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The Ghostly Priest
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It was spring of 1934 and artist Maxo Vanka was working at the St. Nicholas Church in Millvale, an area at the edge of Pittsburgh then. Vanka had already made his mark as a world renowned artist and he had taken a commission to do the artwork for the Croatian church. It was a huge and time consuming project and Vanka had been asked to work on the murals at night. This meant that after the church hours were over, he would mount the scaffold and begin to work. What Vanka created would become known as one of the most beautiful and well-adored pieces of church artwork in the world. Vanka viewed this work with great ardor. He had been forced to flee his home in Croatia at the beginning of WWII. He would later say, "Every man who comes to America from the European cemetery should show his gratitude to his adopted land by making a contribution to its culture. This church is mine."
Louis Adamic was a well known writer and a friend of Vanka's. It would be to Adamic that Vanka would confide his experiences at the Croatian church while he worked. Adamic would write a story a year later for Harper's Magazine with Vanka's permission.
According to Adamic's chronical of the events, in was on Vanka's fourth night at the church that his encounters began. On that night the normally yappy dogs that lived on the property suddenly grew silent. Vanka was mixing paint and feeling a bit tired and cold. He looked down from the scaffolding and saw, "there was a figure, a man in black, moving this way and that way in front of it, raising his arms and making gestures in the air."
Vanka assumed that the figure was Father Zagar whom he had contracted to do the work with. He assumed that the priest was blessing the project and left the man to his devotions. Every night Vanka quit around 2 a.m. and he would stop for coffee and cake with Father Zagar. On that night Vanka mentioned the blessings while he and Father Zagar were drinking coffee. Father Zagar denied being in the church that night. He assured Vanka that he was not the priest that he had seen. So then who? The priest would not discuss the situation and only said, "That was not me."
A few nights later Vanka was still working above the alter when he felt that familiar coldness seep into him. He looked down and saw the priest there again. The priest was dressed exactly as before in black robes and stood behind the alter. His lips were moving as he waved his hands and arms about. Vanka assumed that the man was praying and blessing the church but why?
Vanka did not call out or question the man, but went back to work. He told himself that this must be Father Zagar but he was unsure. Vanka was a rationalist and a socialist. He did not want to even entertain the notion that he had seen anything other than a flesh and blood man.
A while later the sound of hollow footsteps echoed in the church and Vanka looked downward once more. The priest was walking down the center isle toward the back of the church. The lighting was subdued but he could hear the man praying softly.
As Vanka watched the priest, he moved under the scaffolding and out went the lights. Vanka grabbed at the lantern up on the scaffolding near him. At that moment he became aware that the two parish dogs were howling outside as if agitated by something. This was the first time that he wondered if the dogs, too, sensed the presence of the priest?
Vanka was angry and upset that Father Zagar had turned off the lights in the church. It was half past midnight when he climbed down off the scaffolding and hurried out to the parsonage. The building was not lit and he pounded Father Zagar out of bed. Father Zagar was obviously half-asleep when he answered the door. Vanka told him what had happened and asked the father why he had done it. "It wasn't me," the Priest said. Now Vanka thought that the father had been sleepwalking but Father Zagar denied that, too.
Father Zagar looked at Vanka strangely. "Have you heard the tradition that something strange visits the church?"
Vanka shook his head, "No," he denied. "I have heard no such tales."
The priest paused as if troubled by the situation. "About fifteen years ago, almost a decade before I came to serve here, St. Nicholas was said to be haunted by the ghost of former priest. I have never seen him, but among my petitioners there are several who swear that a former priest is the ghost of St. Nicholas Church."
Vanka was shocked by the revelation. Ghostly priests were not part of his world view and he must have looked skeptical. The priest continued. "Have you ever wondered why I sat up each night to wait for you to be done? It was because I feared that you would see something or have an encounter. Each night since you first saw the priest, I have waited for you secretly behind a door and watched over you. Only on this night have I accidentally fallen asleep. I did not see the priest but I know that you have."
For a second Vanka seemed unable to speak, and then he smiled. "Then I have seen a ghost?" he marveled. "I guess that I'm not crazy."
Father Zagar laughed. "I would not go that far, my friend," he smiled. "but you have seen a ghost."
