Irony no.1 – what they seek to destroy, they give life to

The Christian church had not established a stance on vampires when it split in 1054. However, the beliefs of the two churches that resulted – the Roman Catholic church in the west, and the Orthodox church in the east – can be directly linked to the vampire myth that continued to pervade the east. Roman Catholics believed that the bodies of their saints would not decay in the grave; instead, they would remain intact and give off a sweet odour. However, the Orthodox church found it more difficult initially to shake off its Pagan roots, and viewed an undecayed corpse as a sign of evil. Regardless, both churches had no formal stance on vampires save that it was part of a Pagan belief that was outdated and unChristian in nature.

Paganism, far from being an organised religion, was little more than a collection of folk wisdom and disorganised mythology; it was kept alive by the peasants who had no formal education other than the passing down of legend. As time went by, the Roman Catholic church grew concerned that the established Pagan mythologies would usurp the new Catholic beliefs that the church was trying to spread. As such, it began an investigation of the vampire myth. The church, with the intent to make its beliefs widespread and end Paganism (which they called witchcraft) began to link vampirism with Satan. They set forth a decree that vampires were corpses reanimated by Satan's devils. As a result, these vampires would flee from the signs of the true Christian God: the crucifix, holy water, and the eucharistic wafer.

The great irony of this period is that as the Church moved to end the Pagan mythologies, it would be their own decree that would lend historical validity to the vampire. So great was their influence that movies and novels in the late 20th century still show the vampire as a Satanic creature, made helpless when confronted with the signs of the true Christian God.

 

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