Anneliese Michel was a Catholic woman from Germany who was said to be possessed by six or more demons and subsequently underwent an exorcism in 1975. Annelise died from malnutrition and dehydration during the exorcism, and both her parents and two priests were charged with manslaughter resulting from negligence. Two motion pictures, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Requiem are loosely based on Anneliese’s story. A recording of Anneliese’s exorcism is below. Anneliese is pictured to the right.

A boy identified by the pseudonym “Roland Doe” was the subject of an exorcism in 1949, which became the subject of The Exorcist, a horror novel and later film written by William Peter Blatty. Blatty heard about the case while he was a student in the class of 1950 at Georgetown University. The exorcism was partially performed in both Cottage City, Maryland and Bel-Nor, Missouri by Father William S. Bowdern, S.J. and a then Jesuit scholastic Fr. Walter Halloran, S.J.

Mother Teresa allegedly underwent an exorcism late in life under the direction of the Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry D’Souza, after he noticed she seemed to be extremely agitated in her sleep and feared she “might be under the attack of the evil one.”