The Church at St. James Sag is the second oldest Catholic Church in Northern Illinois and dates back to 1833. It was originally a mission and was the site of a French signal post in the late 1600s. Father Jacques Marquette might have offered Mass on the bluff in 1673 and/or in 1675. Three buildings make up the parish structure. The first is the unique and beautiful church; the second, the rectory built with the same pale yellow Lemont stone in 1942; and the third, Saginaw Hall built in 1912 and later remodeled in 1970. The large main gates, fabricated in 1905 for Western Electric in Cicero, were installed at the entryway in 1980. This location is commonly known as "Monk's Castle" because it was said that if you were caught trespassing out there at night, the monks would catch you and make you kneel down on ball bearings all night in prayer. There never were any monks stationed here and it's simply a folk legend.A very interesting report comes from a Cook County policeman and a two-page report submitted by him. The encounter occurred on the Friday before Thanksgiving in 1977. The officer was on patrol about 2:30 in the morning and as he drove past the cemetery he saw, through the gates, eight or nine figures dressed in monk-like outfits. Knowing that there should be no one in there at that hour, he called out to them to come out and be arrested for trespass. The monks just continued to walk to the top of the hill. He then grabbed the shotgun from his car and began to pursue these individuals. The monks had no difficulty with the terrain, however the police officer was stumbling and tripping over tombstones and uneven terrain. He got to the top of the hill within seconds of the individuals however they were no where to be found. He then ran down the hill towards 107th Street but found nothing. Even an intensive search later turned up no clues as to the identities or whereabouts of the monk-like figures. He now believes that what he encountered were not humans at all but some kind of ghostly phantom manifestations. The area has been known to been haunted well back to the pioneer history of the area. The area was settled by the Irish back in the 1830s. They formed what was called the Sag Community. A former pastor Father Ploszynski, who died in the rectory on May 10, 1970, confided to friends on his deathbed that he could often look out his rectory window at night and see the ground rising and falling as if the earth itself were breathing!The first reported ghost story dates back to September 30, 1897 and was reported in the Chicago Tribune. Two musicians Professor William Looney and John Kelly decided after finishing their performance about 1 in the morning to stay in a small building overnight. About an hour later, Looney was awakened by the sound of hoofs on the gravel road. He looked out the window and saw a carriage. It came up the road that is now Archer Avenue and up to the gravel entranceway, stop and turn around. He saw what appeared to be a girl in a white robe just appear out of nowhere. She got into the coach with the driver, they turned around again and just as they passed the archway, the coach, driver and everything just vanished! This was during Rev. Bollman's reign.Recent reports include a phantom black stallion which many people have seen roaming the graveyard at night and the face of the devil in appearing in rectory windows.St. James is located near the intersection of Archer and 107th Street and nearby Rt. 83.
They're invisible star-wars fighters.
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Topic: Paranormal Polka: these boots were made for haunting. (Read 56589 times)