Scary story: Anneliese Michel. Possessed by the devil: the story of an unfortunate girl who underwent an exorcism in the 20th century German girl possessed by demons

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This time - a real, documented story.

Anneliese Michel (September 21, 1952 - July 1, 1976). Known for the fact that, based on her life, the films Exorcism of Emily Rose and Requiem were created. She suffered from nervous diseases from the age of 16 until her death in 1976, the cause of which (at least indirectly) is believed to be a ritual to exorcise the devil. Her parents and the two priests who performed the ritual were later charged with manslaughter. The exile was carried out by Pastor Arnold Renz under the ideological leadership of Bishop Josef Stangl. The unfortunate girl was starved, tortured, not allowed to sleep for several days in a row. The savagery ended with the death of the girl. “The soul of Anneliese, cleansed of the satanic power,” the pastor told the grief-stricken parents of the deceased, “ascended to the throne of the Most High ...” Some people believe that she really was possessed by the Devil.

Born in 1952 in a small village in Bavaria. Her parents were very religious, which was reflected in her upbringing. In 1968, she began to have severe epileptic seizures. Treatment in a psychiatric clinic did not give any positive effect, moreover, Anneliese began to feel depressed there. In addition, sacred objects such as crucifixes and churches began to cause her strong disgust. She began to believe that she was possessed by the devil, and the ineffectiveness of medical care only strengthened this belief. She was prescribed more and more new drugs, but to no avail.

On July 1, 1976, at the age of 23, Anneliese died. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition, which she suffered during months of exorcism cycles. Another hypothesis was put forward, according to which the death was caused by a side effect of the drug carbamazepine, which she had been taking for several years.

In 1969, seventeen-year-old German woman Anneliese Michel was diagnosed with epilepsy by a doctor, although an electroencephalogram showed nothing. Only after the death of Anneliese in 1976 did a number of oddities surface, and then thanks to an equally strange trial. Although the autopsy also showed no signs of epilepsy in the brain and death from dehydration and exhaustion, the two priests and Anneliese's parents, who were not allowed to be exhumed, continued to be guilty. What made Anneliese crush sacred relics, turn her head left and right with the speed of changing frames and eat spiders, flies and coal?

Anneliese Michel was born on September 21, 1952 in the Bavarian Leiblfing, but was brought up in Klingenberg am Main of the same land, which was then also part of the Federal Republic of Germany. The girl's name was a combination of two names - Anna and Elizabeth (Lisa). Conservative parents Anna Fürg and Josef Michel were a colorful exception in Germany, but commonplace in Bavaria's Catholic stronghold. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, on the 13th of each month they celebrated the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, and the neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, left the Michel family for a sample. Anneliese attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, such as sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter. In 1968, a generally harmless incident occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, incomprehensible night attacks began, during which the girl's body lost flexibility, a feeling of heaviness appeared on her chest, and due to dysarthria - the loss of the ability to speak - she could not call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted that she could not find the strength to go to school. However, this did not happen again for some time, and Anneliese even sometimes played tennis.

In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to difficulty breathing and paralysis of her arms and whole body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram showed no changes in the brain. True, later the girl was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis, and in early February 1970 she was admitted to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. On the 28th, Annelise was transferred to Mittelberg. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. The new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended medical treatment. The decision was not reversed even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEG taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Annelise began to hear a knock. Vogt, having examined the girl and not finding anything, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also did not reveal anything, and the girl's sisters began to hear the knock that was heard above or below the witness.

According to the girl herself, it began to seem to her that she was obsessed at the age of 13. The first, or at least one of the first, who realized that something was wrong with Anneliese, was Thea Hine, who accompanied the girl during a pilgrimage to Italian San Damiano. She noticed that Anneliese bypassed some image of Christ and refused to drink water from the sacred source of Lourdes. Four years of treatment, which included taking anticonvulsants such as centropil and tegretal, did not give anything. By the way, on November 15, 1972, at a general audience dedicated to the spiritual struggle of the Church with the devil, Pope Paul VI remarked: "... the presence of the Evil One is sometimes very obvious. We can assume that his atrocity is where ... lies becomes strong and hypocritical in the guise of obvious truth (...) It is easy to ask ... the question "what remedy, what measure should we use against the actions of the devil?

On September 16, 1975, Stangl, in consultation with the Jesuit Adolf Rodewick, appointed Alt and the Salvatorian Arnold Renz to perform the exorcism on the basis of paragraph 1 of chapter 1151 of the Code of Canon Law. Its basis then was the so-called Roman Ritual ("Rituale Romanum"), developed back in 1614 and expanded in 1954. Annelisa indicated that she was commanded by six demons who called themselves Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleishman and Hitler. Valentin Fleishman was a Franconian priest from 1552-1575, later demoted, accused of cohabitation with a woman and addiction to wine. Fleishman also committed murder in his parish house. From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, about 70 rites were performed on Anneliese, one or two weekly, 42 were recorded on tape and listened to later in court. The first ceremony took place at 16:00 and lasted 5 hours. When the priests touched Anneliese, she screamed: "Remove your paw, it burns like fire!" The seizures were so severe that Annelise was either held by three people or tied with a chain. However, between the attacks, the girl felt fine, went to school and church, and passed the exams at the Pedagogical Academy of Würzburg.

