Mass for the Ghosts

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1. A devout woman, who lived next to the church, was once woken up during the night by singing emanating from there. Believing that it was morning mass, she hurriedly rose up, got dressed, put on her mantle, and went into the church, whose windows were lit. She sat down on her usual place, opened up her hymnbook and joined in the singing. Then, someone touched her shoulder and whispered to her: “Neighbor, it is late now and you should go home.” She turned around and saw a neighbor next to her who had died years ago. Then she surveyed the room and spotted many faces of people who had died. Thus, she hurried out of the church, and, as she closed the door behind her, the last verse of the song ended, and the door snapped shut with a bang so that the tip of her mantle was caught in it. She broke free, and, at this moment, the bells on the church tower rang one o’clock and all illumination within the church ceased.

(Told by Sacristan Hadbusch in Röbel; conveyed by upper class student Pechel from Röbel. The St. Nikolai Church in Röbel is mentioned in Rieberb. 3, 137 ff.)

2. In Hagenow, the ghosts hold mass during the midnight hour before the first day of Christmas. It is custom in Hagenow that a mass is held at 5 o’clock in the morning on that day. Once, a woman went to the church (whose windows were lit) at midnight, erroneously believing that it was 5 o’clock in the morning already. She saw both strange figures dressed in clothes of long-ago times and familiar faces of dead acquaintances. One of them told her to whisper the Lord’s Prayer and to hurry out of the church without looking back. She did so, but, when she was already out of the door, she still tried to catch a glimpse. At this moment, the door slammed shut and the tip of her dress got stuck. The woman died three days later.

(Told by Ms. M. Krüger. The same story is told about the church in Dänschenburg near Ribnitz by a seminarian in Neukloster.)

3. There are also reports of a night-time mass in the church of Wustrow near Wesenberg, and a farmer’s wife who was woken up by the associated ringing of bells. But, it is not clear whether the congregation consisted of dead people.

Source: Bartsch - Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, p. 363f

caption Note: This story was published in the book Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German folklore. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary!

caption Note: This story was published in the book Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles Volume 01: Lurkers at the Threshold. Get the book for further context and explanatory commentary!