St. Joseph medal
The small saint's medal that links Merrin's dig, Karras and the final struggle in the 1973 film.
The St. Joseph medal is a religious medal that recurs through the 1973 film The Exorcist. It shows St. Joseph with the infant Jesus and carries the Latin words 'Sancte Joseph ora pro nobis' ('Saint Joseph, pray for us'). It is often wrongly called a St. Christopher medal.
Quick Facts
- Inscription
- Sancte Joseph ora pro nobis
- Appears in
- The Exorcist (1973 film)
- Owners
- Found by Merrin in Iraq; worn by Karras
Facts from the source article.
Background
Father Merrin finds such a medal on the dig in Iraq at the start of the film, and Father Karras wears one. At the climax the possessed Regan tears the medallion from Karras's neck before the demon passes into him. Whether the medal from Iraq and Karras's are the same one is left open; Blatty said the better question was how a modern Christian medal came to be in a pre-Christian ruin at all. According to the fan wiki, Friedkin added the medal to the film to give it more resonance.
Source
Text adapted from St. Joseph medal on The Exorcist Wiki (Fandom, CC BY-SA 3.0). Page history: contributors. Codexery summarised the page, and this entry is shared under the same licence.
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