On May 30, 1976, after attending one of the rituals, Dr. Richard Roth allegedly retorted to Father Alt in response to a request for help: "There is no injection against the devil." On June 30 of the same year, Anneliese, who was feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said: "Mother, stay, I'm afraid" ("Mutter bleib da, ich habe Angst"). Those were her last words. The next day, at about 8 am, Anna pronounced her daughter dead. It turned out that at the time of her death, Anneliese weighed only 31 kg. On April 21, 1978, the District Court of Aschaffenburg, where she studied at the Annelise Gymnasium, put the girl's parents and both priests on trial. It is not clear why the parents were not allowed to be exhumed, and Renz later said that he was not even allowed into the morgue. It is also interesting that the head of the German Episcopal Conference, which declared that Anneliese was not possessed, Cardinal Josef Höffner, on April 28, 1978, admitted that he believed in the existence of demons. However, in 1974, a study by the Freiburg Institute for Marginal Psychology showed that only 66% of Catholic theologians in Germany believed in the existence of the devil.

(c) wikipedia

Audio recording (no need for the night):

It is not often in a real murder trial that the prosecution and defense argue seriously on the topic: "If a Catholic girl barks from under the table for hours, bites family members, eats spiders, licks her own urine off the floor and speaks in the voice of Adolf Hitler - then this is did the demons move into it or just "the roof went"?
And it's not often that the Saturn Horror Film of the Year award is given to a film that says "Based on a true story" in the credits.

2006 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film goes to The Six Demons of Emily Rose

This film was based on the 1978 trial in which two priests Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz and two spouses Anna and Josef Michel were charged with the unintentional murder of 23-year-old German girl Anneliese Michel.

A girl from the quiet provincial town of Klingenberg am Main, Anneliese Michel, was brought up in a strict Catholic faith, bordering on religious fanaticism - during the winter fast she could sleep on the bare floor. The parents didn't mind.
Not surprisingly, from such a childhood in 1968, 16-year-old Anneliese suddenly had a violent seizure with convulsions, which was diagnosed as epilepsy. At the same time, amazing atheistic things began to happen to the girl: from time to time she began to refuse to drink holy water, kiss the crucifix, and also wriggle in writhing and curse everyone who offered her to do this.

If Anneliese lived in the GDR, then others would consider such behavior normal, but in Germany her Catholic parents sent her daughter for treatment to a psychiatric clinic. As you know, it is not difficult for medicine to make a complete psycho out of even a normal person, and after drug treatment, Annelise began to hear demons as well.
The girl was placed in a psychiatric hospital three times (the last time she spent almost a year in the clinic), and after each course of treatment, Mikhel felt worse and worse: during seizures, she tore her clothes, ate insects, licked her own urine, howled not her own voice, cursed not only those around her, but also all the saints, and when she came to herself, she blamed everything on the demons.

This, however, did not prevent Annelise from successfully completing school, and in 1973 to enter the University of Würzburg. In the same 1973, the film "The Exorcist" was released on the screens of the world (two Oscars and eight Oscar nominations) - and this is a coincidence or a reason, but Anneliese and her parents came to the conclusion that the girl is possessed by the devil, and only his exile can help her .

From the summer of 1973, Anneliese's parents began to persistently turn to the Catholic Church for an exorcism, received constant refusals, until Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg got tired of it, and on September 16, 1975, he instructed Pastor Ernst Alt and the Salvatorian monk Arnold Renz to expel from Anneliese Michel everyone they meet there.

From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, 67 exorcisms lasting up to four hours were sent, one or two weekly, 42 rites were recorded on tape. With the beginning of the ceremony, Anneliese stopped taking medications, and began to voluntarily refuse food and drink.

This quite naturally led to the fact that at 8 am on July 1, 1976, Anneliese was found dead in her bed. An autopsy showed that the main cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition (the girl weighed about 30 kg). Another hypothesis was put forward, according to which the death was caused by a side effect of the drug carbamazepine, which she had been taking for several years on the advice of psychiatrists.

On March 30, 1978, the Aschaffenburg district court put both priests and the girl's parents on trial. The court then considered that the girl's parents were already punished, and the priests received 6 months in prison with a three-year suspension of punishment.

Anneliese claimed that she was simultaneously commanded by six inhabitants of the hell: Lucifer, Hitler, Judas, Nero, Cain, and Fleishman (an unknown German monk, a murderer, a libertine and a 16th-century defamationist, to no one outside of Bavaria).
They howled from Anneliese in six different voices, mostly in German with an Austrian dialect (although Nero sometimes switched to his native Latin, and Judas to his native Aramaic, which Anneliese studied at school and Sunday school). As the Slavophiles suspect, Lucifer turned out to be a German by nationality, and Cain was not a Jew, since he did not speak Yiddish or Hebrew.

Needless to say, in the body of Anneliese Michel, a solid, but rather motley company has gathered together: the main enemy of the heavenly forces and the enemy of the human race, Lucifer, and the pop banter Valentin Fleishman, who is not even worthy of cleaning his hooves. The pagan and tyrant Nero, who did not believe in either God or the devil, and Hitler, who may have been an occultist, but certainly not a Satanist. And Cain and Judas - the villains are still the same, but obviously not gopniks, and have not been previously noticed in minor dirty tricks.

