16 Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Wild And Shocking Facts About The Most Documented Exorcism In History

Note: Facts have been sourced from The Ritual filmmakers’ notes, Begone, Satan! by Celestine Kapsner, O.S.B.

This post contains mentions of rape, incest, excessive vomiting, and bodily harm. Please proceed with caution.

1. The exorcism of Emma Schmidt, aka Anna Ecklund, occurred in 1928 in Earling, Iowa. It went on for twenty-three days from morning to night in three rounds: August 18-26, Sept. 13-20, and Dec. 15-22. Emma was 40 years old at the time of her exorcism.

2. This exorcism wasn’t Emma’s first. In 1912, she was also exorcised after her aunt Mina, who was “known among the people as a witch,” reportedly placed a spell on herbs she served Emma in her food.

3. Prior to her possession, Emma was described as a “very pious and respectable person” who was very involved in the church. When she was 14, she began having these strange occurrences, like hearing an inner voice that tried to coerce her to do particularly evil things. One of those things, for example, was to attack and strangle her spiritual advisor.

4. Doctors and specialists reportedly examined Emma for her unusual symptoms, though none found anything abnormal, physically or otherwise. So, they decided to seek out something different — and that’s how her exorcism came to be.

5. Another peculiar symptom Emma displayed was understanding languages she’d never learned, let alone heard. For instance, when a priest would speak to her in Latin, she could tell he was blessing her and would act out and foam at the mouth. When he stopped, she stopped, though she did not know a word of Latin. It was also said that she could tell the difference between items that were blessed from those that weren’t, even though they were done secretly and without her knowledge.

Upon arriving for her exorcism, she was given a plate of food by a Nun that was secretly sprinkled with holy water. Emma was positively enraged in its presence and would not eat it, so regular food had to be brought instead. Emma’s reaction to the blessed food was described as “intense sufferings in her as though her very body were encased in burning coals.”

6. The pastor set to perform the exorcism — Father Theophilus — had a ton of car trouble on the drive over despite his car being new. Nothing particularly wrong with the car could be identified, but the vehicle “lacked the usual speed,” thus delaying his arrival. He and his fellow priests, of course, believed this was the work of the devil and Emma’s possession.

This wasn’t the only strange phenomenon those involved with the ritual experienced. Later on, both the exorcist and other priests involved reported hearing strange noises at night, like untraceable knocking or rustling sounds when they tried to go to sleep. Despite getting up to check, there was no source of the noise to be found. 

7. At the very start of her exorcism, Emma reportedly “dislodged herself from her bed,” pulling free of the several guards who’d been holding her down, then shot across the room and clung to the wall mid-air. So, you know, classic exorcist movie stuff.

8. After Emma was returned to her bed and the ritual continued, a loud, shrill voice that sounded like it was far off seemed to fill the room, along with a sense of dread felt by all. The commotion was said to have been heard not only in the convent, but through the neighborhood nearby so loudly that people rushed over thinking someone was being murdered.

9. Emetophobia warning here: Emma threw up…a lot. Like, an inhuman amount. She was said to have vomited pitcherfuls-worth at a time, and it wasn’t uncommon for her to throw up twenty to thirty times a day despite barely having eaten anything for weeks. She also seemingly threw up things she hadn’t eaten at all, like macaroni or chewed tobacco leaves. For the most part, she was only drinking milk and water by the tablespoon or was nourished through liquid injections.

10. OK, so back to the whole ~hearing voices screaming that aren’t Emma’s~ part. Apparently, there were multiple voices, both human and inhuman sounding, which they believed indicated that there were “un-numbered spirits” possessing the woman. These horrific noises happened every day of the exorcism for hours at a time. The sounds weren’t being made by Emma (her mouth was reportedly “closed tight” the whole time) but were coming “from somewhere within her.”

It was said that Emma was actually unconscious for most of the time after the daily exorcisms began, and when they were done, she’d wake up and not recall anything that’d happened. 

11. Emma previously stated that she didn’t know when or how she became possessed, though one of the entities possessing her revealed to Father Theophilus that the cause of her troubles was her father, Jacob. It was said that he cursed her after attempting to force to her to “commit incest.”

It’s also said that she’s possessed by her aunt, Mina, as well, who seemingly was involved with Jacob while his wife was still alive, amongst other things. It was detailed that both their actions had damned them.

12. At one point during the exorcism, Emma’s face was described as becoming “so distorted that no one could recognize her features.” Her head would turn bright red, her eyes would bulge out, and her lips would swell as big as her hands. Her stomach and limbs would also sometimes become as hard and heavy as stone, thus bending the legs of the iron bed she’d been laid out on so dramatically that it’d hit the floor.

13. At one point, the exorcism went on without pause for three full days and nights, after which Father Theophilus was described as looking so exhausted that he resembled a “walking corpse.”

14. The exorcism finally ended on December 23, 1928, at 9 o’clock at night. How did they know it was over, you might ask? Well, Emma shot up out of bed once again, essentially floating over the mattress so that only her heels grazed it. She then fell back onto the bed, a spine-chilling noise was heard, and chanting of the names of those that had possessed her filled the room. Additionally, a positively rotten odor manifested out of nowhere that was so horrible and unbearable that “all the windows had to be opened.” And then, it was over.

15. Witnessing the exorcism was reportedly so horrific that after all was said and done, every nun who was present for it asked to be transferred to a different convent.

16. And finally, despite the three-week-long exorcism, Emma was said to still experience “possessions but of a milder nature” after the fact.