In the summer of 1928, Father Theophilus Riesinger, an experienced exorcist, made his way to the Erling train station in Iowa. He had been summoned by a middle-aged woman who sought his help in dealing with demonic possession. However, his journey took an unsettling turn when his relatively new car encountered unexpected problems, causing a two-hour delay.
Upon his belated arrival, Father Theophilus expressed his regrets to the woman. In response, she calmly remarked, “I would have been surprised if everything had gone smoothly. The devil will go to great lengths to disrupt our plans. I had anticipated that he might hinder your arrival.”
The subsequent events seemed to validate her concerns, as the woman reportedly remained under the influence of a demonic presence despite multiple attempts at exorcism. Her lifelong struggle with possession had a profound impact on how we perceive the existence and power of malevolent supernatural entities.
Theophilus Riesinger was a German-American Catholic priest, who became widely known as an exorcist in the United States.
In the summer of 1928 he was asked to conduct the rite of exorcism on Anna Ecklund, a 46-year-old woman who was suspected of being possessed. While preaching at a parish mission in St. Joseph Parish in Earling, Iowa, he asked the permission of the pastor to conduct the ceremony in the parish.
After 23 days of performing the exorcism, Riesinger was exhausted. Two days before Christmas of that year, he claimed the demons were driven out, and the woman cried “My Jesus! Mercy! Praised be Jesus Christ!”
Image: Theophilus Riesinger and Anna Ecklund
