Two workers whom the University of Texas at Arlington fired for praying over an absent colleague’s cubicle, and for anointing it with olive oil, did so because they considered the co-worker to be “demonically oppressed,” according to documents released on Friday by the university and reported today by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The university dismissed the workers for harassing the colleague and misuse of university property, and in response they have filed a religious-discrimination lawsuit.

According to the university documents quoted in the Star-Telegram, a participant in the oily ritual who was not fired quoted one of the workers as saying, “You vicious evil dogs. Get the hell out of here in the name of Jesus. ... I command you to leave.” The newspaper was unable to reach the Liberty Legal Institute, a religious-freedom group that is suing on the workers’ behalf, for comment.

In the documents, the university’s vice president for development, Gary Cole, wrote that, after he began to take action against the participants in the ritual, one of them spoke of him as “a tool of the devil,” vowing that “she would pray for me.”