Nun Goes To Serious Lengths To Conceal Her Questionable Double Life
Nuns aren't typically in the business of stirring up trouble, but even the most pious among us have their secrets. This was just as true in the 1300s, a time when women of the church were expected to do as they were told without question. But even nuns have their breaking point, and new evidence has recently emerged about one 14th century-era nun who turned her church — and the lives of several others — upside down.
Joan of Leeds
The most captivating thing about Joan of Leeds may not be her story, but her legacy. You see, it’s against all odds that this nun from the 1300s has become a historical figure we know about today since everything we know about her exists in just three letters.
Three Handwritten Letters
That’s right — three handwritten letters found in a medieval document holder tell the sordid story of Joan, the Benedictine nun whose existence eluded historians until 2019, when the letters of William Melton, the Archbishop of York, were finally uncovered.
St. Clements of York
And the story they told has left historians — and lovers of all things melodramatic — desperate for more information about Joan of Leeds. No one knows quite where Joan’s story began, but they do know where it got interesting: A church called St. Clement’s of York.
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The Reluctant Nun
Pop culture has introduced the public to all kinds of nuns (and nun stereotypes), from singing nuns to flying nuns to stern ruler-wielding nuns, but one of the most popular nuns we see in the movies are the ones who don’t, they eventually realize, want to be nuns at all.
Questioning Everything
Apparently, this wasn’t just a popular plot point in the movies, either. Though a nun’s decision to dedicate her life to her religion is usually a permanent one, there occasionally comes a time when she realizes that the pious path may not be the one for her.
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Tough To Be A Girl
After all, during the middle ages, it wasn’t always a woman’s decision to become a nun. In fact, back then, women didn’t become nuns when they were adults, but when they were barely teenagers. Unsurprisingly, it was tough to be a girl in the early 14th century.
Child Brides
Many daughters were married off at ages as young as 13 or 14 so they could start having children early, but there were some girls who either refused marriage or couldn’t be married off. For them, an attractive alternative option was waiting for them within a convent.
It Just Made Sense
Economically, becoming a nun sometimes made the most sense. It meant always having a roof over your head and food on your plate, no matter how simple or bland. And since it was the Middle Ages, most women already came from religious families anyway.
Outside The Convent
But as any voluntary nun would tell you, the life of a nun is not for the faint of heart...or for those who were called to join the order by economic necessity rather than a higher calling. Eventually, some girls who were forced to become nuns started to get curious about life outside the convent.
Joan's Wandering Eye
It’s no wonder that Joan of Leeds, who was probably quite young when she joined the order, found herself following in these nuns’ footsteps. Young and probably there against her will, historians believe that Joan started to get a wandering eye.
Sudden Illness
Many nuns young and old harbored secret desires for more independence, but only a few actually shirked their habits in order to achieve it. We don’t know if Joan told anyone about her wish to leave; all we know is that Joan, seemingly out of nowhere, started to wheeze.
Mourning Joan
The wheeze turned into a cough, which turned into a hack, which turned into full-blown convulsions, and before long Joan found herself on her death bed. Surrounded by her fellow Sisters, she passed away and was mourned by everyone at St. Clements…
Mistaken Identity?
That is, until she was spotted at a nearby town shortly after her funeral. When word got to the Archbishop of York that Joan had been seen living among the public, he immediately wrote it off as a mistake. It was simply a case of mistaken identity, right?
Alive And Well
That’s what the Archbishop thought...until someone else claimed to see Joan of Leeds walking, talking, and acting very much alive just a few villages over from St. Clements. This was a little too weird to be a coincidence, so the Archbishop, out of an abundance of caution, went to St. Clements to investigate.
A Guilty Conscience
What he found was the very last thing he expected. Though most of the nuns thought his inquiries into Joan’s death were pointless, others met him with something shocking: a guilty conscience. When pressed by the Archbishop, the true story finally came out.
Joan Faked Her Death
As it turned out, St. Clements hadn’t buried Joan’s body at all, but merely a dummy “in the likeness of her body.” As the Archbishop furiously wrote, “Out of a malicious mind simulating a bodily illness, [Joan] pretended to be dead, not dreading for the health of her soul.”