But who is she, in general, this Anneliese Michel, so that six far from the last figures of the underworld inhabit her! And for what purpose? Drink girlish urine in your warm company, eat spiders, squirm in writhing, bark from under the table and curse respectable German burghers?
Neither the mind nor the fantasy of these demons to play pranks from the soul, which they do not have.

The story of Anneliese Michel, who died as a result of an exorcism, is one of the most famous and mysterious among the cases of the so-called “devil possession”. After the release of the picture "The Six Demons of Emily Rose", based on real events, interest in this mystical plot of 40 years ago has increased again.

Despite the fact that skeptics do not believe in such nonsense (they say that this exorcism of yours can be explained scientifically), there are still a lot of people who are haunted by what happened. Too many inexplicable inconsistencies. So who is this Anneliese Michel? Why do many still discuss what happened to her, and some even consider her a saint?

Anneliese Michel's story

Anna Elisabeth Michel, better known as Anneliese, was born in a Bavarian village in 1952. Her name is a combination of two given names, Anna and Elizabeth. Anneliese's parents, Anna Furg and Josef Michel, were Catholic believers, very conservative, if not orthodox. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, on the 13th of each month they celebrated the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, and the neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, was known as a model in the Michel family.

Anneliese regularly attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, for example, sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter. In 1968, the first attack occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, nocturnal seizures began, during which the girl's body lost flexibility, there was a feeling of heaviness in the chest, loss of the ability to speak - the girl could not call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted and devastated that she could not find the strength to go to school. Attacks were replaced by periods of calm and Anneliese even sometimes even managed to play tennis.

In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to breathing difficulties and body numbness. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram showed no changes in the brain. True, later the girl was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis. At the beginning of February 1970 she was admitted to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. On the 28th Anneliese was transferred to Mittelberg. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. The new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended medical treatment. The decision was not overturned even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEG taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Anneliese began to hear a knock. Vogt, having examined the girl and found nothing, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also did not reveal anything, and the girl's sisters began to hear the knock.

According to Anneliese herself, it began to seem to her that she was obsessed from the age of 13. The first to realize that something was wrong with Annelise was Thea Hein, who accompanied her on a pilgrimage to San Damiano, Italy. She noticed that Anneliese bypassed the image of Christ and refused to drink water from the sacred spring of Lourdes.

Four years of treatment yielded nothing, and in the summer of 1973 Anneliese's parents turned to several priests, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, the exorcism could not be performed. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused. At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began to break crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tear off her clothes, scream for hours, bite family members, injure herself, eat spiders, flies and coal. One day Anneliese crawled under the kitchen table and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived three times in the name of the Trinity, called on the demons to leave the girl, and only then Anneliese left the table as if nothing had happened.

It was impossible to stop her: at such moments, it was as if some kind of powerful force was infused into her, beyond control from the outside. Moreover, if you do not take attacks into account, Anneliese was no different from the rest: in 1973 she successfully graduated from the university, and fellow students later described her as “ordinary, but extremely pious.”

The next stage of the disease was seizures, during which Mikhel began to speak different languages ​​and even different voices, and also called herself Adolf Hitler, Cain, Judas and Lucifer. She screamed, insulted family members, attacked them.

Once she killed a bird by biting off its head, and another time for two days she sat under the table and barked, imitating a dog.

It is impossible for all this not to ask a lot of questions. Where were Anneliese's parents all this time? Where were they looking? Why was the girl at home all this time, and not in a psychiatric clinic? After all, she could harm not only her family, but, first of all, herself.

One gets the impression that devout Catholics were waiting for some kind of miracle. For him, the family again turned to the priests. True, after two years of requests from her daughter, in 1975. At that time, the girl had been ill for about 6 years and had long begged her elders to ask the church again to perform an exorcism, but for some reason they were slow.

As a result, the girl herself wrote a letter to a priest named Ernst Alt. It was he who was the first to agree to consider the case of Anneliese. According to him, she did not look like an epileptic at all, but was really possessed. In September 1975, Bishop Josef Stangl gave Alt and another priest, Arnold Renz, permission to perform an exorcism. True, he ordered to keep everything a secret. But the secret, as we know, always becomes clear ...

From September 1975 to July 1976, 1-2 times a week, they tried to exorcise the devil from Anneliese. At the same time, the attacks were so strong that the girl had to be held by three men, and sometimes even chained to her.

At the very beginning of the “therapy”, she decided to stop taking medications, while her parents strongly supported her daughter’s decision, because it turned out that the pills did not help, so why take them? Michel got a little better, and she was even able to successfully pass the exam in order to be allowed to teach children the law of God.

However, in May 1976, Anneliese suddenly became worse: she was delirious almost all the time due to fatigue as a result of constant rituals: by that time more than 60 of them had been performed, each lasting about 4 hours. All this time she had to kneel to beg for salvation from God. 42 ceremonies were recorded on camera.

A few weeks before her death, the girl refused food and water: this is how she supposedly atoned for the sins of other people. The last rite of exorcism of Anneliese Michel was performed on 30 June. Due to exhaustion, the girl fell ill with pneumonia.

