Anneliese Michel

 Anneliese Michel is a German Catholic who underwent many exorcisms before her death.

Anneliese Michel was born in 1952 in the German town of Leiblfing. She grew up in a very religious family. Apart from her religiousness, she did not stand out  among the youth of her age - she liked the company of her peers, she had a boyfriend. After the worsening of symptoms that  could indicate obsession or illness, she was forced to isolate herself from her friends and stop pedagogical studies she never finished.

At the age of 16, when she attended high school, she began to suffer from epileptic seizures. The court investigating the death of Anneliese determined that the first  epilepsy attack was to take place in 1969. Due to its strength and depression, which she began to suffer, she was sent to hospital treatment. In the autumn of 1970,  doctors admitted that they were powerless in the face of lack of progress in treatment despite the use of all available methods at that time.

Soon, hallucinations began to appear in her, according to her relationship during the prayers she saw devilish faces and heard voices telling her she had been  condemned. Her behavior has been difficult to explain. Anneliese drank her urine, she ate flies and spiders, chewed coal, cursed in the presence of priests, bitten  off the heads of dead birds, and she barked and howled like a dog for two days. Her particular aggression was caused by devotional  articles: she destroyed crosses and Marian figurines, she burst rosaries, spilled holy water, she could not swallow Communion, she could not stand church ceremonies.

In the last years of life - on her body, in characteristic places on the feet and hands - there appeared healing wounds and scars that may be considered stigmata. 

Anneliese herself confessed to experiencing the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, who, according to her, supported her spirits and assured her  that she would become a saint. She also claimed that the souls of dead people haunted her. Anneliese said she was suffering for priests, especially for those who do  not believe in the existence of a personal Satan, and  for German youth. From the testimony of priest Ernst Alta, the spiritual director of Anneliese Michel, shows that the girl voluntarily accepted the suffering  associated with possession as a penance for the sins of other people (expiatory suffering). The suffering she suffered, however, caused her to end the torments and  therefore underwent exorcisms.

He also had a whole range of physical symptoms. Doctors studying her found anomalies in the functioning of the neck muscles, which, due to high hardness, prevented  swallowing. The muscle tension spread to the chest and prevented it from breathing. She had a disproportionate physical strength in relation to the weight of her body.

Her partner Peter Himsel testified that he saw the apple crumpled with one hand. Witnesses also testified that she was able to cast an adult. Anneliese in a certain  period of her life day and night was in constant arousal, when her strength was exhausted, after two hours she was again aroused, which was to be repeated many times.

According to Catholic doctrine, the above symptoms could indicate a religious state of emergency - demonic possession, for this reason, Anneliese's parents in 1973  turned to various exorcists for help. Initially, she was denied an exorcism, explaining  that she should continue pharmacological treatment. In spite of this, she was under the constant protection of priests and it was 7 years since the first symptoms of  possession occurred, before the Bishop of Würzburg, Josef Stangl, gave official permission for exorcisms in the autumn of 1975.

Anneliese Michel exorcised two priests: parish priest Ernst Alt and Salvatorian Arnold Renz. Most of the performed exorcisms have been documented by recording 52 tapes. 

The last exorcism took place on June 30, 1976 in Klingenberg, on the Main, during which Anneliese received absolution from Fr. Renza. She died the next night in a dream on July 1, 1976.

According to court verdict, Anneliese died as a result of starvation. Some say, however, that the real cause of death would be an overdose of tegretol, which caused death by perennial absorption and accumulation in the body. This drug, when taken for a long time, causes damage to blood cells, in particular thrombocytes.

The Aschaffenburg National Court ruled in the 1978 ruling that Anneliese was the cause of starvation. The defense said that on the corpses there were no usual symptoms (eg decubitus ulcers). The girl's parents, as well as two cleric exorcists, were found guilty of manslaughter by "bringing the girl to death through negligence." The court sentenced them to six months' imprisonment suspended for three years. The prosecutor asked for a milder sentence.

In defence of the exorcisms at that time, none of the German bishops stood.