Featured Image Credit: Daniele Abate
Topics: World News, Weird
Mia Williams
A devilish letter written by a 17th century nun has been translated.
Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione, a 31-year-old nun living at the convent of Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily, was said to be possessed when she wrote the letter.
On August 11, 1676, she was found on the floor of her cell with her face covered in ink, clutching a letter which was a strange mix of symbols and letters.
Historical accounts have suggest that Sister Maria claimed this was a letter from the devil, who was attempting to turn her away from God and towards evil.
Advert
The message was 14 lines long, and archaeologists have tried to decipher the meaning for centuries, and finally have started to make improvements.
Talking to Live Science, Ludum Director Daniele Abate said: “When working on historical decryption, you cannot ignore the psychological profile of the writer.
“We needed to know as much as possible about this nun.”
Historians have said that Sister Maria was just 15 when she decided to devote her life to God, and moved into the Benedictine convent.
Abate continued: “The letter appeared as if it was written in shorthand.
“We speculated that Sister Maria created a new vocabulary using ancient alphabets that she may have known.”
To be sure about what exactly this letter was written in, researchers used software which scanned shorthand symbols from different languages.
They found that the nun’s letter contained words from ancient alphabets such as Greek, Latin, Runic and Arabic.
Abate said: “We analyzed how the syllables and graphisms [or thoughts depicted as symbols] repeated in the letter in order to locate vowels, and we ended up with a refined decryption algorithm.
“We thought we could just come out with a few words making sense. But the nun had a good command of languages. The message was more complete than expected."
In addition to calling the Holy Trinity ‘dead weights’, the letter also said: “God thinks he can free mortals. The system works for no one. Perhaps now, Styx is certain."
In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Styx is the river separating the netherworld from the world of the living.
Abate says the letter shows strong indications that Sister Maria was suffering from mental health conditions.
He said: “The image of the devil is often present in these disorders.
“We learned from historical records that every night she screamed and fought against the devil.”