What happened to the boy in “The Exorcist”

“Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out….” Matthew 10:1

^“In truth I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 18:18

Did you know that the famous 1973 movie “The Exorcist” was based on a real-life case of a successful exorcism? But instead of a young girl, played by Linda Blair in the movie, in real life it was a 13-year-old boy who became demonically possessed.

I’ve always wondered what happened to that boy. Thanks to an account by Pat McGonigle for KSDK5 in St. Louis, Missouri, Oct. 30, 2012, we now know. Here’s McGonigle’s report:

It’s one of the biggest questions about the most well documented cases of an exorcism in U.S. history.

What ever happened to the 13-year-old boy at the center of the exorcism performed by Jesuits at Saint Louis University?

The story was the basis for the best-selling book and blockbuster horror movie, “The Exorcist.”

With a few rare exceptions, the boy’s identity has remained a closely guarded secret for decades.

“He’s still alive,” said David Waide, SLU archivist.

In almost all of the accounts of the famous case, the boy is referred to as “Robbie.”

Robbie’s ordeal began at his home in Maryland in 1949. Bizarre, unexplained things started happening in Robbie’s home, up to and including marks and welts on his body.

Robbie’s parents came to St. Louis to stay with relatives, partially in hopes that a change of scenery would stop the unexplained activities.

It didn’t help.

One of Robbie’s cousins was a student at St. Louis University at the time. She relayed accounts of Robbie’s ordeal to Jesuits at SLU.

Eventually, Fr. William Bowdern, S.J. led the exorcism with the help of Fr. Raymond Bishop and Fr. Walter Halloran, among others.

The ordeal ended at a now-demolished wing of the Alexian Brothers Hospital in south St. Louis.

It’s believed Robbie would be 77 today.

“He’s had several children,” Waide said. “He’s moved back to the Washington D.C. area. He was non-Catholic, Lutheran nominally, but he became a Catholic. He was baptized during this whole episode.“

It’s been reported that Robbie named a son Michael. In the exorcism records, Robby tells the priests he was saved by St. Michael the Archangel.

Robbie returned to St. Louis two years after his ordeal ended in 1949.

In a priest’s diary about the exorcism, this is the final footnote entry on page 29:

“Follow up: August 19, 1951. R and his father and mother visited the Brothers. R, now 16 is a fine young man. His father and mother also became Catholic, having received their first Holy Communion on Christmas Day, 1950.”

You can read the entire diary on KSDK.COM.

In 1993, Thomas B. Allen wrote a book on the real life exorcism of “Robbie.” Titled Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism, the book is based on the diary kept by a Jesuit priest who assisted Father Bowdern in the exorcism. One big difference between the movie and the book is that in the book, “Robbie” identified St. Michael the Archangel as playing a pivotal role, by the power of God, in the eventual expulsion of the demon.

~Eowyn

A Day of Archangels

Today is the Feast Day of the Archangels!

September 29 traditionally was set aside by the Church as the Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel. (The word “saint” simply means “holy”.) Then the Church made it the feast day of all the Archangels.

Three Angels are named in the Bible:

1. Michael
2. Gabriel: in Hebrew, the name means “God is my might”
3. Raphael: in Hebrew, the name means “God has healed”

Notice that all three names end with “El” — which means God, in Hebrew. Thus, each Archangel’s name ending in “el” means they are “of God.”

Sandro Botticelli, “The Annunciation” (1485): St. Gabriel appears to Mary

The word “angel”, in Greek is angelos; in Hebrew is malach; in Arabic is mala’ika – which all mean “messenger”.

Angels are incorporeal (bodiless) spiritual beings who act as intermediaries between God and humanity. Angels are defined by their function as messengers or message-bearers, although this function does not exhaust their activities. As spirits, they are believed to have been created by God to serve the supreme deity by fulfilling any and all tasks assigned to them.

Major philosophers — such as Thomas Aquinas, René Descartes, John Locke, and most recently, the American philosopher Mortimer Adler — have put forth compelling reasons for the existence of Angels. (For the conversion of Adler, a Jew, to the Catholic faith, click here.)

Theologians maintain there is a hierarchy of Angels, due to the fact that in Genesis 3:24, Isaiah 6:1-7, Ezekiel 1, 10, Romans 8:38, Ephesians 1:21, 3:10, 6:12, Colossians 1:16, 2:10, 2:15, allusions are made to “seraphim,” “cherubim,” “thrones,” “dominions,” “mights,” “powers,” and “principalities” in the “heavenly places.”

