The great stories of our Catholic Faith inspire us and give us fresh energy for the journey ahead. That is why I am writing on this topic, as it is so fascinating and such excellent proof that our faith is true.
It was Joshua Charles, through his apostolate ‘Eternal Christendom,’ who first introduced me to this amazing piece of the history of the Catholic Church. In this article I will be discussing the fact that the ancient pagan rites that produced magic, oracles and other sorcery were almost completely obliterated by Christ’s incarnation and the growth of the Church that followed.
This is the story of the rise of the Catholic Church and the defeat of the demonic powers that were so prevalent in the ancient world.
Let’s start with some brief background. We shouldn’t be too shocked that the demons have power to perform signs and ‘wonders’ of their own – we’ve heard of the story of Moses, and how, during the time of the plagues in Egypt, the magicians of Pharaoh ‘replicated’ some of God’s miracles. Even St. Patrick faced Celtic magicians performing signs through invoking their false ‘gods’.
Just before the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the dominant world power was Rome. The Roman Empire covered three continents, provided law and order, and tolerated pagan religions, which, as the empire grew, added an ever-increasing number of strange gods to the Roman pantheon.
All pagan religions are a rejection of the One, True God, as these religions often worshipped natural features like the sun or moon, or mythological characters. They included rites often aimed at acquiring occult (hidden) knowledge or producing a magical or practical effect. Naturally, this kind of activity is gravely sinful. This empowered demons, the ones responsible for responding to these rites. With pagan temples across the whole empire, the Roman Empire was infested with demons posing as fake gods that seduced people with their powers.
We know from St. Paul (1 Cor 10: 20) that the pagan gods are demons. Well-known exorcists such as Fr. Chad Ripperger (who recently discussed this topic on the ‘Shawn Ryan Show’) have confirmed this with their own anecdotes about encountering demons in session that go by the names of ancient Norse gods, for example.
Pagan rituals are dark things. Child sacrifice, sexual abuse of innocent victims, and self-harm are examples of the kind of activity that was practiced in these rituals. Thus, the Roman Empire was riddled with demonic activity by the time of the Incarnation.
After Christ’s Ascension, the Church began to spread and increase in presence throughout the Empire. The Church Father St. Athanasius records how pagan oracles were affected by the growth of the Catholic Church and his work ‘On the Incarnation of The Word’ is the main source I am drawing on here.
St. Athanasius notes that famous locations, such as Delphi (in present-day Greece) were home to pagan temples where sacrifices would be offered to the pagan gods, Apollo in this instance. These sacrifices would be offered in return for something. Perhaps knowledge of future events, the outcome of an upcoming military campaign or something similar.
Incredibly, this really worked. The oracle at Delphi would have occult knowledge to give as the oracle wasn’t a fictional Greek god, but instead, a real demon that was masquerading as one. It is no wonder that people who received these insights were convinced they were receiving information from a god – because, according to Catholic theology, demons (being corrupted angels) are highly intelligent, and they have a form of ‘super-intellect’ compared to us and as such are able to know many things beyond what we could possibly know.
The angelic intellect is vast. Remember that the human intellect acquires information from our physical senses and can use abstract thinking to deduce and calculate things. Therefore, it is limited because of our own natural limits, like our age, mental development or even illness.
The angelic intellect is not limited by these physical constraints because the angels themselves are pure spirit. They have no physical limits. In one of the first instances of their creation, as Fr Chad Ripperger explains, they had their sum of knowledge about many things infused at once. When you consider these facts about the intelligence and cunning of the demons, you can see how someone can obtain what seems like some impossible-to-know information from a pagan ‘oracle’ that convinces them that they are dealing with a god!
Now, this is the fascinating part: according to St. Athanasius, renowned oracles at Delphi, Daphne, and more stopped prophesying because of the presence of Christian sites in the area. The demons went Silent.
There is a fascinating account recorded by St. John Chrysostom (from his ‘Discourse on Blessed Babylas’) about the pagan oracle at Daphne. This was a renowned oracle of ‘Apollo’, and the oracle’s prophecies ceased completely when the Christian martyr St. Babylas was buried nearby. The emperor Julian the Apostate, when we wanted to consult ‘Apollo’ to crush Christianity and make paganism rise again, was told explicitly by the demon itself that it could not help because of the bones of the Saint nearby.
In another passage from St. Athanasius’s ‘On the Incarnation’, he describes how it was only Christ who was able to topple the idolatrous practices in Egypt, which was a stronghold of paganism for centuries. Even though Moses and Abraham sojourned in Egypt, neither induced such a mass-conversion to the God of Israel as Jesus Christ did. St. Athanasius clearly uses this as a proof (to the Jews) that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, as he points out that Christ has caused the pagans of all nations to abandon their hopeless idols and turn to worship the God of Israel.
In chapter 25 of his work, St. Athanasius discusses how, by Christ’s crucifixion in the air (being hoisted above the ground by His cross), and by His Ascension into heaven, Christ cleared the air of the infernal spirits that had wondered in the atmosphere since being cast down from heaven by St. Michael the archangel. He points out that the devil, possessing some form of power in the earth’s atmosphere could work illusions to deceive people – until Christ cleared him out by His sacred actions.
There are many accounts in the Church Fathers like these, and the point of this article is that it is a great privilege to be Catholic. These accounts are not only fascinating but motivating. Yes, demons are real, but their powers they were able to exert over nature and humanity years ago were decimated by our Lord’s works and the presence of His Church over the face of the earth. I’d encourage anyone who wants more information on this topic to check out Eternal Christendom’s podcast episode 56, it’s a great place to start.
Catholic Resources On Spiritual Warfare
Spiritual Warfare and The Discernment of Spirits
Angels and Demons: A Catholic Introduction (Thomistic Ressourcement)
Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan and His Demons
Image: Photo by Christine V on Unsplash
