The exorcism of demons was a common feature of Christian hagiography because it displayed Christ’s power over the Devil and the authority of his saints to act in his name. In the later fourth century, Jerome of Stridon (ca. 346–420) included several stories of exorcisms in his accounts of the careers of three desert hermits who modeled their lives on the example of Antony: Paul, Malchus, and Hilarion. Perhaps taking his cue from the possessed swine in the story of Christ’s exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac (see this page), Jerome tailored a vignette unique in the tradition of Christian saints’ lives, in which Hilarion subdued a murderous camel driven into a frenzy by demonic influence.
It is not enough to mention only humans: every day brute animals that had gone wild were brought to him. One of these was a Bactrian camel of enormous size which had already trampled many people to death. Restrained by very thick ropes, it was brought to Hilarion by thirty or more men making a great noise. Its eyes were bloodshot, it foamed at the mouth, its rolling tongue was swollen, and above every other source of terror there resounded its loud roar. The old man ordered it to be untied. At once those who had brought the animal and those who were with the old man all ran away, without exception. Hilarion went up to it by himself and said in Syriac, “You do not frighten me, devil, with your huge body. You are exactly the same in a fox as in a camel.” While he was speaking he stood with outstretched hand. The beast came up to him, raging wildly and looking as if it was going to eat him, but immediately it knelt down, bending its head right to the ground to the amazement of all those present, suddenly displaying as much gentleness as it had previously shown ferocity. But the old man explained to them that in order to harm people the devil also enters into animals; he is inflamed with such great hatred of men that he is very keen to destroy not only them, but also their possessions.