Exhausted, with a high temperature, she was unable to perform the actions that the priests demanded of her: in the video, which was later broadcast in court, it can be seen that the parents help kneel their daughter, holding her by the arms. The next day, July 1, 1976, Anneliese Michel died in her sleep.

The autopsy report stated that the girl died as a result of exhaustion (at the time of death she weighed only 30 kg) and dehydration. By the way, Anneliese's knee ligaments were torn as a result of about 600 kneelings ...

The death of Anneliese caused a wide resonance in Germany: people did not understand how such things could happen in the modern world. After the investigation, the Attorney General said that the death of the girl could have been prevented even 10 days before the tragedy, if her parents had forced her to take medication again.

The charge was brought against Ernst Alt, Arnold Renz, as well as both parents under the article "manslaughter", because during the last 10 months of the girl's life, not a single doctor observed her. The defense broadcast recordings of the rites to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed, and also stressed that the German Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, which means that no one forbade exorcism.

The trump cards of the accusation were the testimony of doctors who had previously treated the girl, who said that she was not possessed, but suffered from psychiatric problems, aggravated by epilepsy and religious hysteria. The defendants were eventually found guilty of negligent manslaughter and were given a 6 month suspended prison sentence with 3 years probation.

More than forty years have passed since then, but the story of Anneliese Michel still haunts lovers of mysticism. Hollywood, of course, did not stand aside: in 2005, the horror film The Six Demons of Emily Rose was filmed based on the story.

And a year later, the picture “Requiem” was released in German hire, which is also based on the story of the expulsion of demons from Anneliese Michel. The girl's mother was against making films, and in one interview she even stated that she did not regret what had happened.

Anna Michel sincerely believed that numerous exorcisms were necessary, and Anneliese died atoning for the sins of others. By the way, even among a small group of Catholics, the girl is revered as an unofficial saint, and her grave is a place of pilgrimage.

Many questions that this mysterious story gives rise to do not make it possible to unambiguously answer what actually caused Michel's death. So which side to take: doctors, priests or lovers of the paranormal - everyone's personal choice.

Exorcism of Anneliese Michel: Complete Recording of Demon Sounds

VIDEO: MYSTERY REVEALED! "Demons inside Anneliese Michel"

The story of the possessed girl formed the basis of many works of art, including the famous horror film The Six Demons of Emily Rose.

“I know we did the right thing because it was a sign of Christ. Her suffering was a sign from God indicating that we must exorcise the demons. She died to save other lost souls and atone for their sins."
Anna Michel as Anneliese's mother, 2005

Today we will leave our bar and go on a journey to the homeland of the coven of witches, spirits and demons - to Germany.

The story of this girl, which became the basis of two feature films, took place more than thirty years ago, but does not cease to arouse interest today. The main question that is asked by everyone who is familiar with this drama is: what really happened to Anneliese - was she really possessed or was her death the result of a serious illness. It is unlikely that we will now answer this question, but this does not prevent us from hearing the true story of the short life of Anneliese Michel from Germany.

The events that will be discussed became the subject of attention in 1976. The public has been closely following the unprecedented trial of two Catholic priests accused of killing a young woman, Anneliese Michel.

She was born in 1952 in a small Bavarian village to a Catholic family. Her name is a combination of two given names, Anna and Elizabeth. Anneliese's parents, Anna Furg and Josef Michel, were Catholic believers, very conservative, if not orthodox. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, on the 13th of each month they celebrated the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, and the neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, was known as a model in the Michel family.

Anneliese regularly attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, for example, sleeping on the floor in the middle of winter. In 1968, the first attack occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, nocturnal seizures began, during which the girl's body lost flexibility, there was a feeling of heaviness in the chest, loss of the ability to speak - the girl could not call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted and devastated that she could not find the strength to go to school. Attacks were replaced by periods of calm and Anneliese even sometimes even managed to play tennis.

In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to breathing difficulties and body numbness. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram showed no changes in the brain. True, later the girl was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis. At the beginning of February 1970 she was admitted to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. On the 28th Anneliese was transferred to Mittelberg. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. The new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, but Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended medical treatment. The decision was not overturned even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEG taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973. In Mittelberg, Anneliese began to see demonic faces during the rosary. In the spring, Anneliese began to hear a knock. Vogt, having examined the girl and found nothing, sent the girl to an otologist, but he also did not reveal anything, and the girl's sisters began to hear the knock.

According to Anneliese herself, it began to seem to her that she was obsessed from the age of 13. The first to realize that something was wrong with Annelise was Thea Hein, who accompanied her on a pilgrimage to San Damiano, Italy. She noticed that Anneliese bypassed the image of Christ and refused to drink water from the sacred spring of Lourdes.

Four years of treatment yielded nothing, and in the summer of 1973 Anneliese's parents turned to several priests, but they were told that until all signs of possession were proven, the exorcism could not be performed. The following year, Pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, but was refused. At this time, Anneliese's behavior changed: she refused to eat, began to break crucifixes and images of Christ in the house, tear off her clothes, scream for hours, bite family members, injure herself, eat spiders, flies and coal. One day Anneliese crawled under the kitchen table and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived three times in the name of the Trinity, called on the demons to leave the girl, and only then Anneliese left the table as if nothing had happened.

