Tradition: Czech Mythology
Alternative Names: The Ghost of the Princely Room
Category: Ghost
The Myth
In Andreasberg, the ghost of a deceased priest haunted the princely room of the local parsonage. He was believed to have died in a grave sin, for even after death he could find no peace. At night, his spirit paced back and forth across the room, his shoes creaking against the floor as though he were endlessly rehearsing a sermon from memory.
Father Michael, who had known the dead priest well, decided to discover what troubled the restless spirit. He wrote two letters and placed them in the haunted room. In the first, he asked the ghost to reveal its desires and explain how its soul might be redeemed. In the second, he declared that if the priest’s soul could not be saved, he would have the apparition removed from the world. That evening, Father Michael locked the room and kept the key himself.
When he returned the following morning, the second letter had mysteriously disappeared. From that day onward, the ghost was never heard or seen in the princely room again. The silence deeply affected Father Michael, who became withdrawn and renounced the pleasures of worldly life. He devoted himself to a more austere existence, and when he eventually died, people regarded him as a saint. Even a hundred years after his burial, his body was said to remain undecayed, a sign of his exceptional holiness.
Sources
Watzlik, Hans. “Pater Michael.” In Böhmerwald-Sagen. Budweis: Böhmerwalder Dorfbücher, 1921, Heft 5. Reproduced by SAGEN.at. https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/tschechien/watzlik/patermichael.html