Q: Was this a Letter from the devil or was she just mentally unbalanced?
"Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, born Isabella Tomasi (The Tomasi family were the ancestors of author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, known for his book “The Leopard.”), entered Sicily’s Palma di Montechiaro convent when she was just 15 years old, historical records suggest.
Maria began suffering from alarming fainting spells during prayer at the altar. She would let out a terrifying scream that echoed off the walls before passing out completely. The once gentle woman became increasingly paranoid and fearful. She claimed the devil was tempting her to serve evil.
Sister Maria began having visions of the devil. On one notable occasion she went to confession to ask a priest for God’s forgiveness. She relayed her fear of being possessed by Lucifer. Suddenly she fell into a dark fit of rage. She became disrespectful and shouted at the priest. It was uncharacteristic of her, like she wasn’t the one speaking at all. Afterward, she reportedly had no memory of what had happened.
On August 11, 1676, a 31-year-old nun was found on the floor of her convent cell, her face doused in ink, clutching a note scrawled in an unintelligible mix of symbols and letters.
Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, said the letter was penned by the devil himself, in a bid to get her to turn away from God towards evil, according to historical records.
The message, consisting of 14 lines of jumbled script, defied interpretation for centuries. It was written in a strange mix of rustic glyphs and ancient Latin, Greek, and Arabic letters and appeared to have occult symbols.
That was until 2017, when researchers finally cracked the code.
Daniele Abate, director of Italy’s Ludum Science Center, who worked on the enigma for years, said he and his team began to suspect that Sister Maria had created her own language pieced together from ancient texts.
"The letter appeared as if it was written in shorthand,” he told Live Science. “We speculated that Sister Maria created a new vocabulary using ancient alphabets that she may have known.”
The note, in addition to calling the Holy Trinity "dead weights," allegedly went on to say that "God thinks he can free mortals ... The system works for no one ... Perhaps now, Styx is certain." ....“God does not exist. Trinity is fake. There is only me.”
In Greek and Roman mythology, the Styx was a river that separated the land of the living from the underworld."
"Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, born Isabella Tomasi (The Tomasi family were the ancestors of author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, known for his book “The Leopard.”), entered Sicily’s Palma di Montechiaro convent when she was just 15 years old, historical records suggest.
Maria began suffering from alarming fainting spells during prayer at the altar. She would let out a terrifying scream that echoed off the walls before passing out completely. The once gentle woman became increasingly paranoid and fearful. She claimed the devil was tempting her to serve evil.
Sister Maria began having visions of the devil. On one notable occasion she went to confession to ask a priest for God’s forgiveness. She relayed her fear of being possessed by Lucifer. Suddenly she fell into a dark fit of rage. She became disrespectful and shouted at the priest. It was uncharacteristic of her, like she wasn’t the one speaking at all. Afterward, she reportedly had no memory of what had happened.
Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, said the letter was penned by the devil himself, in a bid to get her to turn away from God towards evil, according to historical records.
The message, consisting of 14 lines of jumbled script, defied interpretation for centuries. It was written in a strange mix of rustic glyphs and ancient Latin, Greek, and Arabic letters and appeared to have occult symbols.
That was until 2017, when researchers finally cracked the code.
Daniele Abate, director of Italy’s Ludum Science Center, who worked on the enigma for years, said he and his team began to suspect that Sister Maria had created her own language pieced together from ancient texts.
"The letter appeared as if it was written in shorthand,” he told Live Science. “We speculated that Sister Maria created a new vocabulary using ancient alphabets that she may have known.”
The note, in addition to calling the Holy Trinity "dead weights," allegedly went on to say that "God thinks he can free mortals ... The system works for no one ... Perhaps now, Styx is certain." ....“God does not exist. Trinity is fake. There is only me.”
In Greek and Roman mythology, the Styx was a river that separated the land of the living from the underworld."
HistoricMysteries.msn