On September 16, 1975, Stangl, in consultation with the Jesuit Adolf Rodewick, appointed Alt and the Salvatorian Arnold Renz to perform the exorcism. Its basis then was the so-called Roman Ritual (“Rituale Romanum”), developed as early as 1614 and expanded in 1954.

Anneliese indicated that she was commanded by six demons who called themselves Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleischmann, and Hitler. Valentin Fleishman was a Franconian priest in 1552-1575, later demoted, accused of cohabitation with a woman and addiction to wine. Fleishman also committed murder in his parish house.

From September 24, 1975 to June 30, 1976, about 70 rites were performed over Anneliese, one or two weekly, 42 were recorded on tape and listened to later in court. The first ceremony lasted 5 hours. When the priests touched Anneliese, she screamed: “Put your paw away, it burns like fire!” The attacks were so strong that the girl was held by three people or tied with a chain. Between attacks, however, she felt fine, went to school and church, and passed her exams at the Pedagogical Academy in Würzburg.

On May 30, 1976, after attending one of the rituals, Dr. Richard Roth allegedly retorted to Father Alt in response to a request for help: "There is no injection against the devil." On June 30 of the same year, Annelise, who was feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said: "Mom, stay, I'm afraid." Those were her last words. The next day, at about 8 am, Anna pronounced her daughter dead. It turned out that at the time of her death, Anneliese weighed only 31 kg.

On April 21, 1978, the district court of Aschaffenburg, where she studied at Anneliese, sent the girl's parents and both priests to the dock. It is not clear why the parents were not allowed to be exhumed, and Renz later said that he was not even allowed into the morgue. It is also interesting that the head of the German Episcopal Conference, which declared that Annelise was not possessed, Cardinal Joseph Heffner on April 28, 1978, admitted that he believed in the existence of demons. However, in 1974, a study by the Freiburg Institute for Marginal Psychology showed that only 66% of Catholic theologians in Germany believed in the existence of the devil.

A number of experts in their individual books, among whom the Protestant F. Goodman (Annelisa Michel and Her Demons) advocated the obsession with Anneliese, criticized the trial. In 1976, a German press agency showed that out of 22 German Catholic dioceses, only 3 practiced the rite of exorcism, and all were located in Bavaria - in Würzburg, Augsburg and Passau.

After an investigation, the public prosecutor stated that Anneliese's death was premature and the girl could live for at least another week. Four defendants went to the dock: Anneliese's parents, Pastor Ernst Alt and Father Arnold Renz.

The process began on March 30, 1978 and generated a lot of interest. The priests were defended by a team of lawyers paid by the church. The defense side insisted that exorcism is an inalienable right of citizens, protected by the constitution, as well as the right to religious beliefs.

Ultimately, the defendants were convicted and sentenced to 6 months suspended sentence.

Anneliese's grave in Klingenberg is visited by groups of Catholics. Some of them believe that after many years of struggle, Anneliese's soul defeated the demons. In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez, for the first time in 385 years, presented to journalists in the Vatican a new version of the Roman Ritual, which had been in the works for more than 10 years.

In 2005, a film directed by Scott Derrickson was released, based on the story of Anneliese Michel, The Exorcism of Emily Rose,

2006 - film by German director Hans-Christian Schmid "Requiem", also dedicated to Anneliese

ANNELISE MICHEL. THE GREAT MARTYR

The story of this girl, which became the basis of two feature films, took place forty years ago, but does not cease to arouse interest today. The main question that is asked by everyone who is familiar with this drama is: what really happened to Anneliese Michel - was she really possessed or was her death the result of a serious illness. In nine months, Anneliese went through 67 banishment rituals. When this did not help, the girl chose to starve herself to death. In 1976, she forced herself to refuse food, thinking that hunger would help her get rid of the devil. When she died, her weight was only 31 kilograms. "Mom," she said just before the end, "I'm afraid." It is unlikely that we will now answer the question, was she really possessed, or was it just a figment of her imagination? But this does not prevent us from hearing the true story of the short life of Anneliese Michel from Germany.

The events that will be discussed became the subject of attention in 1976. The public has been closely following the unprecedented trial of two Catholic priests accused of killing a young girl, Anneliese Michel.

Anna-Elisabeth Michel was born in 1952 in the small Bavarian village of Lieblfing in Bavaria - Germany, into a Catholic family. Her name is a combination of two names, Anna and Elizabeth. Anneliese's parents, Anna Furg and Josef Michel, were devout Catholics, a very conservative and if not orthodox. Anneliese's mother Anna graduated from the women's gymnasium and the school of trade. She worked in her father's office, where she met Josef. They got married in 1950. By this time, Anna already had a daughter, Marta, born in 1948. She died in 1956 of kidney cancer and was buried outside the family vault. Subsequently, Anneliese considered the appearance of an illegitimate child a sin of her mother and constantly performed penance for her. They rejected the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, on the 13th of each month they celebrated the feast of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, and the neighbor Barbara Weigand, who walked five hours to the Capuchin church to receive the wafer, was known as a model in the Michel family.