After that night Father Zagar openly joined Vanka while he worked in the church.
The night after these events Father Zagar would suddenly have a change of attitude about the ghostly priest. That night Vanka and Zagar had laughed and cracked jokes about keeping a vigil and about the ghostly priest. As the night wore on, Father Zagar even called upon the ghostly priest to show himself if he were real. At first the whole thing was a lot of fun, but after Father Zagar demanded that the phantom priest appear there was a sudden coldness that touched the air. Both men paused as if waiting for something. Then a loud rap came from the back of the church. The two men's heads swung that direction. A second rap, a third and fourth rang through the empty church. Suddenly the dogs outside began to bark and howl madly.
Father Zagar turned back toward the interior of the church. "Be you a ghost or dead man, go with God," he shouted out. He was feeling uneasy and frightened. "Rest in peace and I'll pray for you, but leave us now."
Vanka had been looking around the room and suddenly he cried out, "Look, the fourth pew." There sat the black robed priest. Both men watched in shock as the priest looked toward him. The ghostly priest was an old man whose face was drawn in despair. His skin looked pale and gray. He looked terribly sad. From his vantage point on the scaffolding Vanka saw the phantom clearly. Father Zagar only caught a glimpse of the ghost from the floor of the church.
Vanka was suddenly shaken badly. He struggled to climb off the scaffolding before he collapsed. A terrible dread filled him. The two men hurried out of the church and locked it up for the night. Neither man admitted then what they saw.
That night Vanka would dream of the phantom priest. He could feel himself looking through the dead man's sightless eyes and he awoke sweating and shaking. He feared that his reason was leaving him.
The next night Father Zagar joined Vanka and he told the artist an incredible story. Father Zagar said that when he had tried to go to bed terrible rapping sounds came from around his room. The sounds had chilled his blood. For the longest time Father Zagar had stood in the dark waiting. He knew that he was not alone in his room, and he knew that the other person who was in the room was dead!
For several nights, thereafter, Vanka offered up prayers for the peace of the dead man and nothing happened. The two men spent their nights working and chatting but they did not talk of the phantom priest for fear he'd appear again.
Finally one night they turned the talk back to the ghostly priest. Father Zagar explained that he had learned from parishioners that the church had been plunged into financial difficulties years ago by the priest who now haunted it. The old priest had been a thief and had pilfered from the accounts. He also did not do all of his church work. Instead, he chose to pursue his own interests and not run the church properly. The man never confessed his sins before his death but it was believed that the priest had returned to seek forgiveness afterward. The parishioners either did not or could not give the priest the needed absolution, and people agreed not to venture into the church after dark.
After that Vanka and Father Zagar would hear the rapping and the dogs would suddenly go mad outside. Father Zagar never again saw the spirit but Vanka did. He would see the priest walking down the center isle and praying as he approached the alter. Vanka would call out from the scaffolding to tell Father Zagar that the priest was back again.
On several occasions the phantom priest walked to the alter and placed his hands around the sacred flame. He blew it out and Father Zagar cried out in alarm. The sacred flame had never been blown out in the 8 years that Father Zagar had been there. It was protected by glass so that nothing could accidentally blow it out. Each time Father Zagar would hurry to relight it.
Throughout the time that Vanka worked in the church he would feel the terrible cold, look and see the priest at the alter or in the central isle. On occasion the ghostly priest would light candles or sit on a pew and pray.
Vanka would say that he could not explain the terrible feeling that overcame him when he encountered the priest. He was horrified and terrified by the dead man. When the article came out, reporters poured into the church looking for the ghost but he did not oblige them with an appearance.
In the 1960's Dr. Hans Holtzer was doing an interview on WKDA radio when he was asked about the Croatian church. He confessed that he did not know the ghostly tale, but he would later return to Pittsburgh and visit the church. Years later I would be privileged to speak to Dr. Holtzer privately a few times. I asked him about the place once and he told me that it was a beautiful place but that as he sat there looking at Vanka's brilliant artwork he could feel the chill of something in the air and he had little doubt that it was haunted.
For more information check out the following:
www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_591372.htm/
www.diggingpitt.blogspot.com/2009/st-nicholas-croatian-catholic-church.html
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