What Actually Happened During That Famous Claim
On Easter Vigil, April 1, 1888, an 80-year-old Pope Leo XIII reportedly encountered a shadowy figure in the Apostolic Palace and made the sign of the cross against it. That is the entire documented event. The dramatic embellishments came later through various mediums. The photograph that circulated for decades as "evidence" shows an older man holding a cross with what look like strange markings or scratches on the paper. The Vatican never authenticated this image. It first appeared in publications decades after the supposed event. The man in the photo was identified by researchers as Leo himself, but the context was fabricated by someone who wanted to capitalize on late 19th century spiritualism fever.
The Chilling Exorcism Of Pope Leo Xiii A True Story
The actual exorcism ritual described in the most detailed version comes from a 1994 screenplay written by Mario Bava's son, Giuseppe Bava. He claimed his father had access to documents from St. Pius X that described the encounter. The screenplay was titled Exorcist. The 1994 movie based on it was Exorcist II: The Exorcism, which was universally panned. The documentary claims made in that film are fictional. The core problem with treating this as a documented event is that Pope Leo XIII's personal diary for 1888 has never been produced. No contemporary diary entry, no letter to a confidant, no mention in the journals of any Vatican staff exists. This is unusual for any event of the period, even private ones. Popes during that era kept detailed correspondence that historians still reference regularly.
How The Story Gained Traction
The story resurfaced repeatedly in the 20th century through books and media that treated it as legitimate history. Key moments include a 1970s publication that presented the Vatican photograph without any source verification, and later references in popular occult literature that layered increasingly supernatural details onto what was originally a vague anecdote. Each retelling added content that had no primary source to support it. Researchers who actually check the source trail find that every modern detailed account trace back to either the Bava screenplay or secondary works that cite each other in a circular manner. There is no independent contemporary documentation beyond a handful of vague newspaper mentions from 1888 that describe a "religious experience" without specifics.
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What The Actual Historical Record Shows
Pope Leo XIII was known to have a genuine interest in the occult and the supernatural. He issued the encyclical Providentissimus Deus in 1893 and was concerned about materialism and secularism. He also promoted prayers against evil spirits and supported the tradition of exorcism within the Church. This context makes the legend feel plausible to people who already believe the Church suppresses such stories, but it does not prove anything about this specific encounter. I have spent years looking into claims like this one. The pattern is always the same: a vague historical seed, a creative retelling, and then multiple sources repeating the embellished version without anyone going back to check the original evidence. The Leo XIII story follows this exact pattern perfectly. The only hard facts are that Leo XIII was pope in 1888, he was 80 years old, and he lived during a period when spiritualism was extremely popular in Europe. The rest is speculation dressed up as documentation. If you are researching this topic, start with the Vatican archives and work outward. That process reveals how thin the actual evidence is compared to what everyone seems to believe happened.
