He went on to attend a Catholic school and become a devout Catholic. Later, he wrote to Fr Bowdern thanking him, mentioning his new dog and normal life. Not only priests, students, family and friends, but nurses and staff as well. The reason why Roland Doe's exorcism has gained renown is the sheer amount of people who have claimed to witness the weird behaviour. Those who have read the documents, and heard the story have said he was most likely a deeply disturbed man in need of psychiatric help, others believe it was a genuine case of possession. There are many theories as to what happened. There are detailed accounts of Roland's continued violent and weird behaviour from attacking people during his attempted First Holy Communion to punching a priest in the testicles when he tried to get him back to Maryland on a train.įr William spoke about the case many years later What happened to Roland Weirdly, Roland was fine during the day, even playing board games with the staff or reading comics. He believed what happened was supernatural and added he'd cleared vomit out of the boy's room on several occasions. And when his hands 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!'Ī nurse spoke about the incident, saying the priests 'had a terrible time'.

“Presumably Bowdern was about to be attacked but the boy got no further than the book. 'One night the boy brushed off his handlers and soared through the air at Father Bowdern standing some distance from the bed with a ritual book in his hands,” one priest wrote. Roland vomited over the priests, and spat in their faces, farted and belched as well as contorting his body.

'I will answer to the name of Spite,' he shrieked. The document went into detail about those four nights the priests tried to exorcise Roland. It's the only record that's now publicly available. While the manuscript had been locked away, Fr Halloran had made a copy, which he gave Thomas Allen, who published his findings in 1993. It was passed to hospital supervisors who identified it as the work of one of the priests who had helped with the exorcism. In a locked room, they discovered an official record of his visit tucked away in a drawer. Workmen demolishing part of the St Louis Hospital, where Roland had stayed, were removing furniture. The story made it's way to National Geographic writer Thomas Allen, who found Fr Halloran, a priest who had assisted in the exorcism, who was willing to talk.įr Halloran, who had since moved away, was suspicious at first, but admitted there was a diary. Tests were held, as the Church requires mental and physical evaluations to be done before exorcism can take place.Īpparently Fr Bowdern had spoken to someone, a fellow Jesuit.

The family, at their wits end and sure Roland was possessed by his dead aunt, turned to a Lutheran pastor who, when he realised how bad things were, recommended they contact a Catholic priest.Ī local priest was sent but Roland screamed at him in Latin: 'O sacerdos Christi tu scis me esse diabolum' (O Priest of Christ, you know that I am the Devil).ĭisturbed and shaken by what he had seen, the priest applied to the Church to carry out an exorcism. She claims to have heard something scratching the mattress until it fell to the floor. She tried to speak with what she thought was the spirit of Roland's aunt, imploring her to stop and asking her questions. When Roland's mother walked in to find his bed shaking, they decided enough was enough. He was seen as a troublemaker.Ī fellow student explained what happened: 'The desk was shaking and vibrating extremely fast and I remember the teacher yelling at him to stop and I remember he kind of yelled back 'I'm not doing it!'' 'You know that I'm the Devil' - calling in the Exorcist Roland’s family removed him after teachers claimed his desk would move during class as well as objects. It was the first time that someone outside the family had witnessed the weird incidents. A friend was in their house when the boy was sitting in a chair and then quickly, without any warning, he was thrown from it and landed multiple feet away.

The exorcism diarey