Joan's Accomplices
Worst of all to the Archbishop, Joan hadn’t accomplished such a sinful feat on her own. Some of the other nuns, perhaps with their own desire for an ordinary life in mind, helped Joan craft the fake body and kept her phony illness a secret. This infuriated the Archbishop even further.
A Normal Life
“[She had] no shame in procuring [the dummy's] burial in a sacred space,” he wrote. And according to the Archbishop’s letters, it seems that Joan had a reason for leaving the sisterhood beyond a simple desire to not be a nun. She wanted a normal life...and all the experiences a “normal” life would entail.
Joan's Double Life
When she was discovered living in a nearby town, she wasn’t, to the Archbishop’s shock, alone. “She perverted her path of life arrogantly to the way of carnal lust and away from poverty and disobedience,” he wrote. In other words, Joan had probably left the convent in order to live with her lover.
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One Side of the Story
However, an expert on Joan of Leeds, Professor Sarah Rees Jones, has made it clear that this is just one side of the story. Since all we have are the Archbishop’s letters to go by, we’re obviously getting a biased version of events. According to Rees Jones, Joan’s story isn’t as one-note as a love affair.
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Ordering Joan To Come Home
“Almost certainly her motivation was more complicated than that. But we don’t have her side of the story,” Rees Jones told CBC Radio. What we do know is that the Archbishop tracked Joan down and ordered her to return to St. Clements, likely with a harsh punishment in mind.
Numerous Theories
But just because the Archbishop wanted Joan to return doesn’t mean she did. To the frustration of all who read the Archbishop’s letters, that’s where Joan’s story ends. There’s no evidence that she did or didn’t return to St. Clements...but there are theories.
Not His Problem
Gary Brannan, an archivist who helped publish some of the Archbishop's writings, thinks it’s very possible that the Archbishop was content to simply order Joan to come home. Whether or not she actually obeyed may not have been the Archbishop’s concern.
What Happened To Joan?
Some historians think Joan probably changed her name and moved somewhere else, never to be heard from again. Others think she may have feared for her well-being and returned to the convent. Rees Jones, though, doesn’t think Joan ever would’ve returned to St. Clements.
Going To Extreme Lengths
“It shows how serious the matter was for her that it wasn’t enough to run away. She had to actually try and trick people into believing that she had died,” Rees Jones pointed out. Yet a hundred years later, a different nun named Sister Maria went to equally extreme lengths in order to expose a sinister secret...
Sicily: An Ancient History
The island of Sicily, where Sister Maria had taken spiritual refuge, is a place of deep-rooted Christian traditions. Indeed, Saint Paul is said to have preached there nearly two millennia ago. But where there is Christ, arguably there is Satan, for the eternal struggle between good and evil is a fundamental tenet of Christian doctrine.
Troubled Sister
Born in 1645, Isabella Tomasi was 15 years old when she joined a Benedictine convent in the Sicilian town of Palma di Montechiaro. There, she was baptized and renamed Maria Crocifissa della Concezione. The Benedictine order traditionally teaches work, peace and prayer. But for all her toil and devotion, Sister Maria did not seem to be at peace. In fact, she professed to be possessed by the Devil himself.
Turmoil From Within
And whether or not the Devil exists, Sister Maria did indeed appear to be a conduit for fiery torment. When approaching the convent altar, she would reputedly shriek and lose consciousness. Apparently convinced that Satan was trying to turn her towards evil, the nun seemed to be racked with inner conflict.
Infernal Script
Then one day in 1676 the Devil took control of the nun’s body – or so she claimed – and authored a diabolical letter. The note did not use a familiar language, though, nor even a recognizable alphabet. Instead, its mysterious glyphs seemed to resemble a jumble of archaic letters and occult symbols.
Spreading Chaos
Yet it wasn’t the first time that Satan had apparently called at a convent. In 1632 – around half a year after the onset of a devastating plague epidemic – a group of 17 nuns were sealed within the walls of an Ursuline convent in Loudun, France. Then, they started to behave irrationally.
