Daily Strange's Toxic Thursday: A Pact With Satan

GÖTZENDIENST (IDOLATRY) BY MICHAEL HUTTER

When Clara Germana Cele was 16 years old, she made a pact with Satan—or so she told, her confessor, Father Erasmus Horner, at the mission school she had attended since she was four years old. In the weeks following her confession, Germana began to behave wildly, and on August 20, 1906, she alarmed the sisters in charge by tearing her clothes, breaking one of the posts on her bed, growling and grunting like an animal, and seeming to converse with invisible beings. In a more lucid moment she called out: “Sister, please call Father Erasmus. I must confess and tell everything. But quick, quick, or Satan will kill me. He has me in his power! Nothing blessed is with me; I have thrown away all the medals you gave me.” Later that day she again called out: “You have betrayed me. You have promised me days of glory, but now you treat me cruelly.”

Until these outbursts began, the priests and nuns of the Marianhill Order mission school in Umzinto, about 50 miles south of Durban, South Africa, had considered Germana a normal, healthy, although somewhat erratic young person. As her condition worsened, Germana began to manifest the signs by which the Roman Catholic Church identifies cases of demonic possession. Holy water, for example, burned her when she was sprinkled with it or given it to drink, but when she was sprinkled with ordinary water with which the font had secretly been filled, she simply laughed. She complained vigorously whenever a cross was brought near her and could detect the presence of a religious object, such as a small fragment of a cross, even when it had been heavily wrapped or otherwise concealed.

Germana also developed a more wide-ranging clairvoyance. She was able to describe the daily details of a priests journey from Africa to Rome, including the addresses of the places where he stayed along the way. And, to shame one young man who made fun of her, she revealed scandalous details of his private life, complete with dates, times, and names.

Among Germana s physical manifestations, her confessor reported numerous instances of levitation:

Germana floated often three, four, and up to five feet in the air, sometimes vertically, with her feet downward, and at other times horizontally, with her whole body floating above her bed. She was in a rigid position. Even her clothing did not fall downward, as would have been normal; instead, her dresses remained tightly attached to her body and legs. If she was sprinkled with holy water, she moved down immediately, and her clothing fell loosely onto her bed. This type of the phenomenon took place in the presence of witnesses, including outsiders. Even in church, where she could be seen by everyone, she floated above her seat. Some people tried to pull her down forcibly, holding on to her feet, but it proved to be impossible.

Another curious physical capacity that astonished the attending priests and nuns was her ability to transform herself into a snakelike creature. Her whole body would become as flexible as rubber, and she would writhe along the floor. At times her neck seemed to elongate, thereby enhancing the serpent like impression she gave. Once, while she was being restrained, she darted, like lightning, at a nun kneeling in front of her and bit the poor woman on the arm. The wound showed the marks of Germana's teeth and a small red puncture resembling a snakebite.

On September 10, 1906, permission for Germanas exorcism was given, to be performed by Father Erasmus, her confessor, and by Father Mansuet, the mission rector. The rites began in the morning, lasted till noon, began again at 3 p.m., and continued well into the night. The next morning they began at 8 and lasted until 10. Under fierce pressure from the two exorcists, the possessing demon said that he would signal his departure by an act of levitation; this occurred before 170 witnesses in the mission chapel. Prayers of thanks were later given.

In January 1907, while Father Erasmus was away, Germana suffered a relapse and made a new pact with theDevil. On April 24 a new exorcism began. It lasted for two days and was successful, the Devil’s final departure being signaled by an incomparably foul smell.

SOURCES:

I - Demon Children, Martin Ebon, ed., pp.154-64

II - Adolf Rodewyk, Possessed by Satan, pp.120-27

#demon #satan #devil #possessed #demonicpossession

Daily Strange's Spooky Sunday: The Demon's Daughter

Daily Strange's Spooky Sunday: The Demon's Daughter

The victim of one of the most detailed instances of demonic possession in 20th-century America was a mid western woman whose real name was never made public. As a child she had been notably pious, but when she was 14, blasphemous inner voices interfered with her religious practice, frightened her, and caused her much shame. In the years that followed she was examined by several doctors. Finding no physical illness or abnormality, they unanimously concluded that her personality was neither nervous nor hysterical — she was “normal in the fullest sense.”

Despite this diagnosis, Mary (a pseudonym) began to manifest the recognized signs of demonic possession. She would become furiously enraged and would foam at the mouth when a priest blessed her, and could infallibly tell when an object had been secretly blessed or sprinkled with holy water. She also understood languages she had never been taught.

In 1928, when she was 40 years old, Mary agreed to undergo exorcism. Her exorcist was to be Father Theophilus Riesinger, a 60-year-old Capuchin monk in the community of St. Anthony, at Marathon, Wisconsin, a man with considerable experience in the application of the ancient rite. For the place of exorcism, Father Theophilus chose a Franciscan convent in Earling, Iowa, where the pastor, Father Joseph Steiger, was an old friend of his.

On her first night in the convent, Mary became furious when she realized that holy water had been sprinkled on her food. She purred like a cat and refused to eat until unblessed food was put before her.

