The transition from Catholicism to Protestantism generally obtained bloody. This was additionally the case in Bern the place the Antonite monks of Antoniterkirche had been residing for hundreds of years. Forged out, their former church buildings and chapels have been left desecrated, however did they honestly go away the town?
Within the twisted veins of Bern’s Previous City, the place cobblestones whisper and centuries sleep behind shuttered home windows, stands a constructing most passersby ignore. They shouldn’t. Tucked behind Postgasse 62 is the Antoniterkirche, now a shell of holy floor that when echoed with prayers and plague, now simply as more likely to echo with ghostly footsteps and the whispers of lifeless monks.
Learn Extra: Try all ghost tales from Switzerland
The Bern Disputation was a debate over the theology of the Swiss Reformation that occurred in Bern from 6 to 26 January 1528 that resulted in Bern changing into the second Swiss canton to formally turn out to be Protestant. After this, the monks have been expelled from the town, however in response to some ghost tales, some by no means left.
The Antonites and their Historical past in Bern
The Antonites, a medieval order of monks recognized for his or her care of the sick and their notorious image of the Tau cross, settled right here in Bern earlier than 1283 as servants of St. Anthony the Nice. They have been healers, sure—but in addition collectors of bone relics and donations, stated to are inclined to the unwell with each herbs and darkish rituals. As their presence grew, so did the unease round them. One thing about the best way they checked out you, it was stated. One thing concerning the scent that clung to their robes.
Their grand church, rebuilt in 1444 and once more within the 1490s, stood proud for just some quick many years. By the fifteenth century, they’d rebuilt their chapel right into a grand Gothic church, welcomed the Shoemakers’ Guild and the Society of Rebleuten to worship at its altars, and staffed their hospital with six brothers and a number of other lay nurses.
Then got here the Reformation—a righteous blaze that burned by way of Bern and solid the Antonites into shadow. In 1528, the final friar was expelled. Mobs ransacked the sanctuary. Altars have been shattered. Candles snuffed. Statues dragged and burned within the streets.
Hatred had additionally gathered in opposition to the Antonite brothers, as in opposition to all monks, within the years earlier than the Reformation. Folks complained about their shameless begging, the decline in morals, and their unexemplary life-style. This hatred now erupted. Lynchings of monks weren’t unusual. However did the monks ever actually go away?
The Haunting of The Antoniterkirche
After its secularization, the church served many functions: a granary, a saddlery, a hearth station. The pews have been torn out, the partitions fell, and the prayers ceased. However not the presence. In each incarnation, staff reported unusual noises. Moaning. Shuffling. Chilly fingers the place there must be none. Rats, individuals claimed. However rats don’t whisper in Latin. Rats don’t sigh from behind the partitions.
After which there’s the woodcutter’s story that was written down in a set of ghost tales from Bern. He was working alone in a partitioned room when a chilly wind handed by way of the boarded partitions. One thing moved behind him. He turned, anticipating vermin. As a substitute, there stood a tall determine within the black robes of a monk, cowl drawn, eyes giant and sorrowful. The monk raised his fingers slowly. No sound, no breath, simply that chilling gaze. The woodcutter dropped his noticed. “It was the prior,” he stated later, trembling. “The final one. The one who by no means left.”
The Haunted Former Church
The constructing as we speak is shared by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bern, and the Russian Orthodox chapel hides quietly within the basement. The altar is lengthy gone, the pews eliminated, however those that enter the chapel nonetheless converse of feeling watched. Of chilly drafts that transfer in opposition to the grain of the wind. Of whispered invocations they didn’t converse.
The trustworthy come and go. However beneath the floorboards, one thing nonetheless lingers. Within the coldest months, neighbors converse of low chanting beneath the stone. Of muffled crying. Of ghostly figures transferring alongside the previous monastic paths.
The Antoniterkirche was meant to be a spot of therapeutic. However after centuries of misuse, desecration, and silence—it appears the injuries right here go too deep. And in Bern’s darkish coronary heart, the lifeless don’t all the time relaxation straightforward.
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References:
Die Geschichte der Antonierkirche | Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Bern
https://www.maerchenstiftung.ch/maerchendatenbank/11839/im-antonierkloster
Antoniterkirche (Bern) – Wikipedia
