Real Exorcisms: Clara Germana Cele

flowcomm/FlickrNatal, South Africa, where the exorcism allegedly took place in 1906.

Orphaned as an infant at the Marianhill mission school in Umzinto, South Africa, Clara Germana Cele was 16 years old when her behavior turned violent. Her case is one of the first real-life exorcisms documented in South Africa.

On August 20, 1906, nuns at the orphanage school claimed that Cele was ripping at her clothes and growling, demanding to speak with Father Erasmus Horner.

The priest purported that she confessed to having made a pact with Satan himself, while the nuns claimed her skin would burn when they poured holy water on it. Religious iconography was said to make her convulse. She suddenly seemed to have the strength of an adult and could purportedly speak various foreign languages that she had never learned.

When Father Horner and Reverend Mansueti reported to their superiors that she had levitated, they received permission to conduct an exorcism. According to accounts of the exorcism published in the 1930s, the ritual lasted two full days.

mwwile/FlickrWhile the young girl was purportedly saved from her alleged demons, she died of heart failure at 22.

Erasmus and Mansueti began their ritual cleansing at dawn on Sept. 11, 1906, and went late into the night. Father Erasmus and his nuns allegedly claimed she had once transformed into a serpent and bitten one of the women trying to help her. Later, they said Cele had attempted to strangle one of the priests during this time and knocked a Bible out of his hands.

They administered their religious rites again the following morning, at which point the demon vacated the girl’s body and forced her to levitate one last time. According to accounts, 170 people were present to witness Clara Germana Cele’s possession and real-life exorcism.

In the end, she died of heart failure six years later at the age of 22.

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