choice. I adjure you, unclean spirit, by God Sabaoth, and by the whole host of the angels of God, Adonai, Eloi, the almighty God: depart and withdraw from this servant of God. I exorcise you by the God who created all things by the Word, and by our Lord Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, who was ineffably and impassibly begotten from him before the ages, who fashioned the invisible and visible creation, who molded man according to his own image, who first instructed them naturally by law and guarded them by the oversight of angels, who overwhelmed sin from above with water, and opened up the abysses beneath heaven, and destroyed impious giants, and shook down the tower of the profane, and reduced the land of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes with divine fire, whose witness is the unquenchable smoke that still steams forth, who split the sea with a rod and led the people across with dry feet, and overwhelmed the tyrant Pharaoh and his god-fighting army in the waves for eternity, ending the war of impiety, who at the last was incarnate ineffably from a pure Virgin and preserved the seals of chastity intact, who deigned to wash away our ancient filth by baptism, which we had drawn upon ourselves through transgression.

I exorcise you by the one baptized in the Jordan, who provided for us a type of incorruption in water by grace, whom angels and all the powers of the heavens were astonished at, seeing the incarnate God humbling himself, when the Father without beginning revealed the generation without beginning of the Son, and the descent of the Holy Spirit witnessed the unity of the Trinity. I adjure you by that one who rebuked the wind, calmed the swell of the sea, drove out the throng of demons, fitted blind eyes lacking pupils from the womb to see again with clay, renewed the ancient formation of our race, restored speech to the mute, wiped away the marks of leprosy, raised the dead from their tombs, conversed with men even to burial, plundered Hades by the resurrection, and rendered all humanity unconquerable by death. I adjure you by God the Pantocrator, who inspired men with the divinely inspired voice, cooperated with the apostles, and filled the whole world with piety. Fear, flee, run away, withdraw, unclean and abominable demon, subterranean, abyssal, deceitful, formless, visible through shamelessness, invisible through hypocrisy, wherever you may be or go.

or you are Beelzebub, or the shaker, or dragon-shaped, or beast-faced, or like vapor, or like a bird, or night-voiced, or deaf, or speechless, or one who frightens by sudden attack, or one who rends, or one who plots, or one who weighs heavy in sleep, or in sickness, or in weakness, or one who wanders in laughter, or one who produces pleasure-loving tears, or lecherous, or foul-smelling, or desirous, or pleasure-seeking, or fond of sorcery, or erotically mad, or astro-magical, or dwelling in houses, or shameless, or contentious, or unstable, or one who changes with the moon, or one who turns with a certain time, or morning, or midday, or midnight, or of some untimely hour, or of dawn, or you met spontaneously, or you were sent by someone, or you approached suddenly, or in the sea, or in a river, or under the earth, or of a well, or of a cliff, or from a pit, or of a lake, or of a reed-bed, or of a forest, or of a dry land, or of an unclean place, or of a grove, or of a thicket, or of a tree, or of a bird, or of thunder, or from the roof of a bathhouse, or in a pool of waters, or from an idolatrous tomb, or from wherever we know and do not know, known or unknown, and from an unconsidered place: depart and be gone, be ashamed before the image fashioned and formed by the hand of God. Fear the likeness of the incarnate God, and do not hide in this servant of God, but an iron rod and a furnace of fire, and Tartarus, and the gnashing of teeth, the punishment for disobedience awaits you.

Fear, be muzzled, flee, do not turn back, do not hide yourself with another wickedness of unclean spirits; but go to a waterless, deserted, uncultivated land, which no man inhabits, where God alone oversees, who binds all who envy and plot against his own image, and having cast you down into chains of darkness into a long night and day, you who have experienced all evils, and are the inventor devil. For great is the fear of God, and great is the glory of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. {Another prayer of the same.} God of the heavens, God of the lights, God of the angels under your might, God of the archangels under your power, God of the glorious dominions, God of the saints, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loosed the souls bound to death, who enlightened the man nailed to darkness through your only-begotten Son, who loosed our pains and scattered every burden, who removed from us every assault of the enemy, Son and Word of God, who made us immortal by your death and glorified us with your glory, who granted us to pass from men to God by your resurrection, who bore every bond of our sins through your cross, who took up and healed our brokenness, Lord, who paved for us a path to the heavens and transformed corruption into incorruption.

Hear me crying out to you with longing and fear, at whom the mountains melt with fear together with the firmament beneath the sky, at whose power the voiceless souls of the elements shudder to keep their own boundaries, through whom the fire of vengeance will not overstep the boundaries assigned to it, but waits groaning for your will; through whom all creation travails groaning with unutterable groans, having been commanded to remain in its seasons, whom every hostile nature has fled, and the army of the enemy has been tamed, and the devil has fallen, and the serpent has been trampled, and the dragon has been destroyed; through whom the nations that confessed you were enlightened and strengthened in you, Lord; through whom life has been revealed, hope has been established, faith has been confirmed, the Gospel has been proclaimed; through whom man has been recreated from the earth, having believed in you. For who is like you, God Almighty? Therefore we beseech you, God of the fathers, and Lord of mercy, pre-eternal and super-essential, receive the one who has come to you in your holy name and in the name of your beloved Child Jesus Christ and of your holy, all-powerful, and life-giving Spirit; drive away from his soul every weakness, every unbelief, every unclean spirit—convulsive, subterranean, fiery, foul-smelling, lustful, gold-loving, money-loving, stormy, lewd—every unclean, dark, shapeless, shameless demon.

Yes, O God, drive away from your servant, this one, every activity of the devil, every sorcery, every use of drugs, idolatry, astromancy, astrology, necromancy, bird-divination, hedonism, lust, love of money, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, licentiousness, shamelessness, anger, contentiousness, disorder, and every evil suspicion. Yes, Lord our God, breathe into him your peaceful Spirit, so that, guarded by it, he may produce fruit of faith, virtue, wisdom, chastity, self-control, love, kindness, hope, gentleness, long-suffering, patience, prudence, understanding; for he is called your servant in the name of Jesus Christ, believing in the consubstantial Trinity, with the witness of angels, archangels, glorious dominions, and the whole heavenly host. Along with this, guard our hearts; for you are powerful, Lord, and we send up glory to you, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.