Question Corner: Are fairies and leprechauns demonic? And what happened to Barabbas?

Q: Listening to a Catholic radio station one day, they mentioned that leprechauns and fairies were demonic. This shocked me. St. Patrick’s Day celebrations always include leprechauns. Fairies are loved by little girls and big girls alike. I myself made a small fairy garden for me and my granddaughters. We also have many other fairy items. Are we now supposed to get rid of these, I thought, playful items? (Johnston, R.I.)

A: No, I don’t think it’s a problem for Catholics to use leprechaun or fairy imagery in a clearly imaginative or make-believe way.

The church does not have any current official teaching on fairies or leprechauns. However, in traditional folklore, fairies and leprechauns were not the sweet and playful creatures that they tend to be in our modern depictions, and they have an association with pre-Christian European paganism. So while the church does not formally teach that today’s fantasy fairies are demonic, I suspect that fairies’ roots in pagan folklore are what prompted these comments on the radio.

It hopefully goes without saying that Catholics should not practice paganism or adopt any directly pagan practices. But there is a historic tradition of Catholic missionaries “baptizing” some of the more benign forms of pagan imagery and culture in order to make Christianity more accessible to the peoples who were being evangelized. One somewhat legendary example of this is the Celtic cross; there is a story that St. Patrick combined the Christian cross with a pagan symbol for the sun in order to communicate the importance of the cross in Christian life.

And at times the church has tolerated pagan imagery in non-religious contexts. For instance, our English-language days of the week are mostly derived from the names of Norse pagan gods. But this does not prevent the church from using terms such as “Holy Thursday” or “Good Friday.”

If a person is interested in fairies or leprechauns because they seriously believe in these creatures and actually wish to attempt literal magic or otherwise become involved with pagan or “New Age” practices, then this would be spirituality dangerous and incompatible with Catholicism. But I don’t think this concern would apply to the vast majority of mainstream fairy or leprechaun imagery we see today.

As a parallel, we can enjoy fantasy stories, such as “The Lord of the Rings,” that have wizard characters in them without it becoming a slippery slope for our seeking to attempt wizardry ourselves. In a similar vein, I think it’s fine to do things like create a “fairy garden” for the fun of creating an arts and crafts project.

Q: Does the church have a teaching on the ultimate fate or eternal destination of Barabbas, the one let go instead of Jesus? (Indiana)

A: No, the church does not have any formal teaching on what happened to Barabbas.

For background, Barabbas is mentioned in all four Gospels, with Luke’s Gospels specifying that “Barabbas had been imprisoned for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder” (Lk 23:19). Various legends tell us opposite things about the fate of Barabbas. Some stories say he converted and eventually became a disciple of the risen Christ; others say he was killed in another insurrection attempt soon afterward.

Still, Scripture does not provide us with any further details on the rest of Barabbas’ earthly life outside of his brief role in Christ’s Passion, and we do not have any kind of consistent venerable tradition to help fill in these gaps.

In terms of Barabbas’ ultimate destiny, keep in mind that the church generally avoids commenting on where any particular person’s soul went after death. The one exception — which does not apply to Barabbas — is canonized saints who, through a careful process of discernment, are determined to be already in heaven and able to intercede for us. And note that the church does not have “reverse canonization,” i.e., souls are never proclaimed to be in hell.

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