The Tanacu exorcism
In June 2005 a 23-year-old nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, died at the Tanacu convent in Romania after being chained to a cross, gagged and left without food for days during an 'exorcism' led by the priest Daniel Corogeanu.
2005 CE · 46.67, 27.82 · status: official
The account
The priest and four nuns were convicted; Corogeanu's 14-year sentence was reduced to 7 on appeal. The Romanian Orthodox Church defrocked him and condemned the act. The case inspired Cristian Mungiu's film 'Beyond the Hills' (2012).
The sceptical view
Doctors and the court treated the case as untreated mental illness and fatal abuse, not possession.
The researched reading
A young woman with a recent psychiatric history died of deprivation during an exorcism. Mental illness read through a possession belief is the clear explanation.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 40% | Maricica Cornici had been treated in a psychiatric hospital shortly before, reportedly for schizophrenia; her symptoms fit untreated mental illness, and the convent’s reading of them as demonic is the shared belief that killed her. |
| A cultural story | 28% | The isolated monastery’s rigid religious life supplied the possession frame, and the Romanian Orthodox Church itself condemned the rite as unauthorised. |
| Undetermined | 20% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 4% | Dehydration and starvation during the confinement would have worsened her agitation and caused her death. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 4% | The medical and court records contain nothing that resists ordinary explanation. |
| Something in the surroundings | 2% | No environmental factor is suggested by the evidence. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | No one faked the possession; the priest and nuns acted on sincere belief. |
Official position: A Romanian court convicted the priest and four nuns; doctors and the court treated it as untreated illness and fatal abuse.