The next morning Father Theophilus and Father Steiger began the exorcism, for which a large room had been made ready. A number of nuns who were physically strong stood by to help, and Mary was laid on a mattress on an iron bed. The exorcism had scarcely begun when she became unconscious, with her eyes closed so tightly that they could not be forced open. They remained in this state throughout the service. A shrill cry filled the room, loud but seemingly far-off at the same time. And then a din of howling, like wild animals, came from Mary’s lips. “Silence, Satan!” Father Theophilus shouted, but the unearthly tortured clamor continued unabated.

Neither Father Steiger nor the nuns could long endure the howling or the sight of the woman’s body and face, hideously twisted and distorted by the onslaught. From time to time they had to leave the room, but Father Theophilus, accustomed to the screaming of devils at the pain of exorcism, remained constant and attentive throughout.

Day after day the exorcism continued, and with it the howling, the twisted limbs, and excrement and vomit in vast quantities. Although the victim had taken only a spoonful of milk or water during the entire day to sustain her, she sometimes disgorged bowlfuls of what seemed to be shredded tobacco leaves or other unsavory materials.

At last Father Theophilus learned the names of the devils infesting his patient. One, calling himself Beelzebub, told him that Mary had been possessed since she was14andthatshehadbeencursedbyherownfather, who had joined the company of possessing demons after his own death and damnation. This demon — Mary’s father, Jacob — spoke with Father Theophilus, revealing that he had frequently tried to force his daughter into an incestuous relationship but that she had always resisted him and that he had uttered a curse that she be entered by devils to destroy her chastity. A female demon, who gave her name as Mina, in life Jacob's mistress, joined the colloquy. She was damned, she said, because she had murdered four of her own children. A fourth demon, Judas, confessed that he had intended to drive Mary to suicide.

Whatever was expressing itself in these voice sat times demonstrated an uncanny knowledge of things that could not have been known to Mary. On one occasion, as a test, a piece of paper with a Latin inscription was placed on Mary’s head. The nuns, thinking the words were a prayer, were surprised to see that the demons tolerated its presence. In fact, the words had no religious content at all; but when a second piece of paper, which had been secretly blessed, was placed on the woman’s head, it was immediately torn to pieces.

As the painful weeks of exorcism continued, relations between the two priests deteriorated and Father Steiger began to wish he had never allowed the exorcism to take place in his parish. But Father Theophilus viewed this development as the work of the Devil, who seemed to regard Father Steiger with special malice.

“Just wait,” a demonic voice said to Father Steiger one day,“until the end of the week! When Friday comes, then ...”

On his way back from visiting a sick parishioner on Friday, Father Steiger, remembering the demon’s threat, drove with special care. Suddenly, just as he was about to cross a bridge over a deep ravine, a black cloud seemed to descend on his car. He could see nothing, but he felt the car smash violently into the railing of the bridge and then teeter on the edge. A farmer plowing a nearby field heard the crash and came running. Slowly, the pastor crawled out of the debris. He had no serious injuries despite the fact that even the cars steering wheel had been crushed.

When he reached the convent, a chorus of malicious laughter greeted him in the exorcism room.

“Today,” the demon screeched, “he pulled in his proud neck and was outpointed! I certainly showed him up today. What about your new auto, that dandy car that was smashed to smithereens? It served you right!” Was it true, the nuns and Father Theophilus asked? “Yes, what he says is true. My auto is a complete wreck. But he was not able to harm me personally.”

“Our aim was to get you,” the demon said, “but somehow our plans were thwarted. It was your powerful patron saint (Saint Joseph) who prevented us from harming you.”

(During these and all other conversations, the lips of the possessed woman did not move at all she - was unconscious, and her lips almost never parted. The voices seemed to come from within her.)

For two weeks the solemn exorcism was repeated without any sign of success. Father Theophilus decided to continue the exorcisms throughout the night, giving Satan (and himself) no respite. For three days and nights he prayed, but the demons held their ground; by the 23rd day Father Theophilus was near collapse. But now a change began to occur in the demons’ behavior. They were less aggressive and more apt to moan about the tortures the exorcism inflicted on them. Then, after Father Theophilus had demanded in the name of the Trinity that the demons depart, they agreed.

On December 23 at about 9 p.m., the possessed woman broke free from the grip of her attendants and stood before them. “Pull her down! Pull her down!” Father Steiger cried, while Father Theophilus blessed her and declaimed, “Depart ye fiends of hell! Begone, Satan! The Lion of Juda reigns!”

Then the stiffness left Mary's body, and she fell onto the bed. A sound arose, so piercing that the room vibrated, and then a babble of voices, repeating the names “Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina,” again and again, more and more faintly until, with the final words “Hell—hell—hell!” they disappeared.

Then, Mary sat up, opened her eyes and quietly smiled. “My Jesus, Mercy!” she said. “Praised be Jesus Christ!”

SOURCES:

I - Exorcism: Fact Not Fiction, Martin Ebon, ed., pp.212-45

II - Rev. John J. Nicola, Diabolical Possession and Exorcism, pp.126-31)

#possession#demon #demonicpossession #poltergeist #exorcism