‘Let the Holy Cross be my light. Let not the dragon be my guide. Get behind me, satan! Never advise me of vain things. What you offer me is evil, drink your poison yourself.’
Newsroom (29/03/2025 12:18, Gaudium Press) It has become common to see cars with St. Benedict’s medal stickers on them, and their use has also increased: hanging from a chain, printed on T-shirts, stuck to the front doors of houses, on key rings or inside wallets. This is a good thing, because it means you are seeking the protection of this great Saint, who was the developer of monastic life. But is wearing the medal enough to ward off evil?
From time to time, when faced with bad or threatening situations, some people pray the Prayer of St. Benedict in Latin:
‘Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux.
Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux.
Vade Retro Satana! Nunquam Suade Mihi Vana.
Sunt Mala Quae Libas Ipse Venena Bibas.’
Or in English:
‘May the Holy Cross be my light.
Let not the dragon be my guide. Get behind me, Satan!
Never advise me of vain things.
What you offer me is evil, drink your poison yourself.’
According to experts, the effectiveness is the same, because more important than the words are the faith and respect with which they are pronounced. The problem is when you turn it into an amulet and, much worse, a joke; you must not play with that which belongs to God.
Vade retro (Satana)!
From prayer, this little phrase has become popular – with or without the name of the spirit of darkness – and is used by many people with a playful and somewhat tongue-in-cheek connotation: ‘Vade retro, Satan!’, with the aim of driving away anything bad, especially people who annoy you or say something you don’t like.
We should not refer to someone by any name attributed to the evil one, but unfortunately it does happen, and quite often. I’ve had the sad experience of seeing a grandmother who habitually used this phrase towards her young grandchildren!
Those who do this forget or ignore that these words are part of a powerful exorcistic prayer that was composed to drive away evil spirits, not people. However, there are many Catholics who fall for this bait. In the same way that they abuse ‘vade retro!’, they refer to their enemies as ‘karma’ or ‘encosto’ (one believed to be bothered by a problematic spirit), terms borrowed from other religious beliefs, with no relation to our doctrine.
However, the focus of this article is not to talk about demons or exorcisms, but rather about the Catholic’s attitude towards people who take pleasure in doing evil. This preamble was simply to make it clear that, no matter how bad a person is, we should not use these words directed at them, but at the demon that infests them. To ward off and protect oneself from the devil, only those who avoid sin, flee from temptation and lead an upright life of piety, true faith, prayer and frequenting the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist, really succeed.
What we wish to speak about here is the practice of evil that routinely affects us. We see the blood that flows from murders, massacres, executions and so many other forms of violence and abuse. Things that happen far away from us, but which we bring into our homes at the click of a button on the TV remote control or the scroll of our mobile phone screen.
Evils that we can avoid
These are problems that are not of our making, but when we realize it, we are so caught up in certain news stories that we feel obliged to think about them all the time, to give our opinions on them and spread them.
This disturbance is exacerbated even more when we see murderers being released after serving very little time or not being arrested at all, even though they are confessed criminals but have the power to buy their freedom, while many remain in prison for very minor offences.
However, it is a harmful and unnecessary involvement, and it is always prudent to avoid it. Not that we should not sympathize with the victims of violence, of course.
In this context, evil seems to envelop every nook and cranny of life, like a sticky, viscous shadow that enters through every crack and invades every sector, from the foundations to the attics of society and our personal lives.
It is up to each of us to protect ourselves from this ‘contamination’. Instead of watching tragic news, use the time to pray a rosary, read a book, have a healthy conversation with someone or just rest.
Recently, a young woman was murdered in the greater São Paulo area and everyone is talking about it. At family gatherings, in conversation circles, during coffee breaks, the subject is: who killed Vitória, if she had accomplices, if she did not, with the encouragement of the press, which explores the most macabre details of the murder.
Get off that track! Do you want to do something useful in this situation? Pray for the girl’s soul, ask Our Lady to give her family strength, pray for the attacker’s family and the police officers working on the case, and change your tune.
In this day and age of the internet, we know that all it takes to follow a tragedy is for the system itself to offer more of the same, over and over again. And the next thing you know, you are plunged into a swamp of horror from which you will find it very difficult to get out, and you will become emotionally and even physically ill.
Evils that we must face
Violence is not just about wars, robberies and murders. We are often confronted by the spirit of evil in our daily lives, living with people who, just by looking at them, we already dislike. No, it is of no use saying ‘vade retro!’ or throwing holy water to scare them away if you do not change your attitude.
When we take a closer look at human behaviour, we are surprised that there are people who are so cruel, who find satisfaction in making others suffer just for the pleasure it gives them. And this suffering can be caused by small things: joking comments, gossip, lack of commitment, disloyalty and sabotage.
The fairytale stories that lulled many of us into childhood are full of this personification of evil, usually embodied by a wicked stepmother or a witch. In fact, these stories end up seeming naïve in the face of the real evil we face every day, which makes us indignant and some even take our breath away.
It is very difficult to live with perverse or rebellious mean people who go to great lengths to hurt or harm and who are masters at trying to turn the tables by playing the victim, or who say that they are the way they are and that is it; that anyone who wants to live with them has to accept them and put up with them as they are. It is maddening, and the constancy of it can destabilize even the most balanced people.
The evil of the bad
Good and evil are concrete, tangible facts and not just relative concepts. We all have good and bad sides, but that is not what we are talking about. The evil that outrages one is that conscious evil, the evil that does wish to harm others. It is the evil of the bad, which tries to overcome the good of the good.
It is often said that everyone, no matter how bad they seem, always has something good, something positive. We do not disagree with that, but evil is oppressive and domineering that people who devote themselves to it end up so consumed that it becomes practically impossible to see any trace of good that they might have.
There are situations in which it is possible to engage in dialogue, to make an effort to reach a common denominator and resolve conflicts, but there are others in which there is no alternative but to pray, to give into God’s hands and to walk away – if possible, to cut off contact completely.
We cannot twist Jesus’ words
That concept that says, ‘If you cannot beat the enemy, join him’, is not good advice, because in many circumstances the best thing to do – or the only sensible thing to do – is to send the enemy back to where he came from and run away from him; to stay out of his reach, because if he is able, he will do everything he can to undermine our energies until he sees us on the ground.
There are people who are bothered by someone else’s success, someone else’s joy, peace and a lifestyle that is different from their own; especially if the other person is a person of genuine faith, with the behaviour that a true Christian should have, because there is nothing that bothers some people more than purity and humility. In that case, if we manage to be truly Catholic, we do not even have to make much effort to make evil go away, because it simply cannot stand the presence of the children of the Light.
Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and Monsignor João Clá Dias, two truly Catholic men whom I admire, discovered this while still in their childhood, living with children who were tremendously bothered by good from an early age.
You could argue that Jesus taught that when someone hits you, you should turn the other cheek. However, Christ did not tell anyone to put their neck on the guillotine or be at the mercy of God’s enemies. He Himself used the expedience of prudently distancing himself from those who wanted to destroy him.
We should rely on the words of St. Paul: ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Rom 12:21). However, in order for good to triumph, we need to stop being naïve, stop being fools, stop allowing people to insult us, hurt us, harm us because of our religion by attacking it.
The greatest good is to not allow evil be done, but to fight and stay away from the bad. After all, an employee of the Butantã Institute does not caress a snake’s head because he knows that his goodwill won’t prevent the viper’s bite, much less neutralise its venom.
With Files From Afonso Pessoa
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
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