The 67 exorcisms of Anneliese Michel

A young woman who underwent no fewer than 67 exorcisms shortly before her death between September 24, 1975, and June 30, 1976, was 23-year-old Anna Elisabeth Michael, known as Anneliese. One day after her last exorcism, she died on July 1, 1967, from extreme malnutrition. Anneliese weighed only 31 kilograms. Since the doctor did not want to issue the death certificate, the whole truth about Anneliese Michel’s martyrdom came to light. The case caused such a stir worldwide that the practice of exorcism in the Roman Catholic Church was radically changed. Anneliese was born on September 21, 1952, in Leiblfing. Anneliese grew up with her two sisters in Klingenberg am Main, where her father ran a sawmill. Anneliese’s family was strictly religious, which is why they often made pilgrimages to the Italian pilgrimage site of San Damiano, where the farmer’s wife Rosa Quattrini-Buzzini had been visited by the Virgin Mary every Friday since 1964. Anneliese was a shy, introverted girl who, shortly before her 16th birthday, suddenly suffered violent seizures with convulsions and foaming at the mouth. The doctors soon diagnosed Anneliese with epilepsy. However, neither Anneliese’s parents nor Anneliese herself accepted the medical diagnosis. Anneliese believed that she was possessed. Her epileptic seizures became increasingly severe, reaching their peak shortly before her high school graduation in 1973. Anneliese suffered from the pressure to succeed that her parents placed on her. She struggled with fear of failure. During this time, she began to hear knocking in her room. She saw grotesque faces and heard voices from hell. Despite all these limitations, Anneliese moved from Klingenberg to a dormitory in Würzburg at the end of 1973, where she began studying education. Friends reported that Anneliese was behaving increasingly strangely, refusing to enter places of worship, tearing up rosaries, and destroying bottles of holy water. But another pilgrimage to San Damiano changed the life of the young student Anneliese forever. The pilgrimage leader expressed her suspicion that 23-year-old Anneliese was possessed by the devil, as she could neither walk past a statue of the Madonna nor drink water from a holy spring. Anneliese also emitted a strong smell of burning and feces. After the trip, Anneliese’s family turned to Pastor Ernst Alt, who initially sent Anneliese to doctors. The pilgrimage leader then contacted Jesuit priest and exorcist Adolf Rodewyk. He diagnosed Anneliese with “demonic compulsion.” From 1975 onwards, Pastor Ernst Alt became Anneliese’s confidant. After Anneliese rolled around in the coal cellar, licked her own urine, and ate insects in the same year, Adolf Rodewyk prepared an expert opinion for Bishop Josef Stangl in which he recommended a major exorcism. On September 16, 1975, Stangl granted permission for the major exorcism according to the Rituale Romanum of 1614. Father Arnold Renz was appointed as the exorcist and performed the major exorcism on Anneliese for the first time on September 24. He performed the ritual a total of seven times. He usually recorded the rituals on tape. Anneliese continued her studies during the exorcisms, but her health deteriorated rapidly from Ash Wednesday 1976 onwards. This was because Anneliese stopped eating completely at the beginning of Lent. A voice in her head had ordered her to do so. Anneliese tortured herself, kneeling for hours, biting walls, banging her head on the floor, and doing 500 to 600 squats every day. To prevent her from hurting herself, her parents tied Anneliese to her bed. Anneliese’s condition was so bad that she moved back into her parents’ house in May 1976. Although Anneliese was just skin and bones, her parents, Pastor Alt, and Father Renz did not seek medical help. On June 30, Father Renz performed another exorcism. One day later, Anneliese’s mother found her daughter dead. She had died of malnutrition. On April 21, 1978, Anneliese’s parents, Pastor Alt, and Father Renz were sentenced by the Aschaffenburg Regional Court to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for three years, for negligent homicide by omission. The names of the two clergymen later appeared in abuse reports. One year after the verdict, the commission appointed by the German Bishops’ Conference proposed replacing the major exorcism with a “liturgy for the liberation from evil.” But it was not until 1999 that the Vatican issued new guidelines on exorcism. According to these guidelines, exorcism must be discontinued if the person concerned refuses to consult a doctor. In addition, prayers of supplication should determine the ritual. Furthermore, the person concerned should receive medical and psychological care. Since 2005, exorcism courses have been offered at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum to train priests and theologians in exorcism. Since the death of Anneliese Michel, no official exorcism has been approved by the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. To this day, audio recordings of the exorcism of Anneliese Michel, who was allegedly possessed by six demons, circulate on the internet. In these recordings, Anneliese can be heard speaking, screaming, and whispering in altered voices. Her case continues to inspire numerous films and books.