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, a Sicilian nun named 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 scientists for centuries, until recently, when a team of researchers used software on the dark web to decipher the letter. What did they find? And what does it tell us about 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 scion of the aristocratic Tomasi family, which also included the famous writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
At the age of 15, she entered the Benedictine monastery of Palma di Montechiaro in Sicily, where she took the name Maria Crocifissa. She was known as a talented musician and painter, but also prone to visions and hysterical fits. She believed that she was often possessed by the Devil, who tried to lure her away 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 is 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 of her possessions, and that she had no idea what its meaning was. She and her fellow nuns believed that the letter was a trap set by Satan to make her deny God.
The letter was kept in the monastery’s archives for centuries, along with other writings and paintings by Maria Crocifissa. It was one of many coded letters she produced during her lifetime, but the only one that has survived. Many scientists and cryptographers tried to crack the code, but no one succeeded.
The code and the software
In 2017, a group of researchers at the Ludum Science Center in Sicily received a copy of the letter and decided to try a new approach.
They used software they found on the dark web that they believed was used by intelligence services for code-breaking. The software used artificial intelligence and deep learning to compare the symbols in the letter across different alphabets and languages.
The researchers prepared the software with ancient Greek, Arabic, Latin and Runic alphabets, as well as some made-up symbols. They then entered the text of the letter and waited for the results.
To their surprise, the software managed to decipher fifteen lines of the letter, revealing a mixture of languages and references.
The message and the meaning
The deciphered text of the letter revealed a bizarre and inconsistent message, full of blasphemy and insults against 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”
– “Maybe Styx knows for sure now”
– “The Holy Trinity are dead weights”
– “No one can pay us”
– “You are all flames”
– “You are all fire”
– “You’re all on fire”
The researchers concluded that the letter was not actually written by the Devil, but by Maria Crocifissa herself.
They suggested that she had a good command of the languages, which allowed her to invent the code, and that she may have suffered from a mental condition such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, which caused her to imagine dialogues with the devil.
They also noted that some phrases in the letter were similar to those in other historical texts, such as Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince or Saint Augustine’s The City of God. This indicated that Maria Crocifissa was well read and influenced by various sources.
The researchers published their findings in an article titled “The Devil’s Letter: A Cryptographic Mystery from 1676.” They also received many questions from curious people and satanic sects who wanted to know more about the letter.
The mystery and the history
Maria Crocifissa’s letter provides a glimpse into the history of religion, culture and psychology in 17th century Europe.
At that time, Europe was undergoing major social and political changes, such as the rise of absolutism, nationalism and colonialism, the decline of feudalism and the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. It was also a period of scientific and artistic innovation, as well as religious conflict and persecution.
The Catholic Church faced challenges from the Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment and the rise of secularism. It responded with the Counter-Reformation, which aimed to reform the Church from within and combat heresy and dissent. The Church also promoted the cult of saints and relics, as well as the practice of exorcism and witch hunting.
In this context, many people experienced religious visions, miracles and possessions, which were often interpreted as signs of divine or demonic intervention.
Some of these people were revered as saints or mystics, while others were condemned as heretics or witches. Some of them were also involved in cryptography, either to hide their messages from enemies or to communicate with supernatural beings.
Maria Crocifissa was one of these people. 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 contested. Her letter is a testament to her personal struggles, but also to the larger historical forces that have shaped her world.
