Maria Renata Saenger von Mossau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maria Renata Saenger von Mossau, (b.1680-d.June 1749), was a Bavarian nun executed for heresy, witch craft, apostasy and satanism, one of the last people executed for these charges in Germany and Europe.

Renata was inducted in the convent of Unter-Zell in Bavaria in 1699, were she made herself known for her great piety and was appointed Sub Prioress in 1740. In 1746, one of the nuns, Cecilia, became inflicted by convulsions and claimed to be obsessed by demons and poltergeists. The attacks spread through the convent and soon severla nuns suffered from hysteric attacks. One of them died and pointed out Renata as a satanist and a magician. The church then conducted exorcism at the convent, during which the nuns rolled on the ground and "howled and snapped like mad cats". During a search in Renata's room, poisons, ointments and strange robes were found. Renata confessed for a benedictine confessor that she was a satanis and a witch. In 1687, at the age of seven, she had sworn herself to Satan; at twelve, she had became a prostitue and learned magic and to mix poisons; in 1694, she was baptized Maria at a black mass, and in 1699, she had entered the nunnery entirely to make strife amongst the "brides of Christ". She claimed to be a skilled chemist and preferred the poison developed by Aqua Tofana in Naples. She said she was remoursfull, but the church still judged her guilty of sorcery, heresy, witch craft, apostasy and satanism and then turned her over to the secular authorities to be executed. She was beheaded and then burned in June 1749.