Tradition: Czech Mythology
Alternative Names: The Midnight Mass of the Dead
Category: Ghost
The Myth
Waberl was a devout old woman who lived in Bergreichenstein. One Advent night, moonlight woke her, and she saw that her kitchen was illuminated. Believing she had overslept and that it was already time for early Mass, she quickly put on her coat and hurried to St. Nicholas Church. The streets were completely deserted, but she assumed everyone had already gone to church.
Inside, the church was brightly lit, the organ played, and the congregation sang fervently. Waberl took her place in a pew, but soon noticed something strange. An unfamiliar priest stood at the altar, while the congregation consisted of people dressed in old-fashioned clothing. Some were strangers, while others were people she had known in life. Among them sat her own deceased parents, who paid no attention to her. Everyone stared at Waberl with sharp, hostile eyes.
Her dead godmother approached and whispered a warning. Waberl had to leave the church walking backwards and abandon her cloak at the gate. Terrified, she followed these instructions. As she reached the entrance, the wild dead rushed towards her. She threw off her cloak, leapt out of the church, and fled home as fast as she could.
At that very moment, the clock struck one. The following morning, a piece of Waberl’s cloak was found on every grave in the churchyard, as though the dead had torn it apart and distributed the fragments among themselves. The terror of that night proved too much for the old woman, and she did not live much longer. The Ghost Church remained a terrifying warning of what might happen to the living who accidentally entered a gathering of the dead.
Sources
. Watzlik, Hans. “Die Gespensterkirche.” In Böhmerwald-Sagen. Budweis: Böhmerwalder Dorfbücher, 1921, Heft 5. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/tschechien/watzlik/gespensterkirche.html