The Devil Made Me Do It

1948 really was another century, particularly if you were a kid on his first trip to Italy. Italy after the war was a totally different country than mine. Not only were the ravages of war all around you, to a child raised in Cambridge, Italy was still very “old world”. Italy had yet to join our so-called modern world. I suppose that’s why I got one of the scares of my life.

It happened in Assisi, the home of St. Francis. It was a stop on our “grand tour” of Italy. My mother was deeply religious; we saw every famous church in Italy. Since my cousin was a Franciscan as were our parish priests, she had a special affection for everything Franciscan. Assisi had to be a highlight of the tour for her. We rose early that morning to attend the first Mass, for, after Mass, there was a special tour of the cathedral that my cousin had arranged.

The first part of the tour was, to my by now jaded sensibilities, not very exciting; we saw the typical tourist things. But, then, the tour moved to the cellar. Now, you should know that I attended Catholic school, a fairly conservative one where the devil was a constant “presence” (so the nuns told us). Plus, I had been scared out of my wits, just before we left on vacation, when I attended the play, “Pilate’s Daughter”, in which possession by the devil figures prominently.

The cellar was ill-lit, but you could see prison cells. I originally thought they were empty, but one was not. In it was a girl a few years older than I. She was on the bed. A priest was standing, praying from a missal in a fairly loud voice. At first, I thought the girl was physically ill, but it soon became clear she was not, for, as we learned from our guide, the girl was possessed by the devil. We were witnessing an exorcism. Now, it’s true that I could not see the devil, but I was an impressionable kid and was certain that he was there in that cell.

When I was older, I realized, of course, that the girl was emotionally ill. Yet, even now, fifty-six years later, I sometimes wonder whether the devil could have been in that cell and might be coming after me.