Anneliese attended mass several times a week, said rosaries, and even tried to do more than was prescribed, for example, trying to atone for the sins of drug addicts and misguided true priests, sleeping on a bare floor in the middle of winter. Anneliese's childhood was happy, although she grew up as a weak and sickly child. Anneliese loved to play at her father's sawmill, took piano lessons andaccordion, studied well and dreamed of becoming an elementary school teacher. In addition to Martha, she had three more sisters: Gertrud (born 1954), Barbara (born 1956), and Roswitha (born 1957). In 1959, Anneliese entered elementary school in Klingenberg, then in the sixth grade she moved to the Karl Theodor Dahlberg Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg. In 1968, a generally harmless incident occurred: Anneliese bit her tongue due to a spasm. A year later, nocturnal seizures began, during which the girl's body lost flexibility, a feeling of heaviness appeared on her chest, and due to dysarthria - the loss of the ability to speak, she could not call either her parents or any of her three sisters. After the first attack, Anneliese felt so exhausted and devastated that she could not find the strength to go to school. However, this did not happen again for some time, and Anneliese even sometimes played tennis.

In 1969, the girl woke up at night due to difficulty breathing and paralysis of her arms and entire body. Family doctor Gerhard Vogt advised me to see a psychiatrist. On August 27, 1969, Anneliese's electroencephalogram (EEG) showed no changes in her brain. True, later the girl was struck down by pleurisy and tuberculosis, and in early February 1970 she was admitted to a hospital in Aschaffenburg. On August 28, Anneliese was transferred to Mittelberg. On the night of June 3 of the same year, another attack began. The new EEG again did not reveal anything suspicious, however, Dr. Wolfgang von Haller recommended medical treatment. In June 1970, Michel experienced a third seizure in the hospital where she was at that time. She was prescribed anticonvulsants, including phenytoin, which did not bring the desired result. (Phenytoin is an antiepileptic drug from the group of hydantoin derivatives, has an anticonvulsant effect without a pronounced hypnotic effect, is also used as an antiarrhythmic agent and muscle relaxant). At the same time, she began to assert that sometimes the “face of the Devil” appears before her. In the same month, she was prescribed an aolept similar in composition to chlorpromazine and used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Despite this, she continued to be depressed. The decision was not reversed even when the same result was shown by the third and fourth EEG taken on August 11, 1970 and June 4, 1973. In the spring, Annelise began to hear a knock. Vogt, having examined the girl and not finding anything, sent the girl to an otologist, but he did not reveal anything, and the girl's sisters began to hear the knock that was heard above or below the witness. In 1973, she began to hallucinate while praying and heard voices telling her that she was cursed and would "rot in hell."

According to Anneliese herself, it began to seem to her that she was obsessed from the age of 13. Anneliese Michel's treatment in a psychiatric hospital did not help, and she increasingly doubted the effectiveness of medicine. Being a devout Catholic, she assumed that she had become

a victim of obsession. The first, or at least one of the first, who realized that something was wrong with Annelise was Thea Hein, a family friend who accompanied the girl on a pilgrimage to the Italian San Giorgio Piacentino. There, Hine came to the conclusion that Anneliese was possessed because she could not touch the crucifix and refused to drink water from the holy spring of Lourdes. Four years of treatment, which included taking anticonvulsants such as centropil and tegretal, did not give anything. By the way, on November 15, 1972, at a general audience dedicated to the spiritual struggle of the Church with the devil, Pope Paul VI remarked: “... the presence of the Evil One is sometimes very obvious. We can assume that his atrocity is where ... the lie becomes strong and hypocritical in the guise of an obvious truth (...) It is easy to ask ... the question “what remedy, what measure should we use against the actions of the devil?”, but in practice everything is more complicated. In the summer of 1973, Anneliese's parents turned to several priests, but they were told that until all the signs of possession were proven (lat. infestation ), an exorcism cannot be performed.

In the period between attacks, Anneliese Michel showed no signs of mental disorder and led a normal life. In 1973 she graduated from the University of Würzburg. She was later described by classmates as "reclusive and extremely religious". In November 1975, she successfully passed the exams for missio canonica – special permission to perform educational functions on behalf of the church. The first priest to respond to Anneliese's requests was Ernst Alt. In 1974, pastor Ernst Alt, after observing Anneliese for some time, requested permission from Bishop Josef Stangl of Würzburg to perform an exorcism, which was refused. He said that the girl did not look like an epileptic and thought that she was actually possessed.

Anneliese Michel hoped for his help. In a letter to him dated 1975, she wrote: “ I'm nobody, it's all in vain, what should I do, I have to get better, pray for me ". Anneliese's condition worsened more and more: she refused to eat, began to break the crucifix and images of Christ in the house, tear off her clothes, scream for hours, bite family members, lick her own urine from the floor, injure herself, eat spiders, flies and coal, daily until She knelt 400 times an hour, which made her knees turn blue. One day Anneliese crawled under the kitchen table and barked like a dog for two days. Thea, who arrived three times in the name of the Trinity, called on the demons to leave the girl, and only then Anneliese left the table as if nothing had happened. However, this proved to be temporary and Anneliese was later found above the Mine, ready to throw herself into the water due to the demons' repeated calls to commit suicide.

On September 16, 1975, Bishop Josef Stangl, in consultation with the Jesuit Adolf Rodewic, on the basis of the 1st paragraph of the 1151st chapter of the Code of Canon Law, appointed Alt and the Salvatorian Arnold Renz to conduct the exorcism, but ordered to keep the rites secret. Its basis then was the so-called Roman ritual (" Rituale Romanum ”), developed back in 1614 and expanded in 1954.

