On our ongoing Halloween, we are writing articles on all the ‘otherworldly’ incidents which have happened, and we just couldn’t ignore this one!
And so I’m here, continuing the series by bringing you an article on ‘Sister Maria’ who wrote a letter from the Devil, as many say.
THE BACKSTORY
Europe was still a place that largely believed in angels and demons in the 1600s. Faith in God and religion bonded people together, and churches were seen as places of utmost importance. The nuns were believed to be most connected to God, so how could a nun write a letter from Lucifer/ Devil if she believed in God?
Sister Maria joined the church when she was 15 and devoted most of her time studying languages and spells, following a strict regime in the church. The Palma di Montechiaro was a Benedictine nunnery,
which meant it followed the teachings of St. Benedict, who founded the Benedictine Order in the sixth century, making it the oldest spiritual order of the Western Church.
THINGS WENT DOWNHILL
Everything was going well, but at some point, Sister Maria started to show some uncanny behaviors. She would pass out suddenly while praying at the altar and scream in an inhuman voice before doing so. Maria’s behavior became more and more peculiar as time passed. She became paranoid and fearful.
She seemed to forget everything that happened in the short period. It was as if she was being controlled by someone who made her do the things she did.
Maria decided to go to confession, an area where there is a boundary between the confesser and the one confessing. The confesser is a priest who decides to relieve the confessing person of all sins they’ve committed. Surprisingly, Maria spoke disrespectfully to the priest and as if someone was controlling her.
THE LETTER FROM THE DEVIL
On 11th August 1676, every nun was at the choir, except Maria. Her fellow nuns searched for her in her room, and what they saw next was Maria on the floor panting, being covered by black ink on one side of her face, and a letter which had different types of symbols no one had seen.
The nuns helped her to stand up and gave her some rest. The letter had shocking contents, which weren’t discovered until 2017 when a group of researchers from the Ludum Science center in Sicily could decode most of the pages. They discovered an algorithm that helped them translate 70% of the letter.
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER
The full sentences translated were:
“God thinks he can free mortals. This system works for no one.”
The letter further describes how God was just a mere creation of man.
“God does not exist. Trinity is fake.” “There’s only me.”
Many more denials of God being present were also there.
Also, underneath the letter, only one translatable word was present, and that was “Alas.” It seemed like the letter was being signed by Maria there.
EXPLAINATIONS
People also believe Sister Maria probably had bipolar disorder, and because of the unadvanced medical practices there, they couldn’t figure it out and left the unknown to God. Some parts of the letter were in Latin, Arabic, and Greek, too, some of the languages known to Sister Maria, again indicating that maybe she had a bipolar disorder.
What do you think?
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