17th Century Jesuit Exorcist And Possesed

This excerpt from a letter by Père Jacques Nau, S.J. shows:

Père Jean-Joseph Surin S.J., [ and (here) ]whom I myself knew for twenty years or more, led so deranged and shameful a life that one hardly dares speak of it. In the end it reached the point where the most wise attributed it all, quite correctly I believe, to madness … I have often seen [him] blaspheme the name of God and walk about naked in the College, soiled with excrement - I would then take him by the hand into the infirmary.

I have seen him lashing out with his fists and for years perform a hundred other insanities

, even to the point of trying to trample on the Sacrament of the Eucharist - I did not see this myself but learnt it the next day from witnesses. He lived like this for several years. For the rest of his life, he never fulfilled any function within the Society.

When he recovered self-control, he wrote books and letters, visited his neighbor and spoke very well about God, but he never said his prayers, or read his Breviary,

said Mass rarely and to his dying day mumped about and gesticulated in a ridiculous and absurd fashion. Link (here) More on exorcism (here)