She died weighing 68 pounds, her knees broken from months of forced kneeling. Her family believed she was possessed. Doctors said she was gravely ill. The court that later tried the case agreed with the doctors — but by then, Anneliese Michel was already dead.
A Devout Upbringing
Anneliese Michel was born September 21, 1952, in Leiblfing, Bavaria, West Germany, the second of four daughters in a strictly devout Catholic family. Her parents rejected the reforms of Vatican II, believing in a stricter, older form of Catholic practice built around penance and atonement. As a child, Anneliese sometimes slept on hard floors in winter as a form of sacrifice, offered up, she was taught, on behalf of struggling drug addicts elsewhere in the world.
The First Seizure
In 1968, at age 16, Anneliese suffered a severe convulsion and blacked out. She was later diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy — a neurological condition that can cause hallucinations, mood changes, and altered states of consciousness. Medication had little effect on her seizures. Over the following years, her condition worsened: she began hearing voices, seeing disturbing visions during prayer, and reported feeling an oppressive presence at night. By the early 1970s, doctors had also diagnosed her with depression, and later, symptoms consistent with psychosis.
From Medicine to Exorcism
An older woman who accompanied Anneliese on a religious pilgrimage was the first to suggest possession, after noticing Anneliese avoided a particular image of Jesus and refused water from a holy spring. As her condition deteriorated further — self-harm, refusal to eat, violent outbursts, and increasingly severe physical symptoms — her parents grew convinced medicine couldn't help her, and turned instead to the Church.
Father Ernst Alt and Father Arnold Renz, with authorization from Bishop Josef Stangl, began performing the Catholic rite of exorcism on Anneliese in September 1975. Over the next ten months, she underwent 67 separate exorcism sessions, each lasting several hours, while her family stopped pursuing further medical treatment.
Her Final Months
Anneliese's physical condition collapsed under the weight of the ritual and her refusal to eat, which she said the “demons” prevented. She repeatedly dropped to her knees during prayer, hundreds of times a day, eventually breaking her kneecaps. She developed pneumonia and dropped below 70 pounds. In her final recorded session, on June 30, 1976, she can be heard telling her mother, “Mother, I'm afraid.”
On the morning of July 1, 1976, Anneliese Michel died of malnutrition and dehydration. She weighed 68 pounds.
The Trial
In 1978, Anneliese's parents and both priests were charged with negligent homicide. Prosecutors argued her death could have been prevented even a week before it happened, and that continued exorcism sessions likely reinforced her psychological delusions rather than treating them. The defense played recordings of the exorcisms in court, arguing the family and priests had acted out of sincere religious conviction.
The court sided with the medical evidence. All four defendants — Anneliese's parents and both priests — were found guilty of negligent homicide. All received suspended prison sentences and probation; none served active jail time. The court's official finding was that Anneliese had not been possessed, but had suffered from a serious, misdiagnosed psychiatric and neurological illness.
The Church's Response
In the years that followed, the Catholic Church distanced itself from the case. In 1984, the Vatican revised its official exorcism guidelines, explicitly instructing clergy to rule out psychiatric and medical causes before considering possession — a direct response to what happened to Anneliese.
Her mother, Anna, never accepted the court's conclusion. In interviews decades later, she maintained the family had done the right thing, saying she believed she'd seen signs of stigmata on her daughter's body.
A Story That Became a Film
Anneliese's case became internationally known through Hollywood: the 2005 film “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” along with the 2006 German film “Requiem” and the 2011 film “Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes,” were all based on her story. Her grave in Klingenberg remains a pilgrimage site, visited by people who believe she died a martyr rather than a victim of misdiagnosed illness.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Anneliese Michel really possessed?
The court that tried her case explicitly ruled she was not possessed, but suffering from a combination of temporal lobe epilepsy and psychiatric illness that went untreated once her family turned to exorcism instead of continued medical care.
Did anyone go to prison for her death?
No. All four defendants — her parents and the two priests — were convicted of negligent homicide but received suspended sentences and probation rather than active prison time.
How many exorcism sessions did she undergo?
67, conducted over roughly ten months between September 1975 and June 1976.
Is “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” a true story?
It's loosely based on Anneliese Michel's case, with the setting Americanized and some details changed, but the core structure — a young woman's death following exorcism, and the resulting negligent homicide trial — is drawn directly from her real story.