The first rite was held on September 24, 1975 at 16:00 and lasted 5 hours. When the priests touched Anneliese, she shouted: “ Take your paw away, it burns like fire". After that, Anneliese stopped taking medications and completely trusted the exorcism. The attacks were so strong that Annelise was either held by three people or tied with a chain, she spoke in different languages. Anneliese indicated that she was commanded by six demons who called themselves Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Fleishman, and Hitler. Valentin Fleishman was a Franconian priest from 1552-1575, later demoted, accused of cohabitation with a woman and addiction to wine. Fleishman also committed murder in his parish house. According to reports from Anneliese Michel's entourage, sometimes the demons even argued with each other, and it seemed that she spoke in two different voices. In November 1973, she was prescribed carbamazepine.

On May 30, 1976, after attending one of the rituals, Dr. Richard Roth allegedly retorted to Father Alt in response to a request for help: “ There is no injection against the devil". On June 30 of the same year, Anneliese, who was feverish from pneumonia, went to bed and said:Mutter bleib da, ich habe Angst ” (“Mom, stay, I'm afraid ”). Those were her last words. On July 1, 1976, at the age of 23, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, Anna's death was pronounced. An autopsy showed that the cause of death was dehydration and malnutrition, which the girl suffered during many months of exorcism cycles. Another hypothesis was put forward, according to which the death was caused by a side effect of the drug carbamazepine, which she had been taking for several years. Anneliese's exact diagnosis has never been established. Although the psychiatry of that time was not able to cure the girl, it controlled the disease to some extent. Anneliese died after she refused treatment. Catholic priest and paranormal researcher John Duffy published a book about Anneliese in 2011. He wrote that based on the available evidence, it is safe to say that Anneliese was not possessed. Jesuit priest and psychiatrist Ulrich Niemann said the following about the incident: “As a doctor, I say that there is no such thing as “possession”. In my opinion, these patients are mentally ill. I pray for them, but that alone won't help. You have to work with them like a psychiatrist. But at the same time, when a patient comes from Eastern Europe and believes that he is possessed by the devil, it would be a mistake to ignore his belief system.”

However, some researchers were of the opinion that Anneliese was in fact possessed. This point of view was defended by the anthropologist and Protestant by religion F. Goodman, who published the book “Annelisa Michel and her demons” about Annelise Michel. There, she criticized the trial.

When Alt was informed of Anneliese's death, he told her parents: Purified from satanic power, the soul of Anneliese rushed to the throne of the Almighty". An autopsy revealed that Anneliese's death was not directly caused by the exorcism. At some point, she decided that her death was inevitable, and voluntarily refused food and drink. At the time of her death, Anneliese weighed only 31 kilograms.

On April 21, 1978, the district court of Aschaffenburg, where she studied at the Annelise Gymnasium, put the girl's parents and two priests who performed the exorcism, Father Ernst Alt and priest Arnold Renz, on trial. Later, the parents were not allowed to be exhumed, and Renz later said that he was not even allowed into the morgue. The head of the German Episcopal Conference, which declared that Anneliese was not possessed, Cardinal Joseph Höffner admitted on 28 April 1978 that he believed in the existence of demons. However, in 1974, a study by the Freiburg Institute for Marginal Psychology showed that only 66 percent of Catholic theologians in Germany believed in the existence of the devil.

According to judge Eimar Bolender, who led the case of Anneliese, her death could have been prevented by treatment even 10 days before the incident.

In 1976, a German press agency showed that of the 22 German Catholic dioceses, only 3 practiced the rite of exorcism, and all were in Bavaria - in Würzburg, Augsburg and Passau.

Anneliese's grave in Klingenberg is visited by groups of Catholics. Some of them believe that after many years of struggle, Anneliese's soul defeated the demons. In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez, for the first time in 385 years, presented to journalists in the Vatican a new version of the Roman Ritual, which had been in the works for more than 10 years.

The story of Anneliese Michel formed the basis of many works of art, including the famous horror film "The Six Demons of Emily Rose".

Gabriel Amorth, a traditionalist, says in opposition to the modernizing branch of the church: “Jesus wanted us to practice exorcism, he even encouraged us to do so. Holy Gospel of Mark, chapter 16, verse 17: "Those who believe in my name will cast out demons." It is enough for a person to have faith in Christ to have the power to cast out demons in His name.”

Peter Hein “It all lasted an hour and a half. I remember when we finished Father Arnold said, “That's enough. Now let's take a break so that Anneliese can rest a little," and at that very moment she suddenly cried out:"Relax?! I have no rest! It will never end!”. I was so cold that it gave me goosebumps all over my body.”.

Two years after the death of the girl, a German nun said that she had an amazing dream, she said that the corpse of Anneliese Michel is still in perfect condition, which means she really died for the sins of the world. The parents, who wanted to make sure that their daughter did not die in vain, asked for an exhumation. This terrible event aroused great interest among both believers and skeptics. The crowd wanted a miracle. But the case did not attract the attention of official circles.