Dionysius and Aquinas delineated three hierarchies of Angels, each hierarchy being comprised of three orders:

• 1^st hierarchy: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones.
• 2^nd hierarchy: Dominions, Virtues, Powers.
• 3^rd hierarchy: Principalities, Archangels, Angels.

Of the nine angelic orders, five are sent by God for external ministry among bodily creatures, as indicated by their names of Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels—all of which refer to some kind of administrative or executive office. Of these five orders, only the last three minister to human beings:

• Principalities are in charge of the whole of humanity.
• Archangels minister to nations — their leaders and those persons whom God tasks with special work to do on earth.
• Angels, the last order, are God’s messengers to and guardians of individual human beings.

The name “Lucifer” means “Morning Star,” “Son of the Dawn,” or “Light Carrier.” For that reason, theologians believe that Lucifer was a high-order Angel, most likely a Seraphim. Aquinas thought him to be “probably the highest of all the angels.” But Lucifer admires and loves himself more than his Creator and thinks himself to be “as God”. And so, full of himself, Lucifer rebelled, taking a third of the angelic beings with him.

But, a lower-order Angel, full of courage and love of God, rallied together two-thirds of the angelic ranks against the apostates, in the First War that began the enduring conflict between good and evil:

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it. (Revelation 12:7-9)

That braveheart’s name is Micha-el, which means “Who is like God?”

I like to think “Who is like God?” is Michael’s battle cry….

St. Michael the Archangel is believed to be the captain or prince of the heavenly armies and the most beloved of all the Angels. He is mentioned in Daniel 10:13,31; 12:1 (where he is said to be the prince of the people of Israel); in Jude 9 (where he is said to have disputed with the devil about the body of Moses); and in Revelation 12:7 (where he is said to have led the heavenly armies against those of the great dragon).

Described in Revelation 10:1 as a “mighty angel…with a halo around his head; his face was like the sun and his feet were like pillars of fire,” St. Michael is generally portrayed by artists as wearing full armor and carrying a sword or lance, with his foot on the neck of a dragon. (Pictures of the martyred St. George are often similar, but only Michael has wings.)

Michael has four main titles or offices. He is:

• Patron of the Chosen People in the Old Testament.
• Patron saint and defender of the Catholic Church.
• The Angel of death, who assists Jesus in the final judgment (thus, Michael is sometimes depicted with a scale).
• Leading the good angels against the fallen angels or demons. For that reason, Christians consider St. Michael as the most powerful defender of God’s people against evil. As such, Michael is also the patron saint of soldiers and policemen. (For the Prayer to St. Michael, go here.)

All of which is why St. Michael the Archangel is my most favorite saint, whom I admire and love with all my heart. As you can see from this blog’s masthead, he is also the protector of Fellowship of the Minds.

Happy Feast Day, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael!

Thank you for inspiring us with your humility, courage, goodness, and love for God.

~Eowyn

Check out FOTM’s other saints and angels posts, here!

Sources:

1. Mortimer J. Adler, The Angels and Us (New York: Macmillan, 1982).
2. Matthew Bunson, Angels A to Z: A Who’s Who of the Heavenly Host (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1996), pp. 181-184.
3. Michael H. Brown, Prayer of the Warrior (Goleta, CA: Queenship Publishing Co., 1993), p. 34.
4. René Descartes, Meditations On First Philosophy, trans. by Donald A. Cress (Indianapolis & Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1979).
5. John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited with an introduction by A. D. Woozley (Cleveland & New York: Meridian Books, 1968),
6. Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, Volume One(New York: Benziger Brothers, 1947).

Send Us Pics of Your Garden/Flowers!

A glimpse of my garden on a cool rainy day.

Thank you for your positive reaction every time I do a post on my garden or nature or my new kitten. (See “Room With a View“, “Eowyn’s Garden“, “A Walk in the Rain“, “Peekaboo“.)

The beauty of God’s creation feeds our soul because they are reminders of His presence and love. That is why we hunger for those visual reminders.

If you have pics of your garden, home, pet, or something that makes your heart sing, please send it to me:

FellowshipTips@aol.com

I’ll post them on the Fellowship of the Minds so that you can share what you love with us all….

~Eowyn