Exorcism - Notable Exorcisms

Notable Exorcisms

See also: Louviers possessions, Aix-en-Provence possessions, and Loudun possessions

• An October 2007 mākutu lifting in the Wellington, New Zealand suburb of Wainuiomata led to the death by drowning of a woman and the hospitalization of a teen. After a long trial, five family members were convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences.
• Mother Teresa allegedly underwent an exorcism late in life under the direction of the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry D'Souza, after he noticed she seemed to be extremely agitated in her sleep and feared she "might be under the attack of the evil one."
• Anneliese Michel was a Catholic woman from Germany who was said to be possessed by six or more demons and subsequently underwent a secret ten-month-long voluntary exorcism in 1975. Two motion pictures, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Requiem are loosely based on Anneliese's story. The documentary movie Exorcism of Anneliese Michel (in Polish, with English subtitles) features the original audio tapes from the exorcism. The two priests and her parents were convicted of negligent manslaughter for failing to call a medical doctor to address her eating disorder. When she died she weighed 68 pounds. The case has been labelled a misidentification of mental illness, negligence, abuse, and religious hysteria.
• Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, wrote an essay in 1994 about his personal experience of performing an exorcism on an intimate friend named "Susan" while in college. Jindal's exorcism took place at Brown University and was a success.
• Michael Taylor in 1974.
• A boy identified as Robbie Mannheim, was the subject of an exorcism in 1949, which became the chief inspiration for The Exorcist, a horror novel and film written by William Peter Blatty, who heard about the case while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University. Robbie was taken into the care of Rev. Luther Miles Schulze, the boy's Lutheran pastor, after psychiatric and medical doctors were unable to explain the disturbing events associated with the teen; the minister then referred the boy to Rev. Edward Hughes, who performed the first exorcism on the teen. The subsequent exorcism was partially performed in both Cottage City, Maryland and Bel-Nor, Missouri by Father William S. Bowdern, S.J., Father Raymond Bishop S.J. and a then Jesuit scholastic Fr. Walter Halloran, S.J.
• Salvador Dalí is reputed to have received an exorcism from Italian friar Gabriele Maria Berardi while he was in France in 1947. Dali created a sculpture of Christ on the cross that he gave the friar in thanks.
• Clara Germana Cele was a South African school girl who claimed to be possessed in 1906.
• Johann Blumhardt performed the exorcism of Gottliebin Dittus over a two-year period in Möttlingen, Germany from 1842-1844. Pastor Blumhardt's parish subsequently experienced growth marked by confession and healing, which he attributed to the successful exorcism.
• George Lukins in 1778.