The Case of Gottliebin Dittus & the demon Isacaron

Part VIII of the Possession Diaries

In 1842, a girl in Mottlingen, Gottliebin Dittus, was possessed by a few different demons along with the ghost of a widow who had murdered two children and buried them in a field.

Johann Christoph Blumhardt, a German theologian, penned a book concerning her two-years-long possession, in which he only referred to her as “G.”

The tome was released in 1850, entitled Blumhardt’s Battle.

“G.” was allegedly liberated one night from her demonic tormentors when the last demon to leave her shouted, “Jesus is the victor!”

This event led to a revival in Blumhardt’s parish. Apparently, there were many healings, new converts to the church, and unusual transformations of life and character.

Blumhardt took revivals on the road after that and began carrying out faith healings.

In 1853, he bought a thermal spa in Bad Boll and turned it into a retreat, mostly for people looking for his renowned “healing abilities.” He lived and worked there until he died in 1880.

The Case of Isacaron and Antoine Gay

Antoine Gay, born on May the 31st, 1790, was a Frenchman who some people believed was possessed by a demon named Isacaron.

Antoine was born in Lantenay, Ain and was the child of a public notary. He served in the First Empire’s military and settled in Lyon working as a carpenter.

Antoine yearned to be a monk, even during his young days. Aged 46, he applied to enter the Abbey of La Trappe d’Aiguebelle, and they accepted him as a lay brother.

He then left the monastery due to a nervous illness which some said was demonic possession.

According to a letter that Friar Burnoud (a former superior to the Missionaries of La Salette) sent to the Bishop of Grenoble:

“We have examined Master Gay of Lyons three times, each session lasting from one to two hours. We consider it very probable that this man is possessed by a devil.”

He talked about various bits of evidence, including Gay revealing “several secret things about which he had no means of knowing” and a sudden ability to understand Latin, though he’d never studied the language.

Dr. Pictet, a physician, said that Antoine had “perfect health of body and mind” but was “under the influence of some occult power, which we are naturally unable to detect by medical means” and “we remain convinced that his extraordinary state can only be attributed to possession.”

As evidence of this, he said there was “the fact that during our first interview with M. Gay, that extraordinary thing which speaks through his mouth revealed the inmost secrets of our heart, told us the story of our life from the age of twelve onwards, giving details that are known only to God, our confessor, and ourselves.”

After Pictet said this, Antoine’s friends tried to get him readmitted to the Abbey, asking the abbot to carry out an exorcism.

The abbot refused because he was in the diocese of Valence, and Antoine was in a different diocese (Lyons).

Antoine stayed in Lyons for a few more years, where at one point he was arrested as a lunatic and imprisoned for three months!

A friar who started a community that cared for those of unsound mind — Marie-Joseph Chiron — took Antoine Gay under his wing, believing him to be possessed.

One day, Friar Chiron brought Antoine to the home of a woman nicknamed “Chiquette,” who was allegedly possessed by a demon Chiron called “Madeste”.

Friar Chiron said that when Antoine met “Chiquette,” their demons started to argue with each other:

“A remarkably violent dialogue arose between the two fallen angels. The two devils sounded like mad dogs. They spoke a totally unknown language, very softly and we understood nothing. I was later informed by Isacaron, who translated the dispute for me, that it was on a question of precedence, as to which was the greater of the two….the two possessed, it is needless to say, had never met each other, but the devils in possession knew each other well. Six times during the following days there occurred the same violent disputes, in the same unknown language, and in the presence of several witnesses.”

Friar Chiron said afterward that “Such facts are inexplicable except as cases of possession.”

No exorcism was ever done for Antoine Gay. He died in June 1871, in Lyons.

In the second book of the Nighthunter series (currently in progress) a similar phenomenon to possession takes place where the children of Dal-Riatah (one of the northernmost continents in the Nighthunter’s world) are born with either the ability to summon Ghosts in response to stress, or to repel them.

You can find the first book, A Dark Heritage, here:

Other parts of the Possession Diaries can be found here: