Ghost Nuns Who Will Have You Praying

I recently finished The Monk by Matthew Lewis and was drawn to the Bleeding Nun character. This ghost of a sinful, murderous, and heartbroken nun walked the halls of a castle, wailing and praying. Her spirit was only put to rest when her bones were found and given a proper burial. “That’s it,” I thought, “I need more ghost nuns.”

I started scouring the internet and my books for ghosts nuns throughout history. I noticed I had covered this topic in an old commonplace book, which was hidden away in my closet. Obviously, this topic has always haunted me.

The following are ghosts of nuns (except one) that still walk the earth today, each with their own interesting backstory.  Grab your rosary and holy water. Let’s do this…

The Faceless Nun of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (Terre Haute, Indiana)

A faceless nun haunts the campus of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute, Indiana. According to legend, there was a nun who worked there with great skills in painting portraits. She believed the face was the most important part, so she always saved it for last. One day, she decided to start a self portrait. Before she could start the face, she died of an unknown sickness. Since then, a faceless nun has been seen walking around Foley Hall and its courtyard.

One day a Sister heard crying coming from the room that held the unfinished portrait. The Sister went inside the room and found a nun crying in front of the painting. She approached the nun so to comfort her. The crying nun turned around and instead of a face, there was only darkness. DARKNESS.

The Nun with Roses (Würzburg, Germany)

An abbey in Würzburg, Germany has a scandalous history (the best ones do). Maria Renata Von Mossau was a nun accused of mixing herbs into food so she could bewitch other nuns. After the nuns exhibited odd behavior, Maria was caught and sentenced in court. They decapitated her and burned her to ashes, which were then scattered. The ghost of a nun believed to be Maria has been seen walking down the halls. The ghost picks petals off a bouquet of roses, leaving a trail of petals behind her.

The Headless Nun of French Fort Cove (Miramichi, New Brunswick)

In the 18th century, a nun named Sister Marie Inconnue was beheaded (Inconnue is French for “unknown”). There are two legends behind this: (1) a “mad trapper” cut off her head and ran into the woods, or (2) two sailors decapitated her when she refused to give the location of buried treasure. Her head was never found and she now walks around looking for it. The ghost has even asked late night visitors for help finding her head. Other versions say she actually walks around holding her head.

The Famous Ghost Nun of Borley Rectory (Essex, England)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before (you probably have). The Borley Rectory is was the most haunted house in England (it was demolished in 1944). The house was the subject of a very famous Harry Price investigation.

The house was constructed in 1862 by Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull near the Borley Church. The location was the site of a previous rectory that burned down in 1841. The property already had a ghost nun, which locals saw walking the grounds. Legend says that a nun and monk fell in love and were planning to marry. They were caught and executed: the monk was beheaded and the nun was buried alive in the cellar walls.

The Bull family witnessed a phantom nun walking the grounds on several occasions. Henry even went to talk to the nun, but she disappeared. They also reported a phantom carriage driven by two headless horsemen.

The Bull family left and the rectory sat vacant until October 1928. Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved in and the paranormal activity started soon after. Smith’s wife reported finding a woman’s skull in a cupboard. They also reported bells ringing, phantom lights, phantom carriages, and unexplained footsteps. The Smiths got the Daily Mirror and Society for Psychical Research involved and this is where Harry Price came into this very spooky picture.

In 1929, the Smith family left and Reverend Lionel Algernon Foyster and his wife Marianne moved in, along with their daughter Adelaide. The Foyster family reported frightful activities just as the families before them: bells ringing, rocks thrown by disembodied hands, windows breaking, and vanishing household items. On one occasion, Adelaide was locked in a room. She was also attacked on another occasion. The wife reported being thrown from her bed, slapped, and almost suffocated by an unseen presence. Mysterious writing also appeared on the walls (see below).

Price believed the writing on the wall was written by a Catholic woman, most likely the nun of local legend. In 1935, the Foyster family moved out and Harry Price moved in. Time for some old fashioned ghost research!

Price recruited some students and observers to help with the research and they began to uncover the nun’s backstory (allegedly). The investigation involved some insightful spirit communication:

During a sitting with a planchette, an alleged spirit named Marie Lairre related that she had been a nun in France but had left her convent to marry Henry Waldegrave, a member of a wealthy family whose manor home once stood on the site of Borley Rectory. There, her husband had strangled her and had buried her remains in the cellar. (Prairie Ghosts)

Five months later, another spirit said the house would burn down that night, revealing proof that the nun was murdered. The house did not burn down that night, but rather 11 months later when an oil lamp was knocked over. Harry Price investigated the cellar and found bones that belonged to a woman: the nun he believed. She was given a proper burial in the small village of Liston a few miles away.

If you are not familiar with the history of the Borley Rectory: read this (I’ll wait). FYI: many people consider this a hoax, but have your fun.

