The movie "The Pope's Exorcist", which was released worldwide in April 2023 and stars Russell Crowe, was adapted from two books by Father Amorth.
As a child, Gabriele Amorth was taken to Catholic mass every Sunday in Modena, an Italian city about 400 kilometers north of Rome.
However, his attention was focused on the hide and seek game he was playing around the church rather than the religious rituals.
At that time, no one could have predicted that this bad boy would become one of the most famous exorcists in the world.
The Italian cleric, who died of a lung disease at the age of 91 in 2016, collected his experiences in his books "The Story of an Exorcist" and "New Stories of an Exorcist".
Who is Gabriele Amorth?
Gabriele Amorth was born on May 1, 1925. He fought against the Nazis in World War II. He was even awarded the medal for military valor decades after the end of the war.
He received degrees in law and journalism and for a while worked in politics in the ranks of the Christian Democratic Party. In the same years, he also discovered that he had a talent for religious narrative.
Gabriele Amorth (1 May 1925 – 16 September 2016) was an Italian Catholic priest of the Paulines and an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. Amorth, along with five other priests, founded the International Association of Exorcists. His work in demonology and exorcism gained him international recognition. Over the course of his career, Father Amorth claimed to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms, at least 60,000, and became one of the most prominent and controversial figures in the Catholic Church in the modern era.
Although Father Amorth was ordained a priest in 1954, he received the title of "exorcist" only 32 years later. He was also recorded as saying that this decision was not up to him.
His appointment was made by Cardinal Ugo Poletti (1914-1997), who served as the highest administrative official of the Catholic Church at the time and had the authority to delegate the privilege of exorcism to certain priests.
Father Amorth stopped by Cardinal Polleti's office one morning in 1986.
During the conversation, he talked about his admiration for Father Candido Amantini (1914-1992), who served as exorcist of the Diocese of Rome for 36 years.
According to Father Amorth, Cardinal Poletti instantly declared him an "exorcist" to work as Father Amantini's assistant.
Father Amorth took office a few days later. First of all, he memorized the 21 rules that are essential for an exorcism session in Catholicism.
Exorcisms are mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments. The Vatican last updated its liturgical guidelines in 1999.
Father Amorth performed the first of his exorcisms on February 21, 1987.
A 25-year-old farmer was believed to have been captured, and Father Amantini decided to send his new assistant to the case.
The exorcism took place at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. There was a surprise before the session even started.
Besides the priest and the allegedly captured farmer, there was also a translator.
Father Amorth was told that the possessed person spoke only English while in a trance.
And the farmer began to shout blasphemous expressions in Shakespeare's language.
On another occasion, Amorth encountered an illiterate woman swearing in a language she did not recognize.
His first case was concluded quickly, considering that the longest exorcism case took 30 years to reach its conclusion.
Father Amorth also received what he called “little gifts” during the sessions. Like bite, punch, kick…
He said he once had his leg in a cast for 40 days because of a kick that didn't seem very hard.
He said he lost count of how many times he was spat on.
"Amorth came out of some battles (sessions) purple all over her body," says Marco Tosatti, an Italian journalist who helped the priest write his books.
Tosatti criticizes one aspect of the character that Russell Crowe brought to the cinema and says, "Father Amorth was always clean shaven. But let's watch the movie before judging it."
It is also said that the priest had a humorous temperament.
Once, to a person who said that he "believes in God but does not fulfill the obligations of religion", he said, "Yes, the devil does the same" and reportedly continued as follows:
“They also believe in God, but they do not fulfill their obligations. Let me even say that I have not come across a devil who is an atheist.”
In the last years of his life, Gabriele Amorth performed an average of 5 exorcisms a day.
But at one point in his life, he had as many as 15 sessions a day.
Father Amorth said nine out of 10 exorcisms he performs involve women.
He suspected that the devil wanted to take revenge on the Virgin Mary, although he could never explain why.
Amorth claimed that during one session the following dialogue occurred, later described in his book:
-"Why are you more afraid when I call the name of the Virgin Mary than when I call Jesus?"
-"Because being defeated by a person humiliates me more than being defeated by Him."