The Dark Lord's Machinations
To begin with, several nuns reported having visions. Then the women started acting in bizarre and inexplicable ways; they cursed, shouted and even barked, drawing a sizeable audience of onlookers as a result. And with controversy now swirling in Loudon – as well as the convent chaplain’s conviction that the nuns were possessed by Satan – church authorities launched an investigation.
The Guilty Party
According to the findings, however, local holy man Father Urbain Grandier was responsible for the shocking scenes at the convent. Apparently, Grandier was a dangerous sorcerer who’d forged a diabolical contract with Lucifer, cast dark spells and conjured wicked spirits that had possessed the Ursuline nuns. In 1634 a trial was therefore conducted, and the cleric was summarily judged to be guilty.
Punishment
Grandier’s sentence proclaimed, “We have ordered… Urbain Grandier duly tried and convicted of the crimes of magic, maleficia and of causing demoniacal possession of several Ursuline nuns… He is to be taken to the public square… and fastened to a stake on a scaffold… and there be burned alive… and his ashes scattered to the wind.” But, of course, the execution of Grandier did nothing to halt subsequent reports of possessions.
No Laughing Matter
Meanwhile, years later in Sicily, the letter penned by the hand of Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione was so cryptic as to be practically indecipherable. Her fellow nuns took her claims seriously, however, and placed the item on public display. And over the ensuing centuries, many code-breakers tried to crack the supposedly Satanic language – although it wasn’t until 2017 that anyone made any real progress.
Cracking The Code
Yes, in that year, a team of computer scientists based at the LUDUM Science Center in Catania managed to break the code. Founded in 1969, the privately funded institution routinely collaborates with a variety of educational and research organizations. And in this case, it seems, the group went to some shadowy places in the name of unraveling the truth.
Going To Extraordinary Lengths
In fact, the scientists only managed to decipher Sister Maria’s letter with the help of a powerful – and highly controlled – decryption program. This software is used by governments and doesn’t appear to be widely available, which led the team to source it from the dark web – the hidden part of the internet that, among other things, trades in contraband.
A Linguist's Knowledge
The scientists thought that Sister Maria had perhaps created the code by using a blend of existing alphabets. And thanks to her years of exposure to religious scripture, the nun was indeed a skilled linguist with knowledge of both ancient and modern languages. So it was, then, that the experts’ hypothesis proved to be correct.
Running The Algorithm
“We heard about the software, which we believe is used by intelligence services for code-breaking,” Daniele Abate, the team’s leader, told British newspaper The Times in 2017. “We primed the software with ancient Greek, Arabic, the Runic alphabet and Latin to unscramble some of the letters and show that it really is devilish.”
Many Possibilities Exist...
The team did, moreover, manage to crack a portion of the note – 15 lines of it to be exact – although much of it was muddled and incoherent. However, those parts that did make sense contained heretical statements that would have gotten Sister Maria into serious trouble. She may have been a secret rebel. Or a hoaxer. Or perhaps part of her mind had split off from the rest.
Damning Statements
What we do know is that the author of the letter claimed that God is an invention of man and that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are “dead weights.” “God thinks he can free mortals,” says the letter. “This system works for no one.” And in what appears to be a reference to the mythological river that supposedly lies on the edge of the underworld, another sentence reads, “Perhaps now, Styx is certain.”
More Devilish Writings
But Sister Maria’s letter isn’t the only purported example of devilish writing. In 1896 a book by John Ashton entitled The Devil in Britain and America claimed to contain a copy of “the only known specimen of the Devil’s handwriting.” That sample was itself sourced from a 16th-century tome in Latin by Teseo Ambrogio degli Albonesi. The work’s title can be translated as Introduction to the Languages of Chaldean, Syrian and Armenian and the Ten Other Languages.
Forbidden Knowledge
The handwriting, meanwhile, was supposedly recorded by Italian conjurer Ludovico Spoletano, who is himself something of a mystery to modern historians. It appears that Albonesi may have first heard about Spoletano through Guillaume Postel – a French intellectual who shared the author’s interest in “magical” languages. Indeed, the two are known to have corresponded on the subject.
