"I came home about five o'clock in the morning, greatly shocked at
what I had seen and heard, and impressed with the belief that Eliza was
possessed with the devil. I went again to the priest's on Wednesday to
find Eliza, when the priest told me that he, Mr. McDonnel, exorcised the
devil at high mass that morning in the church, and drove the devil out
of Eliza. That he, the devil, came out of Eliza, and spat at the Holy
Cross of Jesus Christ, and departed. He then told me that, as Eliza got
the devil from Mr. Lockwood, in the house where I lived, I must leave
the house immediately, and made me promise him that I would. During the
appalling scenes of Tuesday night, Mr. McDonnel went to the other priest
and called him up, but the other priest did not come to his assistance.
These answers to the priest when he was asking questions of the devil,
were given in a very loud voice and sometimes with a loud scream."
"CATHARINE DILLON."
"Subscribed and sworn to, this 31st day of December, 1851, before me,
JOB S. OLIN, Recorder of Troy, New York." [A copy.]
At the interview between Mr. J. W. Lockwood and the Rev. Mr. McDonnel,
officiating priest at St. Peter's church, there were present Hon. James
M. Warren, T. W. Blatchford, M. D., and C. N. Lockwood, on the part of
Mr. Lockwood, and Father Kenny and Mr. Davis on the part of the Rev. Mr.
McDonnel, on the evening of the 31st December, 1851.
Mr. McDonnel at first declined answering any questions, questioning Mr.
Lockwood's right to ask them: He would only say that Eliza Mead came to
his house possessed, as she thought, with an evil spirit; that at first
he declined having anything to do with her, first, because he believed
her to be crazy; second, because he was at that moment otherwise
engaged; and thirdly, because she was not in his parish; but, by her
urgent appeals in the name of God to pray over her, he was at last
induced to admit her. He became satisfied that she was possessed of the
devil, or an evil spirit, by saying the appointed prayers of the church
over her; for the spirit manifested uneasiness when this was done; and
furthermore, as she was entering the church the following morning, she
was thrown into convulsions by Father Kenny's making the sign of the
cross behind her back. At high mass in the morning he exorcised the
devil, and he left her, spitting at the cross of Christ before taking
his final departure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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