Translated and introduced by Dr. Václav Konzal
Only one collection of prayers, recorded in the 12th-13th centuries in the Galicia-Volhynia area, has preserved several otherwise unknown Old Slavic prayers from the Moravian or Czech environment. Among them, the most significant is probably the deprecatory exorcism, a prayer by which the petitioner calls for the struggle against evil and the Evil One's intercession and help from all the righteous from the beginning of the world, all the saints of the Old and New Testament.
The author of the prayer chose a simple sequence of petitions: from the initial summary plea to all saints, he progresses through the history of salvation by invoking Old Testament patriarchs and prophets to New Testament apostles, martyrs, saint physicians, confessors, bishops, female martyrs, monks, and hermits, culminating in the invocation of John the Baptist, angelic hosts, and the Theotokos Mary and a concluding doxology.
Although the text does not contain direct parallels from other prayers, a thorough linguistic and substantive analysis has managed to reach a certain conclusion about the time of its creation and a probable conclusion about the author of the composition. The time of origin of this prayer is securely the Cyril-Methodian stage of the Great Moravian Empire, the last quarter of the 9th century (among the invoked saints are St. Boniface and St. Walburga, whose cult began to develop at that time). As for the author of the prayer, it is quite probable that it is the holy Archbishop Methodius himself, and that he composed it during his unjust persecution and internment.1
Prayer to all saints against the devil and against unclean spirits –
how it should be performed and that one should state one's name
I, N, a wretched servant of God, flee to all the saints and pray to those who have been striving to please God since the creation of the world and who have, through much effort, overcome the devil, the enemy of humanity, defeated him and crushed him together with all his demons. Take on me, the sinner, and deliver me from my enemy, terrifying my soul and tormenting my body. And in fact, save all and everything and free them from him, for you can do so through the grace and help of the Holy Spirit, who has dwelled in you through your sanctification.
Enoch, servant of God, you live from then until now and will be preserved for the condemnation of the devil in the last days, cast him away now and drive him away from me. Help me, wretched one, benefactor Noah, righteous man, along with your sons, the divine proclaimers of good news, save me with your righteousness, drive away the great sin from me and drown it in a flood like that ancient sin, protect me as you protected the generation of those ancient.
Abraham, called the father of nations, true friend of God, as you obtained salvation for many nations from the Lord not for the multitude, but for a handful of the righteous, beseech him also for my salvation and receive me into your bosom.
Isaac, spreader of joy, as you are a prefigure of Christ, seal me with Christ's sign, let my enemies flee from me.
Jacob, beloved from his mother’s womb, Israel, pure mind seeing God, drive away from me your heel the evil dragon and mark me with the sign of the cross, as you blessed and marked your grandsons with this sign, and enlighten me and command the dragon not to approach me with his wrath.
Job, you loved the Lord, your God, in your piety, and therefore you were called the beloved of the Lord: pray for me, as well as for my friends, that through you He may deliver me from the dragon of the abyss who wants to swallow me, just as He also delivered you from all your temptations that assailed you like numerous and great waves against a stone wall.
Moses, great and meek, as you indicated the sign of the cross with your staff, liberated the Israelites from the evil Satan who dwelled in Egypt, immerse him into the depths of the sea as you did Pharaoh with the dark Egyptians in the Red Sea and as you defeated the haughty Amalek in the desert.
With the power of the cross, fortify me, Joshua, salvific commander, and as you triumphed over the foreign nations, help also me to salvation, slaying the enemies of the Lord with your sword; before my face, the face of Christ's servant N, conquer him who fights against me, and lead me dry-shod across the Jordan River with the new Israel into the land promised by God.
Samuel, you who called upon the Lord for every assistance, and he heard you in his love, when you call upon him, invoke him also for me, the humble servant of God N, bless me and anoint me with the oil of the Holy Spirit, as you also anointed the shepherd David and sent him against the evil spirits to drive them away with his psalmody.
The twelve holy prophets, Oseah, Amos, Micah, Joel, Jonah, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, and the other four great, who are pillars and prefigures of the four evangelists, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, you all together pray for me to the Lord, whom you have proclaimed and predicted, free me from my visible and invisible enemies who attack me with all sorts of schemes, and fill my entire being instead of evil thoughts and words and deeds and unclean spirits with the purest Spirit dwelling in you, for when you were filled with him, you prophesied, proclaiming things past and not being and future, and foreseeing distant matters as close, about the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Emmanuel, about his second and bright appearance in the coming from the heavens, until he comes again, and about all the great works of his divinity and about the last end, until he comes to cast into endless torment the proud reason and wrath, the devil with all the fallen and devilish spirits into eternal torments.
