When Did the First Exorcism Occur?

We all know that the very first exorcist film is hands down the best one ever made. There is no way that a film this messed up could have been made today. How the director even got away with writing this film is crazy. I would love to write a behind the scenes article for The Exorcist, because apparently, a lot of crazy shit happened during the making of this movie.

And you know how a lot of these horror movies are somewhat based on true stories? Well, I just learned that The Exorcist that became a huge cult classic was inspired by real exorcisms that took place back in the early 1600s!

The first exorcisms were known as the Loudun Exorcisms. This strange phenomenon led to crowds arriving from Europe to check out these demonic possessions.

Several nuns were the ones to experience these demonic experiences. They claimed that a demon appeared to them in disguise, and many strange things began to happen right after that encounter.

The nuns started to hear voices, get punched by an unseen force, and would even experience random moments of uncontrollable laughter.

Then the women expressed real signs of possession when they each started acting irrational and having convulsions.

The first exorcisms began in the year of 1632.

The beginning of the exorcisms took place on October 5th, 1632; that led to a huge attraction of people coming forward to witness this event.

Isn’t that interesting and a bit crazy at the same time?

Why would people be so invested in wanting to watch something like this?

I guess people were bored back in the day.

Personally, I would not want to witness something like that. It sounds so scary…no way I want to see what a possessed person looks like.

If I started hearing demonic laughter or growls, I would leave immediately.

This sudden sign of evil led to a suspect, and he was punished for his crimes.

This part of the story shocked me when I first read this.

There was a man named Urbain Grandier, who apparently appeared in the dreams of the possessed women.

Grandier attempted to help the women get freed from the demons, but instead he was accused of being the one that led to the possession of the women!

What???

He was burned at the stake for these crimes, despite other nuns coming to his defense, saying he had nothing to do with this!

I felt so bad for this dude.

Back in the olden times, if someone accused somebody, it always led to straight up death. No evidence was ever needed…that is insane.

Eventually, everything came to an end until 1638. The exorcisms were finally over. I came searching up to see if the nuns survived their possessions, and I couldn’t find anything.

I think the women did survive, because I think their deaths would have been reported! It just really sucks that one man died for nothing. He was the only reported death I could find, all because of false accusations.

That is so tragic. He was just wanted to help. Instead, the people turned against him.

Bastards.

I’m glad that people were trying to save him in the end.

He was a hero!

There is another exorcism I really wanted to write about, but this wasn’t considered the first one. This exorcism took place in 1949, and was one of the biggest inspirations behind the 1973 The Exorcist film!

I am probably going to write about this one in a future article!

---

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn