Corbis
View Caption +
A modern of depiction of Satan in the likeness of a goat with horns and goatee.
The Devil Throughout History: Photos
A modern of depiction of Satan in the likeness of a goat with horns and goatee. The Devil: Alive and Well?
Rex Diablo/Wikimedia Commons
View Caption +
Images of devils proliferated in the Middle Ages. The devil was often depicted as a terrifying, horned beast. In this mosaic by Coppo di Marcovaldo (1225-1276) in the Baptistery of Florence, Satan is devouring the damned while monsters in the shape of a snake, frog or lizard come out from his body. Gate to Hell Found in Turkey
Wikimedia Commons
View Caption +
In Christian art, the devil is typically portrayed as having horns of a goat and a ram, a pig's nose and teeth, and a goat's fur and ears. This image is a 16th-century painting by Jacob de Backer in the National Museum in Warsaw. PHOTOS: Rome Awaits the New Pope
BurgererSF/Wikimedia Commons 4.Dante
View Caption +
Historically, the devil had many names and roles. He is the serpent who tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, the fallen angel who rebelled against God, the Dragon, Beelzebub, the Father of Lies, Lucifer, Satan, the Prince of Darkness. A giant beast, Lucifer, the King of Hell, stood frozen to the waist in a lake of ice in Dante's Divine Commedy. Engraving by Gustave Doré illustrating Canto XXXIV of Divine Comedy, Inferno, by Dante Alighieri. When 'Exorcising' a Home May Be a Smart Move
Wikimedia Commons
View Caption +
A popular icon in the past, the devil appears to be alive and kicking also in Pope Francis' modernizing church. The pontiff has alluded to him ever since his first homily as Pope, describing the devil as a real presence even in the 21st century. Unafraid of criticism for bringing back what many see as the superstitions of the middle ages, the Vatican last month faced the demonic threat by hosting its largest convention on exorcism. Called "Exorcism and Prayers of Liberation," the meeting included a six-day course to train about 200 Roman Catholic priests from more than 30 countries in the ancient rite of exorcism. In this 1519 painting, an exorcism is being performed on a woman who has previously killed her child and her parents. New Pope Is Argentinian Bergoglio
Wikimedia Commons
The Catholic Church recently formally recognizedThe International Association of Exorcists, a group of 250 priests worldwide who claim to drive demons and devils out of possessed individuals.
An ABC News reportnotes that "The International Association of Exorcists was originally founded in 1990 and one of their leaders has been housed in the Vatican for years, but this is the first time that they have been given formal approval by the highest order of the Roman Catholic Church. According to The Vatican's official newspaper 'L'Osservatore Romano', the Congregation for Clergy announced Tuesday that the Church's canon law now formally recognizes the group."
The recognition is seen as another sign that Catholic Church formally approves of exorcisms. Pope Francis has been more vocal than many of his predecessors about the reality of demons and devils, and was seen last year praying over a man said to be possessed.
Because demonic possession has never been scientifically proven, the Vatican's move lends legitimacy to a controversial practice whose victims may be better served by psychologists and other mental health professionals. Exorcisms can be dangerous, and indeed many people have diedwhile others tried to drive real or imagined demons from their bodies.
On Aug. 22, 2003, an autistic 8-year-old boy in Milwaukee was bound in sheets and held down by church members during a prayer service held to exorcize the evil spirits they blamed for his condition. An autopsy found extensive bruising on the back of the child's neck and concluded that he died of asphyxiation.
An exorcism in 2005 at a Romanian convent resulted in the death of Maricica Irina Cornici, a 23-year-old nun who said she heard the devil telling her she was sinful. With assistance from four nuns, priest Daniel Corogeanu bound Cornici to a cross, gagged her mouth with a towel, and left her for three days without food or water. Cornici, who had a history of schizophrenia, died of suffocation and dehydration.
The Vatican accepts only a small percentage of demonic possessions as "authentic," which of course suggests that there are many unauthentic cases of possession. The Vatican issued official guidelines on exorcism in 1614 and revised them in 1999.
In addition to Catholic Church-sanctioned exorcists such as those in The International Association of Exorcists, there are countless exorcists with little or no official church affiliation.
For example, an Arizona man named Bob Larson, who claims to have conducted over 10,000 exorcisms (or about one a day) since 1982, trained his teenage daughterand her friends to conduct the ritual. Thousands of other self-styled exorcists, from Pentecostal preachers to voodoo priests, do the same thing around the world.
Author Michael Cuneo, who participated in more than 50 exorcisms while researching his book, "American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty" (2002, Broadway Books) found no reason to think that anything supernatural occurs during exorcisms. Instead, most of those deemed possessed suffered from treatable mental illness.
Nonetheless, belief in a literal devil which causes harm and can take possession of the human body is a central tenet of Catholicism, and not going away any time soon; according to the Bible Jesus himself performs a half-dozen exorcisms, and no less an influential figure than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged his belief in a literal Satan.