The Devil in the Confessional at Oschatz
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| Geographic Coordinates: 51° 17' 53.61" N, 13° 6' 18.86" E |
(After M. C. S. Hoffmann, Hist. Beschreibung d. Stadt Oschatz. Oschatz 1813. Bd 1. S. 105.)
One day, a monk took a seat in the confessional at the monastery church, which is located beyond the cloisters in a chamber where the people who wanted to confess gathered. Then the Devil appeared in the confessional and admitted to so many major sins which he had either committed or helped commit that the monk declared it to be impossible that one person could have done all this. Now the Devil revealed to the monk who he was. The monk questioned him why he was confessing at all, since he ought to know that he could find no grace with God? But Satan replied that all who had done the rite of confession before him had looked just as black and ugly as he did, and after they had received absolution they had become beautiful and white. For this reason he had come here as well so that he could become like them. But the monk refused absolution to him, whereupon the Devil rose up in the air and took the roof of the confessional with him.
In memory of this incident a placard portraying it was hung up at the site where it had allegedly occurred. On it, the following words were written: “1478 testibus historicis, renovirt the 22nd of February 1578. (*)
(*) A similar tale, which allegedly happened to a priest named Laurentius Doner during Christmas Eve of the year 1534 in a city in Saxony, is told by Hondorff, Promtuar. Ex. on p. 94.
Source: Grässe - Der Sagenschatz des Königreichs Sachsen Erster Band, p. 270