Is an ordinary mortal capable of resisting the forces of evil? Is it possible to help sinners find peace in the next world? The answers to these questions can be found in ancient chronicles kept in the libraries of Friborg monasteries. The following story, recorded by a chronicler several centuries ago, tells how the young sacristan saved the sinners of the village of Bellegarde from hellish torment.
“At all times, the Gospel of John scared away the Prince of Darkness, as well as evil spirits who, flying through the air or walking on the earth, unceremoniously invade Christian homes, disturb the peace of people and spoil livestock. This is why in the Middle Ages the Holy Church decreed that the Gospel of John should be read at the end of the Mass. In addition, it was decided to place in a prominent place on the left side of the altar the words of this Gospel, written in large letters. Since then, every priest, before telling his parishioners: “Ite missa est,” which means - go, the service is over, must read the Gospel of John.
Having heard the Gospel, even the most cunning and daring demons lose power over the weak and prone to various temptations of Christian souls. Writhing in horror and disgust, they rush in fear to take refuge in their shadowy shelters. Therefore, in order to protect yourself from the devil’s misfortune and win victory over the dark forces, you must go to Sunday services and under no circumstances leave the church walls until the Gospel of John has been read...
Any traveler visiting the charming village of Charme, located at a considerable height, at the approaches to the Gruyères Alps, will certainly want to stroll along a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains whose peaks exceed two thousand meters.
A narrow mountain road leads to Bellegarde. This is a picturesque village built up with ancient chalets with walls and roofs darkened by hot sun rays and rain streams. At the entrance to Bellegarde, the traveler will see the bell tower of a very old church. The church stands on the bank of the small river Jaun. A hundred meters from the ancient structure, the river, becoming completely white with foam, cascades down from a high cliff.
In the cemetery around the church, more than thirty generations of Bellegarde residents sleep in eternal sleep. But, alas, there was a time when not all the deceased rested in peace in their graves... when, approaching the mossy cemetery walls at night, one could hear light sighs, pitiful moans and even faint screams coming from out of nowhere, which made the flowers on the graves tremble.
Some believed that these strange sounds were nothing more than the fussing and puffing of a family of hedgehogs that had settled in the cemetery. Others suggested that such a noise could be made by bats - these creatures nested under the shingled roof of the old church, and there were great numbers of them. Someone claimed that the calls of young owls could be heard in the cemetery. And some said that they couldn’t hear anything there at all. But, unfortunately, incomprehensible voices coming from the direction of the ancient cemetery were heard more and more clearly and became louder. And they had nothing to do with the puffing of a hedgehog, the squeaking of a bat, or the hooting of an owl. Does a hedgehog sob like a woman? Does a bat sigh like a young girl? No, no and no! Let's not deceive ourselves.
Those who on dark nights listened warily to the sounds that were mysteriously born behind the cemetery wall were absolutely sure that only women could cry and moan like that.
The inhabitants of the small village were alarmed, every single one. The venerable curé of Bellegarde stood up for a nine-day prayer, and the parishioners together with him asked the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver them from the devil's haste, forgive the sins of the deceased and grant them the Kingdom of Heaven. Then they made a religious procession and, having reached the cemetery, prayed long and earnestly at the old graves. However, despite all the measures taken by the devout residents of Bellegarde, the groans and sobs in the cemetery did not subside. And then the holy fathers from the surrounding monasteries gathered in Bellegarde. They spent several days fasting and praying near the cursed cemetery. In vain! The devilish noise did not stop.
Everyone was shocked. Some people have already begun to talk about digging up the remains and burying them somewhere further away, in another place. Maybe then these restless dead will finally let good people sleep!
But, thank God, things did not go to such an extreme, for there was a person who decided to try to calm down sinful souls and was very successful in this.
In Bellegarde, only two houses were adjacent to the old church. In the first, darkened by time and buried in flowers, lived the priest, and in the other the sacristan. The sacristan's house looked poorer. All of its fourteen small windows faced the cemetery. It is not difficult to guess that most of all the endless moans, screams and sobs annoyed the young sacristan, whose name was Hans-Josy.
Late one evening, Hans-Josy lay in his bed and could not close his eyes, because the quiet complaints rising from the graves became more and more insistent and soon turned into heartbreaking screams. Throughout the long night, Hans-Josy pondered how to get rid of such a scourge, and finally, even before the sun gilded the tops of the mountains, he came up with a remedy that, in his opinion, would definitely help. But Hans-Josy did not tell anyone how he was going to restore peace to the small cemetery. Despite his young age, he was smart and cunning, like the old sacristans, who, due to their duties, often encounter the tricks of the evil one and over time become experienced and sophisticated enemies of all evil spirits.
One dark night, Hans-Josy came to the church and took from the altar a board on which the words of the Gospel of John were inscribed. He nailed a nail to two corners of this board, and tied a rope to the nails. The young man stuck his head into the resulting loop and the board hung around his neck. In the sacristy, he took an aspirate and a copper waterspout with holy water. Armed in this way and covering himself, like a shield, with a tablet with sacred words, Hans-Josy went out to the cemetery and began to slowly move around the church, continuously reading the Gospel of John. The sacristan was sure that the devil, seeing him fully armed, would immediately be afraid and would not harm him.
Before he could take even twenty steps, a woman’s cry was heard, and then someone’s voices shouted:
- Hans-Josy, get out of here with your Gospel! Get out of here! All our troubles are because of him!
