Exorcist
This article forms part of the series Clergy | |
Major orders | |
Bishop - Priest - Deacon | |
Minor orders | |
Subdeacon - Reader Cantor - Acolyte | |
Other orders | |
Chorepiscopos - Exorcist Doorkeeper - Deaconess - Presbytide | |
Episcopal titles | |
Patriarch - Catholicos Archbishop - Metropolitan Auxiliary - Titular | |
Priestly titles | |
Archimandrite - Protopresbyter Archpriest - Protosyngellos Economos | |
Diaconal titles | |
Archdeacon - Protodeacon | |
Minor titles | |
Protopsaltes - Lampadarios | |
Monastic titles | |
Abbot - Igumen | |
Related | |
Ordination - Vestments Presbeia - Honorifics Clergy awards - Exarch Proistamenos - Vicar | |
Edit this box |
An exorcist is an extinct office within the minor orders of clergy. The primary duty of exorcists was as the instructor of catechumens, whose entrance into the catechumenate was accompanied by an exorcism, ridding them of any demonic presence that may affect them. An exorcist may also have been called upon in other instances requiring an exorcism, such as the suspicion of demon possession or a person or location.
The exorcism of catechumens has subsequently been conflated into the rite of baptism and is usually performed by the priest or bishop doing the baptism. Since the fourth century, the functions and ministry of the exorcist have been subsumed by the presbyter.