Damien Karras

Damien Karras

Father Damien Karras, SJ is a fictional character from the novel The Exorcist, its sequel Legion, and their film adaptations.

Father Karras was one of the priests who exorcises the demon from young Regan MacNeil. He is a Jesuit psychiatrist suffering a crisis of faith. He searches for proof to lead an exorcism, yet during his investigation he comes to realize that there is no better way for God to prove His own existence than to reveal the foul presence of a demon. During the exorcism, the demon frequently brings up the subject of Karras's mother's death and how he wasn't there to see her die, which seems to trouble Karras emotionally.

Father Karras dies by throwing himself down a flight of stone steps in order to purge the demon from his own body after having coaxed it out of Regan's.

In the sequel, Legion, it is revealed that after the demon departed, another evil spirit invaded Karras's body. Karras was found wandering and amnesiac and was placed in the care of a mental hospital near Washington DC. While incarcerated there, the spirit suppresses Karras's personality and makes forays into the bodies of other patients in order to commit a series of ritual murders.

In the films The Exorcist and The Exorcist III, he is played by Jason Miller (who was in fact educated at the Jesuit-run University of Scranton).