Answers From Beyond
The story goes that Spoletano called forth Satan himself and quizzed him with a range of inquiries that the Devil was apparently willing to answer in writing. However, rather than possessing the conjurer, Satan reportedly caused a pen to float midair. He then wrote the answers directly onto Spoletano’s paper – or so the legend claims.
A Truly Ancient Language
And according to Ashton, the script may have been derived from Amharic – a language used in the region of Amhara in Ethiopia. The writer claimed, too, “According to a legend, [Amharic] was the primeval language spoken in Eden.” Of course, many contemporary experts contend that the biblical garden of Eden was nothing more than a mythic creation. Regardless, though, the sample published by Ashton continues to intrigue scholars.
Cracking The Oldest Code
Indeed, both modern-day academics and amateur code-crackers – such as the writer of website Cipher Mysteries – confess that the writing makes no sense. It probably comes as no surprise, then, to hear that no one has yet been able to decipher the text. And, ultimately, the notion that the specimen actually shows the “Devil’s handwriting” may be nothing more than an elaborate prank at Postel and Albonesi’s expense. Still, at least the script has somewhat of a demonic appearance, as a few of the characters seem to resemble pitchforks.
'Dialogue' With Satan
Furthermore, despite the religious content of Sister Maria’s scrawled ramblings, Abate claims that it’s doubtful the Devil ever wrote them. She said to The Times, “I personally believe that the nun had a good command of languages, which allowed her to invent the code. And [Sister Maria] may have suffered from a condition like schizophrenia, which made her imagine dialogues with the Devil.”
Stream Of Consciousness
Indeed, many of the symptoms of schizophrenia appear to closely resemble the supposed signs of demonic possession. They include auditory hallucinations and strange fantasies. And similarly, the incomprehensible “word salad” spoken by some with the condition – which seems to reflect a breakdown in coherent thought – is perhaps not unlike the phenomenon of speaking in tongues.
Different Expressions
It’s also worth noting that the type of delusions experienced by sufferers of schizophrenia appear to reflect their cultural context. For example, in Japan such skewed beliefs often revolve around shame. In Pakistan, meanwhile, friends and family members can be a source of paranoid fantasies. And in strongly Christian societies, the delusions often involve religion – such as believing oneself to be a prophet or, indeed, possessed by the Devil.
Submitting To Temptation
However, religion itself may be a catalyst for psychotic breakdowns – partly because of its unfathomable themes and otherworldly imagery, and partly because it can engender a splitting apart of the psyche. It seems significant that Sister Maria experienced her spirituality as a source of conflict. Despite seeking refuge in a convent, she could not find salvation. Instead, the nun was apparently beset by those same demonic forces that the Bible beseeches us to resist.
The Reality Of Demons
Not all psychiatrists believe that demonic possession is a form of mental illness, though. Dr. Richard Gallagher of Columbia University, for one, claims to have seen scores of possession cases. And according to Gallagher, demons are real – and one of the things they like to do is to speak strange languages.
Age-Old Demonic Wisdom
“[Demons are] fallen angels,” said Gallagher to newspaper The Daily Mail in June 2018. “They’re extremely bright, much brighter than humans. They’ve been around for millennia, so they speak all languages. I’ve heard them speak Chinese [and] ancient Greek, which I studied. I’ve certainly heard them speak and understand Latin… [They do it] probably to freak you out or to show off, to boast.”
The Simplest Explanation
“I understand [that] believing in evil spirits is not a very comforting belief, and it has implications that, you know, we don’t want to accept,” Gallagher went on. “Having said that, there’s plenty of alternate theories. [But] I don’t think that those theories usually hold water. And when you’ve seen some of these cases, you realize that this is clearly not something that could be explained by psychopathology, or trickery or anything like that.”
Classifying Experience
Furthermore, numerous mental health professionals share Gallagher’s belief, so the doctor is not alone. And according to Dr. Mark Albanese, some psychiatrists recognize that an individual’s spiritual beliefs, whatever they are, have a role to play. “There’s a certain openness to experiences that are happening that are beyond what we can explain by MRI scans, neurobiology or even psychological theories,” he told CNN in August 2017.
