St. Joseph Catholic Church

St. Joseph Catholic Church was built in 1892, and still serves Earling, Iowa, as the religious center of the community. After the church was built in 1892, a new three story school house was built in addition to a convent for the Franciscan Sisters of the Parish. After the completion of those projects the church itself was expanded to its current configuration in 1918. Both the school and the convent were eventually demolished leaving only the church itself on the lot. The most well known event to occur in Earling's history took place in the since torn down Convent. The convent would serve as the site of the infamous 1928 exorcism of Anna Ecklund which would become a source of inspiration for William Peter Blatty's novel "The Exorcist."

the Church was built to serve the Earling parish in 1892, an initally small but growing German immigrant population. Throughout its first decades of service sermons were given in German as well as in English to accommodate the immigrant population. The church's lot would also eventually house both a Convent and a Catholic school that would both serve the parish for over a century. St. Joseph Catholic Church would prove to be a central part of life in Earling where residents would have been both taught in the school house and would routinely attend mass every Sunday.

The Parish was be first served by Reverend Joseph Hummert starting in 1887. The Parish being established only a few years before the town of Earling was officially founded and decades before the current church building was constructed. With a growing Parish, plans were drawn up based on a recently built church is Breda, Iowa, in September of 1981. The community collectively raised $14,750 to build the new church which was dedicated under the patronage of Saint Joseph December 13th, 1892. Before the church was built, the Catholic school was finished in September of 1886. The schools first class had fifteen students being taught by Katherine Golobit, this school would eventually be replaced in 1918 with a three story building that was used for well over half a century.

The most infamous event to occur to the small town of Earling was the 1928 exorcism of Anna Ecklund. At the time of this exorcism, the ritual had become less and less popular but would remain more common in the Catholic church than in other sects. This exorcism took place in the Franciscan Sisters convent which has now since been demolished. The woman who underwent the ritual would be referred to in separate documents by either her birth name Emma Schmidt, the pseudonym Anna Ecklund, or simply as "Mary" by the account of the German Capuchin Monk who conducted the exorcism, Father Theophilus Reisinger. throughout the ritual Levitations, howling, and "unnatural contortions of the body" were said to occur over the twenty-three days that the Father Reisinger would work to exorcise the demons that controlled Ecklund. On December 23, 1928 after a lengthy and exhausting ritual the exorcism was said to be completed and Anna would reportedly live a normal life now free from the torment of the demons that were said to possess her. While the exorcism was a success, the impact it had on the community was undeniable with several sisters requesting to transfer and residents of Earling deeply shaken by a possible demonic possession in their typically quiet hamlet. This story would be recounted in by Father Reisinger himself in German in 1928 and was translated into English by Reverend Celestine Kapsner in 1935. This English translation would then be published to wide distribution as the pamphlet titled " Begone Satan: A Soul Stirring Account of Diabolical Possession in Iowa" this work being a key piece of research and inspiration for William Peter Blatty's novel "The Exorcist" which rose to prominence following the release of a film adaptation carrying the same title in 1973.

“History Of St. Joseph Parish". In 1881-1981 Progress Is Our Future Earling, Iowa, (1981), 4–7.

Laycock, Joseph. “The Secret History of the ‘Earling Exorcism.’” Popular Culture, Religion and Society. A Social-Scientific Approach, (2020): 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43173-0_2.

Riesinger, Father Theophilus. Begone Satan!: A Soul-Stirring Account of Diabolical Possession. Translated by Rev. Celestine Kapsner. Collegeville, Minn: 1935.