The Nun of Saint Anne’s (aka Pine Glen Cove, Utah)

This property is located deep in the Cache National Forest and Logan Canyon. The site was a private retreat for rich businessmen (from 1910 to the 1950s), until it was donated to the Roman Catholic Diocese. It was used later as a summer camp for children and then eventually ended up in private ownership.

The property is dripping with folklore and is a popular destination for legend trippers. One legend tells of a pregnant nun secretly giving birth on the property and then drowning her newborn in the the property’s pool. Distraught with what she did, she ended her own life. Visitors say you can see the nun looking down into the pool. They even may have caught her image on an episode of Ghost Adventures.

Other paranormal activity on the property include hellhounds, along with rumors of satanic worship (of course).

I’m going to go off track a bit, because the property also has modern frights. In October of 1997, 38 teenagers visited the property around 4:30 AM. Three security guards were hired to watch the private property, which was a popular destination for those hoping to get a scare. The teenagers were confronted by the three security guards with loaded guns and knives. The guards tied up two groups of the teenagers, one in the empty pool and the other group in a cabin.  The teens were verbally harassed (threats of violence, racial slurs) and sexually harassed for three hours until cops arrived (which were called by the security guards). The group in the cabin was tied together by their necks and told that any sudden movement would set off explosives. The three security guards pleaded guilty and accepted a plea bargain.  Just a reminder that humans will always be scarier than ghosts. 

The Nuns of Black Mass (Montpelier Hill & Stewards House, Ireland)

Around 1725, William Conolly (famous Irish politician) built a hunting lodge on Montpelier Hill. Builders supposedly disrupted a cairn while building (maybe even using some of its stones to build the lodge). Shortly after construction, the roof blew off. Revengeful spirits, obviously.

In the 1730s, the Hell Fire Club used the lodge for their gatherings. What is the Hell Fire Club you ask?

The club was founded in 1735 by Richard Parsons, a known dabbler in black magic. The members met at locations across Dublin and were known for their amoral behaviour and debauchery involving alcohol and sex. The secrecy surrounding the club members led to speculation that they were Satanists and Devil-worshipers. The president of the club was named ‘The King of Hell’ and dressed like Satan, with horns, wings and hooves. The members were said to set a place at each meeting for the Devil, in the hope that he’d attend. They were also said to hold black masses in the lodge during which cats – and even servants – were sacrificed. Some say the building was deliberately set on fire in order to enhance its hellish atmosphere. (Source)

At some point the lodge was damaged in a fire and the Hell Fire Club moved to the nearby Stewards House, which seemed to absorb most of their occult energy. According to legend, a giant black cat haunts the area. Could it be a cat that had been sacrificed by the club?

Two nuns, Blessed Margaret and Holy Mary, also haunt the area. Well, they may be women dressed as nuns. Nevertheless, these two women are believed to have participated in the black masses at Montpelier Hill. They can be seen walking the grounds today.

The Bleeding Nun of Wymering Manor (Portsmouth, England)

The Wymering Manor dates back to 1042 with King Edward the Confessor as the first recorded owner (though the current structure dates back to the 16th century). It is no surprise that a house with so much history is filled with so many ghosts. There have been reports of a ghost nun on the top of the stairs near the attic bedroom. She stares down the staircase, hands dripping with blood. One occupant of the house, Mr. Leonard Metcalf, reported occasionally seeing a choir of nuns walking across the manor’s hall at midnight and chanting.

Bonus: Haunted Railroad Tracks (San Antonio, Texas)

OK. This is a bonus entry, because the ghost is not a nun. But, there’s a nun involved. Stick with me (it is a sweet ghost story).

There are haunted railroad tracks in San Antonio, Texas with various legends and versions of such legends. One story grabbed my attention. In the 1930s or 40s, a nun was driving a school bus of sleeping children after a school trip. The bus stalled in the railroad tracks. The nun saw a train coming down the tracks in the distance. She tried desperately to get the bus started again, doing so not to wake the children. The train hit the bus, killing all the children. The nun survived after having flown through the windshield.

The nun returned to the scene after the accident full of guilt and with thoughts of suicide. She parked her car on the tracks and waited for a moving train. Before a train could hit her car, she felt something pushing the back of her car. Eventually the invisible force moved the car completely off the tracks. Bewildered, the nun exited the car and checked the back of the car. She saw tiny hand prints on the trunk. Grateful that her schoolchildren had saved her, she devoted her life to helping other children. She chose to live and open a school for orphans.

If you visit the tracks today and park your car on the tracks, you will be pushed over by the caring ghost children. Some people even put baby powder on the trunk to capture the hand prints.

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Like what you read? I got more:

The Jesuit and the Poltergeist 

10 Stories of Haunted Objects

In My Commonplace Book: The Stone-Throwing Devil 

Haunted Cemetery Statues in the United States