Father Gabriele Amorth - Rome's exorcist
The Accounts and Possessions Investigated by the Vatican’s Most Famous Exorcist
Gabriele Amorth was born on 1 May 1925 in Modena, Italy. Ordained as a Catholic priest in 1954, he would later become the most widely known exorcist of the modern era. In 1986, he was appointed exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, a position that placed him at the centre of the Church’s official ministry dealing with alleged demonic possession.
Amorth often claimed that over the course of his career, he performed more than 70,000 exorcisms. The number frequently raises eyebrows, though he explained that most were brief prayers of deliverance rather than full rituals. Only a small proportion involved what the Church classifies as major exorcisms under the formal Rite of Exorcism. Even so, his accounts brought renewed public attention to a practice many assumed had vanished centuries ago.
Among the cases he described was that of a young woman known as Marta. In February 1990, Amorth was contacted by her family in a rural village outside Rome. Marta was twenty-three and had begun exhibiting behaviour that frightened those around her. She experienced violent outbursts, spoke in unfamiliar languages, and reacted with intense hostility toward religious objects. Doctors and psychiatrists had already examined her without identifying a clear explanation for the sudden change in her condition.
The first ritual took place in a small church close to her home. Witnesses later described Marta sitting quietly before the prayers began. When Amorth started reading the rite, her behaviour changed immediately. She screamed and began speaking rapidly in a language none of those present recognised. Her strength also appeared to surge without warning. Several men were needed to restrain her as she struggled against the prayers.
During the session, Marta spoke about details of Amorth’s childhood and personal life that she could not have known. According to those present, the remarks were delivered with the clear intention of unsettling him. Candles flickered repeatedly, and a crucifix reportedly fell from the wall during the ritual. After roughly four hours, Marta collapsed in exhaustion. For the first time in months, she spoke calmly and appeared fully aware of her surroundings. Amorth later wrote that three further sessions were required over several weeks before the disturbance ended. Her family stated that she eventually returned to normal life with no further episodes.
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Another case described by Amorth involved a forty-five-year-old man named Giovanni. The events took place in Rome during November 1999. Unlike many individuals who were brought to him by relatives, Giovanni approached the priest himself. He believed something had attached itself to him after involvement with occult rituals and groups exploring forms of Satanism.
When the rite began, Giovanni reacted with visible hostility to prayers and references to Christ. His expression changed, and his voice deepened as he shouted that he was “Lucifer’s soldier”. The words were repeated several times during the early stages of the ritual. Witnesses described violent convulsions and sudden bursts of strength as the man struggled against those holding him.
Amorth later claimed that at one point Giovanni’s body lifted briefly from the floor during the ritual, an event those present insisted they had witnessed. The session lasted roughly five hours. According to Amorth, the voice alternated between Giovanni’s normal speech and a distorted tone that appeared to speak independently of him. Several further sessions were conducted over the following months. Giovanni later stated that the oppressive presence he believed had entered him eventually lifted. He returned to the Church and reportedly abandoned the occult practices that had led him to seek help.
One of the more unusual accounts involved a woman named Rosa, a thirty-two-year-old nun living in a convent in northern Italy. The disturbances began with nightmares and what her fellow sisters described as vivid hallucinations. Over time, her behaviour changed dramatically. She began speaking in languages none of the convent had heard her study and expressed hostility toward the Church despite years of devout service.
Amorth was called to the convent chapel where the ritual took place in the presence of several nuns. As he entered the room, Rosa reportedly reacted immediately, growling and mocking those around her. During the prayers, she spoke about private matters from the lives of the sisters present, accusations delivered with unsettling precision.
Witnesses later described her body twisting into unnatural positions while the ritual continued. The atmosphere in the chapel was said to grow suddenly cold even though the weather outside was warm for April. Windows rattled, objects shifted, and Rosa shouted threats toward the priest and those assisting him. After roughly three hours of prayer, she collapsed. Those present believed the disturbance had ended. Rosa later spoke about the overwhelming darkness she felt during the ordeal and expressed gratitude toward the Church for intervening.
Stories such as these helped shape Amorth’s reputation as the Vatican’s most visible exorcist. His books, particularly An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, brought the subject of possession back into public conversation in the late twentieth century. Within them, he warned that involvement with occult practices, spiritualism, and certain forms of ritual magic could expose individuals to what he considered genuine spiritual danger.
Amorth died on 16 September 2016 at the age of ninety-one. His work remains controversial, balancing on the uneasy boundary between religious belief, psychology, and folklore. Within the Catholic Church, the ministry of exorcism continues, carried out quietly by priests trained for that role. Whether the phenomena described by Amorth were spiritual, psychological, or something still unexplained remains a matter of debate.
His accounts endure as among the most detailed modern testimonies to the long tradition of exorcism in the Catholic world.
Wow. Good read. Thank you.
I'm a firm believer in demonic possession, despite also being quite knowledgeable about multiple personality disorder - which ironically often results from being a victim of satanic ritual abuse. But there are credible witness stories from those victims which talk about how the perpetrators' entire visual features change during the ritual and it's clear they really have become a vehicle for the demons they are summoning, such that they are not really there any more, but the demons are. Unless, of course, the demons are a different personality in a multiple personality system. Although that can be one explanation, it doesn't explain all instances of demonic possession (bit like the few percent of UFOs which defy explanation). Plus of course, the explanation can be both. I think sometimes part of the intention in satanic rituals is precisely to cause a demonic possession. And that demon can occupy one of the other personalities in the multiple.
Dark, dark stuff, indeed...