Hallowed Weapons
In many legends of vampires, religious icons play a strong role in defending against the undead. As a representation of evil, as Bram Stoker injected into his fiend, it makes sense that “good,” as represented by such items as a crucifix or holy water, holds sway over them. Stoker used this underlying theme prominently in Dracula, but not all writers have continued this tradition, and the effectiveness of religious weapons against the vampire varies.
In the film Interview with the Vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac flat-out tells his interviewer that he's rather fond of crucifixes, a common theme among modern vampires who often mock and scorn frightened mortals who attempt to fend off attack using a holy artifact. To some, the power of a crucifix or holy water exists only if you believe — and the undead would be unlikely to believe. Nonetheless, hallowed weaponry such as crosses remain, much like garlic, intrinsically linked to vampirism.
Crosses and Crucifixes
One of the most oft-used weapons against a vampire is a cross or crucifix, which is a cross bearing the figure of Christ hanging from it that represents Jesus's crucifixion on Good Friday. The crucifix is primarily a Roman Catholic symbol, with other Christian religions preferring a plain cross, representative of Christ after the crucifixion.
It's said that a crucifix has more power than a cross, but again, in both cases its energy is largely dependent on how strongly the person holding it believes in its symbolism. In Dracula, Stoker brings the crucifix into the mix beginning in Chapter One, as a confounded Jonathan Harker has a rosary with a crucifix forced upon him by a villager as he awaits his departure for Castle Dracula. Harker, of course, being an “English Churchman” believes the crucifix to be somewhat idolatrous.
In the 1960 film The Brides of Dracula, Van Helsing (played by Peter Cushing) makes innovative use of a windmill against David Peel's evil Baron Meinster. Van Helsing jumps on the windblade, carefully turning it so as to create the giant shadow of a cross which on the ground below confines and effectively helps destroy the Baron.
In traditional lore, the crucifix will burn the skin of the vampire when pressed against it and mark the flesh of a person who has been bitten but not yet fully transformed into a vampire. Additionally in some legends, the crucifix or cross will steal the creature's source of strength, rendering it less powerful. Some stories claim that crosses or crucifixes hung on a door will keep a vampire from entering a room or that a cross placed on a gravesite will render a vampire's entering the grave impossible.
Perhaps the best thing about crosses is that they're easily improvised using items such as candlesticks, swords, random bits of wood — anything that can replicate its crossed positioning. As is the case with more contemporary vampire caricatures, however, crosses and crucifixes, while typically used in some measure, often present no threat to a vampire's existence.
Holy Water
As one of the primary symbols of life, water retains its power as a spiritual and physical cleansing mechanism and one of the strongest proponents of life itself. We spent our first nine months immersed in water, and our bodies are almost entirely composed of water. That said, revenants who are no longer among the living or the dead have little use or respect for water — especially that which has been blessed.
Used in many religious ceremonies such as baptisms and absolution rites, holy water, which is blessed and made sacred by the clergy — especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches — is believed to have special powers and uses. Among them is the ability to repel most unholy creatures — including vampires.
Because holy water is pure and blessed it's said to burn the flesh of the demons like acid burns human flesh, causing extreme pain and peeling burns. In the case of newly created revenants, this could prove fatal. Throughout vampire lore, when bodies of suspected vampires were exhumed, holy water was often used in the rituals meant to keep the undead from rising.
In the same vein, it was also sprinkled atop a grave or over a coffin to prevent its inevitable return. Much like salt, holy water can also be sprinkled or poured onto window sills and doorways to prevent a vampire from entering. In film and fiction, holy water is typically tossed onto a bloodsucker from a vial or flask.
Eucharist Wafer
The Eucharist wafer is yet another religious symbol that is thought to offer protection against vampires, though it's not as commonly mentioned as crosses or holy water. The wafer, which is a thin piece of blessed bread, represents the body of Christ in the Holy Communion ceremony. Like a crucifix, the wafer can burn the flesh of a vampire and leave a mark if pressed against the skin of its victims.
In Chapter Sixteen of Dracula, Van Helsing, after finding Lucy's empty coffin, shocks his cohorts by finely crumbling up wafers, combining them with putty, and using the mix as a sealant around the door to Lucy's tomb. When asked what the mixture is, he replies that it's “the Host,” which he brought from Amsterdam.
In Chapter Twenty-Two, he again makes use of the wafer on several occasions, the first in an effort to keep Mina from further harm. When he touches the wafer to her forehead, however, she screams as her skin becomes seared as if touched by “a piece of white hot metal.” After that incident, the hunting party proceeds to Carfax and are faced with Dracula's boxes of earth. Again, Van Helsing produces the consecrated Host:
“And now, my friends, we have a duty here to do. We must sterilize this earth, so sacred of holy memories, that he has brought from a far distant land for such fell use. He has chosen this earth because it has been holy. Thus we defeat him with his own weapon, for we make it more holy still. It was sanctified to such use of man, now we sanctify it to God.”
While the power of moonlight is more closely associated with werewolves, and primarily used in film and fiction as a matter of creating ambiance, it has played a factor in bringing vampires to life. In John Polidori's The Vampyre, Lord Ruthven is reanimated after he gives the order that his corpse “be exposed to the first cold ray of the moon that rose after his death.” No doubt this gives new meaning to the term “moon walk.”
Van Helsing then proceeds to open the soil-filled boxes, lay the wafers upon the earth, and reseal them to prevent Dracula returning to them. Stoker's use of the Eucharist speaks to a range of issues, including good versus evil, moral versus immoral, and dark versus light. No doubt the religious significance of the wafer is a religious reinforcement to the spiritual turmoil of the Victorian era.
One possible reason that the wafers aren't as popularly used as holy water is likely due to accessibility. As a powerful representation of the body of Christ, wafers are typically locked away in tabernacles within churches and chapels and not easily acquired. In the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola paid homage to Stoker's Eucharistic ploy, including the searing of Mina's forehead and the subsequent disappearance of the burn when the curse of Dracula is lifted upon his destruction.
