A nun from the 17th century caused a stir when it was discovered she had written a ‘Devil letter’ that included a weird mix of symbols.
Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione was a 31-year-old nun that lived at the Palma di Montechiaro convent in Sicily.
However, she has been a person of interest in history due to the belief that she became ‘possessed’ and wrote a letter on August 11, 1676.
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She was reportedly found on the floor of her cell with her face covered in ink and clutching a letter with the bizarre writing on it.
Historical accounts of the incident allege that the letter - which consisted of 14 lines - was from the Devil himself who was attempting to turn her away from God.
Archeologists have long attempted to decipher the meaning of it and may have started to make a little leeway.
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Talking to Live Science in 2017, Director of Italy's Ludum Science Center Daniele Abate said: “When working on historical decryption, you cannot ignore the psychological profile of the writer.
“We needed to know as much as possible about this nun.”
Historians have said that Sister Maria was just 15 when she decided to devote her life to God, and moved into the Benedictine convent.
Abate continued: “The letter appeared as if it was written in shorthand.
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“We speculated that Sister Maria created a new vocabulary using ancient alphabets that she may have known.”
To be sure about what exactly this letter was written in, researchers used software which scanned shorthand symbols from different languages.
They found that the nun’s letter contained words from ancient alphabets such as Greek, Latin, Runic and Arabic.
Abate said: “We analyzed how the syllables and graphisms [or thoughts depicted as symbols] repeated in the letter in order to locate vowels, and we ended up with a refined decryption algorithm.
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“We thought we could just come out with a few words making sense. But the nun had a good command of languages. The message was more complete than expected.”
In addition to calling the Holy Trinity ‘dead weights’, the letter also said: “God thinks he can free mortals. The system works for no one. Perhaps now, Styx is certain.”
In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Styx is the river separating the netherworld from the world of the living.
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Abate says the letter shows strong indications that Sister Maria was suffering from mental health conditions.
He said: “The image of the devil is often present in these disorders.
“We learned from historical records that every night she screamed and fought against the devil.”
Gerrard Kaonga