Exorcism, At Least, Is Real
And according to psychologist Dr. Stephen Diamond, exorcism may represent an archaic form of psychotherapy. He asserts, for example, that Jesus Christ was reported to have cast out “demons” inhabiting sick individuals. In addition, one of the pioneering figures of western medicine, Hippocrates, was himself an exorcist. The practice of exorcism itself, moreover, has a long and diverse history that spans many religions across the world.
The Risks Of Purging Demons
In an article published by the website Psychology Today in 2012, Diamond even wrote about the similarities between psychotherapy and exorcisms. The expert explained, “Psychotherapy, like exorcism, commonly consists of a prolonged, pitched, demanding, soul-wrenching, sometimes tedious bitter battle royale with the patient’s diabolically obdurate emotional ‘demons.’ [This is] at times waged over the course of years or even decades rather than weeks or months – and not necessarily always with consummate success.”
One And The Same?
Diamond added, “The main difference between psychotherapy and exorcism is that modern psychotherapy is typically a secular treatment for figurative, metaphorical ‘demons’ – mental, emotional or psychological traumas, memories or ‘complexes’ – whereas exorcism takes the existence of demons quite literally. Doing so can have certain advantages in treating patients who believe in the Devil, demons and exorcism – if for no other reason than the extremely impressive power of suggestion.”
Modern-Day Occurrences
And the belief in demonic possession continues to be relatively widespread in some societies. In July 2018, for example, a passenger on a packed metro train in Mexico City filmed an impromptu “exorcism” taking place in full view of commuters. Watched more than a million times, the clip shows a well-dressed man appearing to beseech Jesus Christ, while a woman – who is allegedly possessed – screeches the word “devil.”
Just A Regular Tuesday
At one point, the man says, “In the name of Jesus, leave… You need to leave in the name of Jesus. You need to go!” But while the woman initially appears to submit, she then commences to attack him with a large umbrella. And according to media sources from the area, such bizarre sights are not unheard of on the city’s metro trains.
Evil Stories
What’s more, religious convictions are sometimes so vivid and deeply held that they beget moral panic. In September 2019, for instance, St. Edward Catholic School in Nashville purged its library of Harry Potter books upon the say-so of the school pastor, who had apparently been advised by a number of exorcists.
The Truth Behind Magic
Explaining his actions, Rev. Dan Reehil contacted the parents of the school’s students, writing, “[The Harry Potter] books present magic as both good and evil – which is not true but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells which, when read by a human being, risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”
Consumption Of The Body
But in situations where moral panic hinders rational action, the consequences can be tragic. In London in 2016, for instance, the “possession” of 26-year-old Kennedy Ife started with a sore throat and sleeping problems. Ife’s condition worsened, however, as he became delusional and agitated and claimed to have a serpent inside him. According to subsequent court testimony from one of his brothers, he also started to behave aggressively.
Succumbing To Evil
Allegedly, Ife’s family – who are said to have been charismatic Christians – went on to hide all the kitchen knives and restrain the 26-year-old using handcuffs and rope. The relatives then supposedly attempted a home exorcism – but their “cure” was ineffective. Reportedly, Ife’s breathing became labored, and he started to moan of feeling dehydrated. And, tragically, the young man would eventually die, with his brother’s attempts to perform a ritualistic “resurrection” ultimately being to no avail.
Blurred Lines
Naturally, then, the belief in demonic possession persists to this day – so much so, in fact, that the Roman Catholic Church is purportedly endeavoring to train a new generation of exorcists. Some Protestant churches, too, have taken to casting demons in a self-proclaimed spiritual battle against the forces of darkness. But do their efforts represent anything more than a theatrical – and potentially damaging – form of psychotherapy?
An Enduring Mystery
Equally, in 17th-century Sicily – and so hundreds of years before the birth of Freud and modern psychiatry – could the experiences of Sister Maria, the nuns of Loudon and countless others have been described in any other terms than metaphysical? Whatever the reality, the so-called Devil’s letter that Sister Maria penned is weird enough to keep us guessing even today. And sometimes it’s the gray areas between fact and fiction that offer the most intrigue.
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