Emma Schmidt was around 40 years old when she was taken to an isolated convent north of Earling, Iowa. It was 1928, and the events that reportedly unfolded there would later become part of the inspiration behind The Exorcist, William Friedkin’s famous 1973 film, according to TIME.
This was not the first time Schmidt had undergone an exorcism. The Capuchin friar Theophilus Riesinger, a Bavarian-born priest who was 60 at the time, had already performed the ritual on her in 1912.
Sixteen years later, Riesinger conducted the ceremony again, this time with the assistance of local parish priest Joseph Steiger, who also served as a stenographer.
According to secondary accounts, the 1928 exorcism continued for 23 days. Reports from that period described Schmidt reacting violently to sacred objects, shouting blasphemies, experiencing intense fits of rage, vomiting bile, and even climbing walls in what witnesses described as an unnatural manner.
Perhaps the most unsettling detail comes from the same historical accounts. Several doctors had reportedly examined Schmidt and concluded that she showed no physical or mental illness.
However, the belief that she was possessed remains a matter of religious interpretation. What can be historically documented is that the exorcism took place; supernatural explanations have never been scientifically established.
Now, Schmidt’s story is returning to public attention through the film The Ritual, featuring Al Pacino as Riesinger and 27-year-old Abigail Cowen as Schmidt.
Nearly a century later, the case continues to raise questions about the relationship between faith, psychology, and medical understanding. Was it a matter of religious belief, an unexplained psychological condition, or something people at the time struggled to understand?
