The Russian Orthodox Church has drawn up a set of regulations on the proper procedures for expelling demons after several deaths and injuries were caused by do-it-yourself exorcisms.
Bishop Hilarion, a senior Russian Orthodox Church official, said the document, which is yet to be made public, would provide a “unifying” set of rules for the religious ritual. At least two Russians were killed in 2019 by family members who believed they were possessed by evil spirits.
A nine-year-old boy died after he was gagged and whipped by his father to try to “cast out a demon”, and a middle-aged man was suffocated by his mother after he became interested in the occult. In 2011, a 26-year-old woman in Voronezh, central Russia, died after her parents made her drink five gallons of holy water because they believed her husband was the devil.
Last year, a video emerged of a couple in the southern Volgograd region attempting to exorcise their screaming ten-year-old son with garlic and holy water.
The church has warned Russians against attempting to cast out demons without the help of qualified priests. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the church, has said only “spiritually strong” clergy should carry out exorcisms.
Advertisement
Exorcism gained in popularity in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the most famous exorcists was Sergei Romanov, a former policeman and convicted murderer who converted to Christianity. Romanov, 65, was arrested this year after he and his followers seized control of a convent in the Urals. He was excommunicated by the church.
