At this point, the parents concluded that the only cure was a Roman Catholic exorcism. Church officials accepted their petition, and Roland was taken to a Catholic hospital in St. Louis for the exorcism. The priests conducting the exorcism were Father Raymond Bishop, Father F. Bowdern, and Father Lawrence Kenny. They kept a diary, which recorded the many supernatural events that took place during the exorcism. Roland levitated, read the minds of the exorcists, manifested understanding of Latin, and exercised unusual strength, breaking away from attendants who were trying to hold him down on his bed. Father Charles O’Hara, of Marquette University in Milwaukee, was present for some of the sessions. He later said to Father Eugene Gallagher of Georgetown University: “One night the boy brushed off his handlers and soared through the air at Father Bowdern standing at some distance from his bed [with] the ritual [book] in his hands. Presumably, Father was about to be attacked but the boy got no further than the book. And when his hand hit that—I assure you I saw this with my own eyes—he didn’t tear the book, he dissolved it. The book vaporized into confetti and fell in small fine pieces to the floor” (Rogo 1982, p. 43).
After several weeks, Roland was finally freed from the demon’s control. Rogo (1982, p. 43) says: “Unfortunately, a large portion of the diary kept by Roland’s exorcists is now lost. The case report written by the priests was in the possession of Father Gallagher until 1950, at which time he lent it to a colleague. Somehow a number of its sixteen pages were misplaced at that time. However, many of the original witnesses who took part in the case, in both St. Louis and Georgetown, are still alive.” It was on this case that William Peter Blatty based his novel the exorcist, which was turned into a film that became a classic of its kind.
On December 22, 1693, Carlo Maria Vulcano, a boy sixteen years old, entered the monastery of the Hieronymite order in Naples for training as a novice (Gauld and Cornell 1979, pp. 158–166). During the night of May 4, 1696, stones mysteriously fell into the hallway outside the room where Carlo and some other novices were sleeping. The same thing happened the next night. The novices rushed into the hallway, but saw only the stones lying on the floor of the hallway. Later that night, Carlo, alone in his room, noticed some movements in the dark. Then a voice cried out in his room, pleading for a prayer to be said for him. Carlo ran out the room screaming, “Jesus, Jesus, help me, help me” (Gauld and Cornell 1979, p. 162). One of the masters, Master Squillante, pacified Carlo, blessed the room, and told Carlo to go to sleep.When Carlo was lying in his bed, he saw a figure dressed as a Benedictine monk in the doorway. It came into the room, again crying out for prayers to be said on its behalf. Carlo and the novices ran to the prayer room, where they said prayers and chanted the rosary. As they did so, they heard a great commotion in the hallway, and then everything was quiet.
During the first part of the next day, stones fell in different rooms throughout the monastery, and then things became quiet. That night, as Carlo was trying to go to sleep, he again heard a voice calling him. He ignored it, thinking it a product of his imagination. But then the voice challenged, “You do not want to reply?” At that moment, his bed collapsed and the sheets and blankets flew into the air. Carlo ran out of the room, as behind him all the furniture crashed down and the window burst open. On the days that followed, stones continued to fall in various places. The demon pounded on doors, all the while crying out loudly. During the attacks, mattresses, sheets, and pillows were flung wildly around. The demon put pots of excrement in front of sacred images, threw excrement at Carlo, and threw paving stones at other persons.
On the night of May 11, the demon addressed the master of the novices in loud impolite language. The demon, upon being interrogated, identified himself as “the devil of the inferno” and declared that he had been ordained by God “to ceasely torment that novice” (Gauld and Cornell 1979, p. 163). On May 13, two brothers of the order, bearing sacred relics, posted themselves at the door to Carlo’s room, to prevent the demon from entering. Nevertheless, that night Carlo woke to find sitting near his bed a fiery-faced figure dressed in black. The demon shouted, “Now I will make you know who I am” (Gauld and Cornell 1979, p. 163). Carlo took a sacred image and pushed it into the demon’s face. In response, the demon burst into activity, scaring away the two brothers. The master and some novices came to the door of the room. Carlos tried to come out, but the demon grabbed him by his cassock and pulled him back. Recitation of the names of Jesus and Mary caused the demon to loosen his grip, and Carlos released himself. But upon his cassock was the print of a hand. The mark could not be removed. Demonic figures impressed in the wall of the room also could not be erased, and therefore the plaster was removed.
The boy was taken to the home of an uncle, Domenico Galisio. On May 22, Carlo was taken to Sorrento to see the remains of Saint Anthony, and there again the demon started to cause trouble. Carlo was then taken back to the monastery in Naples, where demonic phenomena resumed with increased ferocity. At times, the buildings shook as if being hit by earthquakes. Once Carlo and some monks were in a room, and part of the ceiling crashed down on them. No one was injured. The master of the novices commanded the demon to restore the ceiling, and to their amazement those present saw all the pieces of wood and plaster rise up and reassemble themselves. Still the disturbances continued. Cardinal Ursini performed an exorcism, but it failed to stop the activities of the demon. Carlo was sent from place to place, but the phenomena followed wherever he went. At another monastery in Capri, a Father Pietro wanted to perform an exorcism, but could not do it because he had left in Naples a book containing the proper procedures. When he began to pray, the demon appeared and threw the book at his feet. The demon said, “To my great confusion, I am obliged by that accursed name of that lad to bring you this book” (Gauld and Cornell 1979, p. 165).
On January 12, 1697, Carlo returned to his home. Sometimes when Carlo was away from the house, attending church services, the demon appeared in the shape of Carlo and beat Carlo’s brother and tormented his mother. Shortly thereafter things quieted down for a couple of months. On March 30, Carlo therefore returned to the monastery, but immediately the phenomena began again. At that point the leaders of the monastery decided that Carlo should give up all plans for becoming a monk. After that, the demon never returned.
Gauld and Cornell (1979, p. 158) explain: “The case was recorded by one of the brothers . . . who seems to have kept notes of the occurrences, and his account survives (or survived) in two identical contemporary manuscripts, entitled Caso successo in napoli nell’anno 1696 a 4 maggio nella casa dei P.P. Gerolomini (Case which happened in Naples, in the year 1696 on the 4th of May in the house of the Hieronymite Fathers). One of these manuscripts was obtained by a well-known Italian writer on psychic subjects, Francesco Zingaropoli, and was published by him with introduction and notes in a small and extremely rare book Gesta di uno ‘spirito’ nel monastero dei P.P. Gerolomini in napoli (Naples, 1904).” Laurence G. Thompson of the University of Southern California,