Malachi Martin (1921–1999)

I blame Martin for my personal obsession with the Vatican and Vatican politics -- an odd interest in someone who is not Roman Catholic. I also thank him for introducing me to this fascinating topic. Martin's deep passion for his faith, and his innate instinct for institutional machinations.

This is my favorite of his books.

And the story of the conclave that gave us John Paul 1 is an amazing one -- full of passions, daring, and secular as well as religious issues.

Whether or not you share my show more interest in this 2000 year old institution, Martin's retelling of this extraordinary conclave will leave you turning pages far after your bedtime. show less

To be fair, I had to stop about halfway through this book. I simply couldn't read it anymore. It had come highly recommended, and I understand why (the subject matter), but the author's hamfisted narrative style, along with the insanely judgemental attitude (unless you are straight, god-fearing, and do nothing but missionary sex, then praise Jesus afterward, you are a ripe candidate for possession by the devil), I couldn't hack the endless pages of history of how each person fell slowly show more under the spell of Satan and how the man that ultimately exorcised the possessed was a flawed but righteous man that overcame his past.

Nope. I tried. Simply couldn't.

You could say I didn't have enough faith.

You could say the debbil made me do it.

Or you could say it's just a crappily written book. show less

On the other side of the coin— Lucifer’s side— the belief that he does not exist at all is an enormous advantage that he has never enjoyed to such a great degree. It is the ultimate camouflage. Not to believe in evil is not to be armed against it. To disbelieve is to be disarmed. If your will does not accept the existence of evil, you are rendered incapable of resisting evil. Those with no capacity of resistance become prime targets for Possession.
- from Malachi Martin's "Hostage to show more the Devil"

I've had my eye on this little piece of non-fiction history/horror for a few years. But between us...I was too scared to read it. Religiously-based horror is the sub-genre that freaks me out the most (and when you throw children in the mix!? Forget about it). But for this Halloween season I took a deep breath and jumped in.

I'm not religious, and would consider myself a fairly skeptical individual. I do love fiction and I have a broad capacity to suspend my disbelief. Malachi Martin's novel is a piece of non-fiction - true stories of possession and exorcism.
Martin describes these exclusively contemporary accounts as "dramatic illustrations of the way in which personal and intelligent evil moves cunningly along the lines of contemporary fads and interests, and within the usual bounds of experience of ordinary men and women.” That’s cool. I’ll suspend my disbelief for that!

The five stories of possession (and a sixth smaller story) are bracketed by Martin's analyses of possession, exorcism and their place within contemporary popular history and church culture. His writing is clear and vocabulary large. His writing is infused with a palpable passion and erudite depth.

Malachi describes: "The stories that are told on these occasions are dramatic and painful: strange physical ailments in the possessed; marked mental derangement; obvious repugnance to all signs, symbols, mention, and sight of religious objects, places, people, ceremonies."

Each story runs about 80 pages, though a reader's expectations should be clear: the exorcism itself runs 10-20 pages at the most. The rest of the stories detail the backstory of each victim and each priest. The stories are not connected by character nor time.

I chose to read this book with an 'accepting' mindset. I'm the first to admit, while I'm an iPhone-totin' skeptic and rationalist, I passionately embrace the idea that something supernatural or alien can exist. Martin treats his subject very seriously and addresses the doubters: "Church authorities always insist on thorough examinations of the person brought to them for Exorcism, an examination conducted by qualified medical doctors and psychiatrists."

"Certainly, many who claim to be possessed or whom others so describe are merely the victims of some mental or physical disease. In reading records from times when medical and psychological science did not exist or were quite undeveloped, it is clear that grave mistakes were made. A victim of disseminated sclerosis, for example, was taken to be possessed because of his spastic jerkings and slidings and the shocking agony in spinal column and joints. Until quite recently, the victim of Tourette’s syndrome was the perfect target for the accusation of “Possessed!”: torrents of profanities and obscenities, grunts, barks, curses, yelps, snorts, sniffs, tics, foot stomping, facial contortions all appear suddenly and just as suddenly cease in the subject. Nowadays, Tourette’s syndrome responds to drug treatment, and it seems to be a neurological disease involving a chemical abnormality in the brain. Many people suffering from illnesses and diseases well known to us today such as paranoia, Huntington’s chorea, dyslexia, Parkinson’s disease, or even mere skin diseases (psoriasis, herpes I, for instance), were treated as people “possessed” or at least as “touched” by the Devil."

The book is vivid, without being lewd nor lurid. Martin is graphic, and while the book isn’t dramatically frightening, it’s inherent topic is downright scary. "Violent physical transformations seem sometimes to make the lives of the possessed a kind of hell on earth. Their normal processes of secretion and elimination are saturated with inexplicable wrackings and exaggeration...Reflexes sometimes become sporadic or abnormal, sometimes disappear for a time. Breathing can cease for extended periods. Heartbeats are hard to detect. The face is strangely distorted, sometimes also abnormally tight and smooth without the slightest line or furrow."

“Hostage to the Devil” is extremely well written, thought out and considered, and freely dips into theological considerations across a range of secular and non secular ideas. This book is quite heavy, with numerous pages covering the psychophysical characteristics of each characters relation to the specific event. It's an enjoyable, but not easy, read.

Highly recommended. show less

You know, had this book been written by anyone but the late Malachi Martin, I would think it just a cheesy look at bizarre belief. But for some reasons, I like Martin and considered him a sincere believer who may have been a good showman but at least backed his show with some actual insider information and genuine belief. He was also a pretty good writer. I am not a believer in demonic possession but Martin was able to write in such a gripping manner that I was able to suspend disbelief and show more just enjoy the book. Atheists who don't like to wallow in the odd may want to give this a miss but for the rest of us, this book is at the very least a very entertaining read. show less