Word: energumen
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...very much pleased with the Feb. 17 TIME article "Exorcist & Energumen" relative to the Earling, Iowa exorcism. Wish to congratulate you on your reverent treatise of same. Have been flooded with letters. . . . You may be asked about the price of pamphlet. Sells 18? by mail, eight for $1, and 100 for $8. My motive for publishing it was for its own good, not for any remuneration. I appreciate your prudent co-operation in bringing about a sane understanding regarding this case of possession...
...certain 40-year-old woman was taken first to a church, then to a Franciscan convent in Earling, Iowa. Apparently an energumen, she had exhibited symptoms of diabolical possession for a dozen years: she could not pray, take communion or even pronounce the name of Christ. Doctors had examined her, found her neither mentally nor physically abnormal. With the approval of the Bishop of Des Moines, the woman was made ready for exorcism by learned Father Theophilus, who upon 19 prior occasions had successfully made use of the Church's ancient rite, canonically available to all priests, for casting...
...demons in the energumen readily identified themselves. One was Judas. Another was the woman's dead father, named Jacob, who said he was damned for attempting unsuccessfully to induce her to commit incest with him. A third was Mina, the dead man's concubine, who said she had "murdered four little ones." Finally there were Beelzebub and hordes of imps who seemed to leave and reenter the energumen's body. The voices of all the demons issued from her mouth, with varying intonation, in English, German and Latin...
...woman's body." The woman appeared "emaciated at times, her face fiery red at others, her lips swollen to the size of hands, her abdomen so hard at one time that it bent the iron bedstead to the floor. Wise old Father Theophilus, who said he knew the energumen would recover, had to dissuade the others from having last rites given...
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