Paranormal record / 1865
Illfurth, Alsace. September 25, 1865. Two brothers, Theobald and Joseph Burner, began to change. Lying on their backs, they spun like tops. Their bellies swelled. A rough, hoarse man's voice came from a child's closed mouth. Stinking feathers poured from their clothes and left no ash when burned. For four years neighbours, doctors, priests and a gendarmerie brigadier watched. In February 1869 the brigadier recorded Theobald rising from his chair and hovering there for several minutes. That April the bishop of Strasbourg sent a commission. By the end of October both boys had been exorcised. Critics called it hysteria. One called it humbug. The Church called it supernatural.
Illfurth lies two hours' walk south of Mulhouse, in the Haut-Rhin. In the 1860s it held about 1,200 people. Their father, also named Joseph Burner, travelled selling matches and tinder. His wife was Marie Anna Foltzer. Among their five children were Theobald, born 21 August 1855, and Joseph, born 29 April 1857. Quiet boys. Somewhat frail. Late in 1864 both fell ill. Dr Lévy of Altkirch told the parish priest that medicine was powerless.