Scientists decipher letter 'written by the devil' in the seventeenth century

Italian researchers at the Ludum Museum in Sicily were able to decipher the letter written by a seventeenth-century Italian nun at a time when she was possessed by the devil. They deciphered the letter with the aid of an algorithm found in the hidden Web (Internet zone that is not indexed by standard search engines).

What does the letter say?

The message was a mystery to scientists for many centuries. The letter was written in a mixture of alphabets and the researchers introduced in the software "Ancient Greek, Arabic, Runic alphabet and Latin to decipher it," reads La Stampa newspaper.

"We have heard of 'software' that should be used by intelligence services to decipher codes," says Daniele Abate, leader of Ludum's research team. The content of the letter was introduced in the software, explained the scientists.

The letter describes God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as "dead weights." "God thinks he can free mortals," says the letter written by the "devil," which ends with "God was invented by man" and that "this system works for no one."

"Perhaps now the River Styx exists," wrote the devil's nun, referring to the River Styx which, according to Greek mythology, separates the earth from the dead world, Hades.

But who wrote the letter?

The letter was written by Isabella Tomasi, born in 1645 and renamed as sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione after her entry into the Sicilian convent of Palma di Montechiaro.

According to the story, one morning in 1676, the nun awoke with her face full of ink and the letter written in front of her. She told her sisters that it was the devil who told her to write the letter.

Scientists have warned that the incongruent message is not complete, reinforcing the theory that the nun "suffered from schizophrenia," and it may have been she who wrote the letter without the "help" of the devil.