Elijah, prophet and holy servant of God, as you by zeal for the Lord drove away from Israel the vile servants of the devil killing them with all their deeds, and you are therefore still until this day brought into paradise and you will be preserved until the last days to condemn his malice, drive him away from me now into eternal destruction. Holy Elisha, prophet and multiple miracle worker, free me from the evil disease and heal me, as you healed the waters stricken with barrenness, that I may also bear fruit of God's righteousness being healthy.
Holy disciples of the Lord, the twelve apostles of Christ, whose names are written in heaven and who will sit on the judgment day on both sides of Christ and judge all nations, Peter, Paul, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the Less, Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James, since you have received from the eternal Son of God the power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the power of the enemy and to heal all disease and every sickness among the people and in all the lands through which you traveled, cast from me and drive away from me the evil devilish power and all the devil's snares and heal me with your healing and fill me with the Holy Spirit for body and soul.
Holy martyrs of Christ, who all have witnessed to the divinity of Christ, Stephen, the first martyr and first deacon, martyr George, Theodore, Demetrius, Nestor, Mercurius, Samonas, and Abibus, the forty holy martyrs, divine Vitalis, Lawrence, Florian, Chrysogonus, and Zoilus, Boniface, also the holy infants slaughtered for Christ and all the others and countless martyrs, who by your sufferings have expelled the devil from the entire world, uprooted the heresy of idolatry and cleansed the land by washing it with your blood, cleanse me, who am in bondage to my own sins, and free me from the captivity of darkness by your martyrdom and holy sufferings.
Holy physicians of the Lord and miracle workers Cosmas and Damian, Hermolaus and Panteleemon, as well as Abakum and John, who by the grace of the Lord have received the gift of healing and heal not only people but also livestock freely, heal my body and soul from all my evil dangers.
Holy confessors and all hierarchs, who did not forsake God in temptations, but with confidence confessed our Lord Jesus Christ and confessed his faith before many torturers and destroyers, deliver me from all my evil, holy Clement, holy Dionysius the Areopagite, holy Gregory the Wonderworker, Sylvester, Ambrose, Jerome, Martin, Ireneus, Cyprian, Basil, Nicholas, John Chrysostom, and all the other saints, of whom there are countless.
Holy martyrs, you who in your weakness overcame the proud multi-headed and multi-tailed dragon, who thought that in you and in all heads and tails he had his power, but you cut them off with your prayers, save me also from him, rescue me, holy proto-martyr Tecla, holy Anastasia, protector against poisons and liberator from bonds, holy Euphemia, Eugenia, Barbara, Juliana, Febronia, Agatha, Lucy, Cecilia, Felicity, Walburga, Marina, Margaret, and all other holy martyrs.
Our holy Fathers, who by your constant prayers, the singing of psalms, and fasting have overcome our enemies, both visible and invisible, and having revealed their feeble power you have trampled them in dust and accounted them among the nothingness, by your prayers free my sick soul from my enemies and protect me from all, holy Anthony, first hermit, holy Paul the Hermit, holy Euphemia, Sava the Illuminated, father Hilarion and Theodosius given by God, Symeon the Stylite, Benedict the Blessed, Ephrem the famous, with all the saints and venerable fathers and all others, of whom there are countless.
Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist, double prophet, you are the greatest of all born of women, to you God has granted the grace to intercede for all, intercede also for me, the poor and sinful servant of God N, and protect me from all my evil.
All holy heavenly incorporeal powers, holy angels and archangels, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, and Dominions, Seraphim and Cherubim and Thrones, cover me everywhere with your holy fiery wings and protect me from Satanail and Beelzebub, who was cast down from you for his pride, let them not approach me throughout all the days of my life.
Holy Mary, Theotokos and Lady, from you Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, was pleased to be born among people for our redemption, free me from this my misery, humbled and dejected by my sins, and protect me, faint from many temptations, from my enemies, with your protective shield and your intercession with your Son Jesus Christ, our God, whom all visible and invisible obey and before whom all both those who oppose him and those who do not oppose him stand. For to Him belongs glory and praise with the Father and the Holy Spirit, always, now and forever and ever. Amen.
