Have you ever wondered what the Devil would say if he could write a letter to a human? Well, you're not alone. In 1676, the Sicilian nun Maria Crocifissa della Concezione claimed to have received such a letter from the Prince of Darkness himself.
The letter was written in a mysterious code that baffled scholars for hundreds of years until recently, when a team of researchers used software found on the dark web to decipher it. What did they find? What does this tell us concerning the nun, the devil and the history of cryptography?
The nun and the letter
Maria Crocifissa della Concezione was born Isabella Tomasi in 1645. She was a descendant of the aristocratic Tomasi family, which included the famous author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
At the age of 15, she entered the Benedictine monastery in Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily, where she took the name Maria Crocifissa. She became often known as a talented musician and painter, but in addition liable to visions and hysterical attacks. She believed that she was often possessed by the devil who tried to dissuade her from her faith.
On August 11, 1676, she was found unconscious in her cell, with ink stains on her hands and face and a letter on her desk. The letter was written in an unknown alphabet consisting of 14 symbols and 500 letters.
She claimed that the letter was dictated to her by the Devil during one among her estates and that she had no idea what it meant. She and her nuns believed that the letter was a trap set by Satan to force her to surrender God.
The letter was kept for hundreds of years within the monastery's archives, together with other writings and paintings by Maria Crocifissa. It was one among several coded letters she wrote during her life, however the just one to survive. Many scientists and cryptologists have tried to interrupt the code, but nobody has succeeded.
Code and software
In 2017, a gaggle of researchers on the Ludum Science Center in Sicily received a replica of the letter and decided to try a brand new approach.
They used software found on the dark web that they believed was utilized by intelligence services to interrupt codes. The software used artificial intelligence and deep learning to check the letter's symbols with different alphabets and languages.
The researchers introduced ancient Greek, Arabic, Latin and runic alphabets, in addition to some invented symbols, into the software. They then gave him the contents of the letter and waited for the outcomes.
To their surprise, the software managed to decode 15 lines of the letter, revealing a mix of languages and references.
Message and meaning
The decrypted text of the letter revealed a bizarre and incoherent message, filled with blasphemies and insults to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
The letter also expressed some philosophical thoughts about human nature, free will and evil. Here are some excerpts from the letter:
– “God thinks he can free mortals.”
– “This system doesn't work for anyone”
– “Perhaps now the Styx is certain”
– “The Holy Trinity is a dead weight”
– “Nobody can pay us”
– “You are all flames”
– “You are all fire”
– “You're all on fire”
Researchers concluded that the letter was not actually written by the Devil, but by Maria Crocifissa herself.
They suggested that she had a great command of languages, which allowed her to give you the code, and that she can have suffered from a mental condition akin to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, which made her imagine dialogues with the devil.
They also noted that a few of the phrases within the letter were just like those present in other historical texts, akin to Machiavelli's The Prince by Niccolò and St. George's City of God. Augustine. This indicated that Maria Crocifissa was well read and was influenced by various sources.
The researchers published their findings in a paper titled “The Devil's Letter: A Cryptographic Mystery from 1676.” They also received many inquiries from curious people and Satanic sects who desired to know more concerning the letter.
Mystery and history
The Letter of Maria Crocifissa provides insight into the history of faith, culture, and psychology in Seventeenth-century Europe.
At this time, Europe was undergoing major social and political changes, akin to the rise of absolutism, nationalism and colonialism, the autumn of feudalism, and the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War. It was also a period of scientific and artistic innovation, in addition to religious conflict and persecution.
The Catholic Church faced challenges from the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the rise of secularism. She responded with the Counter-Reformation, which aimed to reform the Church from inside and combat heresy and dissent. The church also spread the cult of saints and relics, in addition to the practice of exorcism and witch hunting.
In this context, many individuals experienced religious visions, miracles and possessions, which were often interpreted as signs of divine or demonic intervention.
Some of those people were revered as saints or mystics, while others were condemned as heretics or witches. Some of them also engaged in cryptography to cover their messages from enemies or communicate with supernatural beings.
One such person was Maria Crocifissa. She lived in a time and place where the boundaries between reality and fantasy, between faith and reason, between God and the Devil were blurred and questioned. Her letter is a testament to her personal struggle in addition to to the larger historical forces that shaped her world.
Image Source: Pixabay.com
