A ‘possessed’ woman underwent a nine-hour exorcism after she attacked an Italian priest during confession and started speaking in different voices and languages.
According to Corriere del Veneto, the 28-year-old woman was accompanied by her family members to the Church of Saint Mary of Mount Berico in Vicenza, northern Italy, at around 11am on Sunday for confession.
But witnesses said the unnamed woman began to scream and swear inside the basilica, and spoke in different voices and languages, including Latin, Corriere del Veneto reported.
The woman ran through the confession rooms on the ground floor of the church, slapped her mother, and attacked the priest running the confession.
A nine-hour-long exorcism was later held for the woman, who they claimed was possessed by the devil.
The exorcism did not finish until 8.30pm when the woman collapsed and was taken home by her parents and younger brother, local media reported.
Father Giuseppe Bernardi, the exorcist of Monte Berico, Father Carlo Rossato, and two other brothers were reported to have held the nine-hour-long exorcism.
Some witnesses called local police and ambulance services to alert them to the situation, but authorities were said to have remained outside the church.
Father Rossato said: ‘It was a real possession and it was only in the evening that the situation was resolved when the girl physically collapsed.’
The Father claimed there are ‘hundreds’ of similar cases and said they have four exorcists in the curia of Vicenza to deal with such situations.
According to Il Giornale di Vicenza, her mother took her to confession because she believed there was a ‘demonic influence’ behind her daughter’s alleged violent behaviour, while her father believed she was suffering from a psychiatric disorder.