Thea Hine He speaks: “A lot of people gathered - men, women. They all yearned to see the corpse, but they were all forbidden to go there. Then they announced the order forbidding to approach the body. We talked and decided that they would probably let the priest in, but for some reason he was also forbidden to enter. They didn’t let anyone in, even our priest was refused.” .

Parents never saw the body of their daughter. The police said that the corpse had decomposed and it was better not to see it.

Later, Josef Michel, Anneliese's father, showed lawyer Karl Stenger a photograph in which one can see the devil's hand, which, in his opinion, indicates the role of the devil's participation in Anneliese's case.

Priest Gabriel Amorth says: “Even in those days there was not enough exorcism in Germany, and the bishops and priests are responsible for this, because they never believed in anything like that. But the one who does not believe in the devil and possession does not believe in the Word of God.”.

Thirty years ago, Anna recalled her daughter like this: “Our daughter, even in childhood… she was very pious, we raised her that way, because of her illness she was very close to God and often said: “The Lord will always come first in my life”. Yes, always."

The victory of the Archangel Michael over the devil confirmed that the girl was trapped in a long battle between Good and Evil. Once the Virgin Mary appeared to her and explained that her illness came from God with a higher purpose - to atone for the sins of all the lost souls on Earth. Believing in these Divine instructions, Anneliese stopped taking her medicines and allowed the disease to develop.

The priests decided that this was a rare case of possession for redemption. Anneliese spoke with the voices of devils, but devils sent by God, who thus showed his anger towards the Vatican Council and the objectionable liberalization of the Church. If they could prove it, it would be a triumph for them and a serious setback for the Roman modernizers.

From the audio recording of the exorcism: Anneliese says - “That hole down there is real!”

Anneliese: "I won't tell!"

Between rites, she spoke normally. The records have been distributed all over the world. Anneliese's suffering was strong evidence of the damage caused by the Vatican Reforms to Germany and the Church. Father Renz promoted this idea.

He speaks Priest Arnold Renz when showing sound recording: “Lucifer, Judas, occasionally Nero appear, even Hitler appeared several times”.

Out of frame question: “Hitler belongs to demons? Is that a demon in the flesh?

Arnold Renz: Yes. Hitler said he imagined shouting "Salvation, salvation, salvation." He didn't say anything more. Other demons said about him that he makes a lot of noise, but can't say anything interesting."

Arnold Renz: “It happened on October 31, 1975. Six demons who gave themselves names came out, the whole process took six demons about forty minutes. They defended themselves and began to stutter, especially when they said "Hail Mary, full of grace." They succeeded: "R ... ra ... hail Mary ...", these words were given to them with great difficulty. But then six demons came out of her, and for a short time she was freed."

Peter Hein , the witness of the rite of exorcism: “We were all so happy that we started, that we started singing the praises of the Lord, but at the last quatrain it started (growls) , Anneliese started screaming again" .

Thea Hine: “The devil beat her very hard. Anneliese had wonderful teeth, but he knocked them all out. The devil took her by the head and pounded it against the wall until her face swelled." .

Then the devil forbade her to drink and eat.

Thea Hine: “Annelisa was no longer allowed to eat what she wanted, because when she was hungry, she was forbidden to eat. So the devil told her "do not eat, starve!". And she didn't eat and passed out from hunger." .

On July 1, Anneliese Michel died. Exhaustion and malnutrition played a role. She was only 23 years old. Exorcists took it as a holy death, atonement for the mistakes of the modern church. The girl's soul was saved.

March 1978 Anneliese's parents, as well as Father Renz and Father Alt, were accused of neglect and assisting suicide. Why did they refuse to let the doctors see the dying girl?

Anetta Orlova, psychologist(the male): “The parents openly stated that the involvement of doctors, especially a psychiatrist, would lead to the fact that Anneliese would be assigned to a psychiatric hospital, and then she would certainly lose the opportunity to become a teacher. This was one of the reasons for their ban on medical intervention." .

The fate of Anneliese shocked the whole world and the church. Two years after her death, the German bishops established a commission on the issue of exorcism. They sent an urgent request to the Vatican to change the rite. The bishops did not expect it to be abolished at all, but they understood that such cases harm the modern church. In 1999, almost 400 years after its creation, a new Roman ritual was issued: demon possession was recommended to be treated in a modern way - the church was instructed to seek help from psychiatrists. But the conservatives did not give up. Don Gabriel Amort, a veteran of many Vatican battles, never changed his mind about exorcism. He believes that now the church is with him again.

Gabriel Amort, priest: “The Pope performed two exorcisms, which subsequently became widely known in public circles. I think he wanted to appoint new exorcists and urged the priests to take this path.".

Pope John Paul II adhered to traditional views of Catholic dogmas and life. When he was a parish priest in Poland, he performed two exorcisms. People like Don Amorth believe that he understands the reality of evil and the dangers of ignoring its manifestations.

Gabriel Amort: “This is not my statement, but Pope John Paul II. When I informed him that I would meet with bishops who did not believe in the devil, he sharply replied : “He who does not believe in the devil does not believe in the Word of God”».

The parents built a tomb for their daughter in Klingenberg, the city where she spent her short life. Perhaps her death really was a sacrifice for the benefit of others. After her death, not a single Catholic in Germany was subjected to the horrors that she experienced. No one else died in such agony.