WHEN THE PRINCE OF DEVILS POSSESSED A YOUNG WOMAN BY PRETENDING TO BE HER DEAD GRANDFATHER

It seemed like an ordinary November day in Northern France. Crisply cold, but not quite freezing. Young Nicola went to the cemetery to pray at the grave of her dead grandfather. He had passed two years ago. This was the year 1549, and Nicola had been raised to pray a lot for deceased loved ones. She knelt in the frigid earth and prayed for his swift passage through Purgatory. Suddenly, a man appeared in front of her. A white shroud covered his face. "I am your grandfather", the apparition sorrowfully intoned, which caused Nicola to flee. 

But the next time the spirit came, Nicola's tolerance for terror had increased, and again he said he was her grandfather, that he suffered much in expiation for his sins, and that during life he had vowed to make certain pilgrimages, but had neglected his promise. He told her of 3 pilgrimages to holy places in her native France and also said he'd sworn to go to St James of Compostella. He requested that Nicola ask her husband and her uncles to go in his stead. 

Nicola confided her strange story to her family and entreated her husband and relatives to do the pilgrimages to places in France - she appeared desperate and agitated - and they agreed in a bid to restore her peace. But she did not tell them anything about that which the apparition said about the pilgrimage to St James of Compostella. She and her family were based in Vervins, at the very top of France, almost as north as you can go and had they wanted to go to North-Eastern Spain, they would have had to travel the whole length of France and cross over a treacherous border and travel by horse-drawn carriage or by a buggy drawn by a mule all in the dead of winter.

Nicola's husband and uncles did the pilgrimages within France, under the false impression this was what was needed, but when they returned, they found Nicola to be worse, she shook convulsively and when she tried to go to a Requiem Mass, she was snatched by an invisible force and dragged around. Her family then asked what more could be done to satisfy the spirit, and she finally revealed, "My grandfather tells me that those who made the other pilgrimages must also go to St James of Compostella....my grandfather says he will torture me, and make me deaf, dumb and blind until the pilgrimages are made." The pilgrimage to Spain was never made, but the spirit continued his dire threats, until Nicola's mother ran to fetch an exorcist. 

Thankfully, the local priest, Monsieur L'Abbe Lautrichet was good and holy, as well as intellectually rigorous enough to confront the spirit and make it reveal itself. The first exorcism started and the priest said he didn't believe the spirit was really Nicola's dead grandfather, and then the spirit changed its story, saying it was the good angel of the deceased grandfather. Monsieur L'Abbe Lautrichet scoffed in reply, "I can hardly believe that; good angels never take forcible possession of the human body; and they do not torment the children of God." The foul spirit dissembled more; saying it was not occupying her body, only her mouth, but the priest persisted, "But you are in her body, since you are speaking through her mouth...you are an evil spirit - a demon of hell."

Eventually, Nicola was successfully exorcised; the disquieting details of which may be read in their entirety here. This is one true account of exorcism that is scarier than anything I've ever read on the subject. Yes, it outdoes Malachi Martin, William Peter Blatty and even the tales from the exorcism trenches that I've heard, and not because of the shocking reveals, rather because of the satanic strategies which are laid bare in the text, and which if acknowledged properly can have a very humbling influence; it is so easy to be conned by old scratch. Nicola was possessed when she earnestly sought to help the foul spirit who had taken the form of her grandfather. The Exorcism of Nicola Aubry is as enlightening as it is hair-raising. 

The book is merely 95 pages, can be read in a sitting, but looms very large in the mind. 

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The classic painting of a cemetery was executed by Caspar David Friedrich. The Exorcism of Nicola Aubry  is available from Sensus Fidelium Press.