There was a terrible noise. Screams and sobs could be heard even from the far corners of the cemetery. Some strange shadows emerged from the darkness. They began to circle in the air and fly at the sacristan.
Hans-Josy was a brave man and, as a rule, did not lose his presence of mind in difficult times. But that night our hero got cold feet! The young man rushed away from the ghosts attacking him and, not making out the way, ran through the cemetery. He diligently watered the graves with holy water, and, it must be admitted, his chaotic movements had nothing in common with the measured gait and majestic gestures of Monsieur Curé, when he solemnly sprinkled his flock on holidays. Hans-Josy ran to a small chapel nestled in the western part of the cemetery. There were most of the burials near her. There he stopped and, despite the fact that he was very out of breath, tried to give his voice strength and impressiveness, he shouted:
- Oh, hellish demons and evil spirits! If it is you who are tormenting the Christian souls of the deceased women of Bellegarde, then I demand, in the name of the Gospel of John, leave them alone, for I want to talk to them! And you, poor souls, I command, in the name of the same Gospel, to tell me about what torments you and what needs to be done in order for you to find the Kingdom of Heaven!
And then many women's voices shouted:
- Oh, Hans-Josy! We are all big sinners! We always went to church on Sundays, but so what? We never had the patience to listen to the end of the mass, to wait for the priest to read the Gospel of John. This was such insolence, such disrespect towards the apostle, whom the Lord dearly loved! When we died, St. Peter at the gates of heaven gave us a bad reception. Do you know what he said? "I will never let you into heaven until all the women of your village make it a rule to stay in the church until the end of the service, when the priest is already leaving the altar. Praying for your sinful souls, the residents of Bellegarde must defend exactly as many services as you did not make it to the end!" It was the devil himself who pushed us to leave the church as quickly as possible and not listen to the Gospel of John. And now he is our master. Now we are in his power. Poor, unfortunate us! When will our torment end?
Hans-Josy suddenly clearly distinguished in this discordant choir the voices of several charming girls who, unfortunately, died in Bellegarde during the last ten years.
“Oh,” they moaned, “we wanted everyone to see us, for everyone to admire and admire us.” We tried to attract attention to ourselves, and to do this we left the service without listening to the end. Oh, how cruelly we are now punished for this!
The complaints of the village beauties were echoed by the souls of the deceased matrons of Bellegarde:
- Alas, we tried to show others how hardworking we are, how we rush home to quickly get down to business. This is precisely why we left the church too early, and now the Apostle Peter does not want to open the doors of heaven for us!
Hundreds of poor souls flew to the sacristan to humbly tell how they had disrespected the Gospel of John and what punishment had befallen them.
Saint Peter did not even allow the old housekeeper of the former, now deceased, curate, whose name was Irmengar, into heaven. The old woman was the kindest and sweetest creature. She never slandered and always suppressed kitchen gossip, which is very rare for Bellegarde's gossips. But she constantly left the church without listening to the end of the mass! Irmengar was very flattered that all the parishioners saw how she was hurrying home to quickly prepare dinner for her beloved owner. And the priest himself was severely reprimanded in the next world for not calling the old servant to order in time.
Poor young ladies! Poor ladies! How bitterly they wept, how pitifully they complained about their sad fate! How they repented of what they had done! And how their character has changed! Where is the former pride? Where is vanity and pride? There was no trace left of them.
Hans-Josy was by nature a very kind and compassionate man, and now his heart was breaking with pity for the poor souls. He tried as best he could to console the sinners of Bellegarde and threw out the remaining holy water on them. And then silence reigned in the cemetery...
Overwhelmed with happiness, the sacristan ran to the priest’s house. He banged his fists on the door and began loudly calling for the priest. The frightened old man jumped out of bed and ran in his dressing gown to open the door for the night guest. Imagine his amazement when he saw Hans-Josy on his doorstep with a board hung on his chest, on which were inscribed the words of the Gospel of John!
“I talked to them,” Hans-Josy shouted at the top of his voice, “and I know how to save them from hellish torment!” They told me everything themselves!
At first the priest thought the sacristan had gone mad. But the young man calmed down a little and slowly told the priest about his brave undertaking: how, with the help of the Gospel of John and holy water, he was able to enter into communication with the souls of the dead women of Bellegarde, find out the reason for their groans and sobs in the cemetery and, finally, find out how to help out sinners. And then the old curé felt like the happiest man in the world.
The next day, the good news spread throughout the village, and all the women of Bellegarde, old and young, with their husbands and brothers, went to church to celebrate mass and pray for the restless souls of sinners. Just think! The poor things were doomed to wander around the cemetery day and night, in heat and cold, without a moment of peace.
For many days people came to church and prayed for a long time. And so, little by little, the groans and sighs in the cemetery became quieter, lighter, and finally stopped completely. The fact is that the Apostle Peter, there in heaven, opened the heavy doors, the guardian of which he had once been appointed, and began to let the souls of the inhabitants of Bellegarde into heaven one by one. Soon, every single one of them found themselves in that wonderful place where they had been trying to get to for so long.
Needless to say, since then not a single resident of the village of Bellegarde leaves the church before the end of the mass.”
This true story must have saddened the hearts of many of the fair sex. We offer a thousand apologies on behalf of the chronicler. He didn't want to upset anyone. His only desire was to warn the lovely ladies about the impending danger. Do not let them, God, wander after death through a sad cemetery, groaning and crying, and wait for many years for St. Peter to open the gates of heaven for them!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru