When you think of a haunting, a university dorm may not be the first place you think of, but SFX’s Gilmora Hall is reported to be haunted by two resident ghosts.
Mount Saint Bernard College was opened by the Sisters of Notre Dame in the late 19th century as a Catholic girls school before it became affiliated with St. Francis Xavier University a decade later, presided over by the Sisters of Notre Dame.
Legend has it that one of the sisters was in love with a priest, but she was so overcome with guilt over the affair that she jumped from a balcony to her death. Some even say that the priest went on to kill himself as well, due to the overwhelming guilt and grief he felt in both his lovers’ and unborn child’s death. An apparition of a priest, has often been seen lurking around the school's spiral stairway. They are now known as the Blue Nun and the Red Priest.
Every year, Freshmen
report a ghostly figure in a glowing blue habit drifting through their dorm
rooms, sounds of footsteps walking the halls at
night, hearing disembodied voices in hallways, and stifled giggles in the
hallways when no one was there.
Students have
also reported lights and appliances turning on in the middle of the night, objects
moving around on their own, including textbooks being strewn across dorm room
floors, slamming doors, water faucets turn on, shadow figures, and even the
sound of an old telephone ringing.
A recent resident of St. FX had a
particularly haunting experience. In her room, in the wee hours of the morning,
about to fall asleep, she heard a crash. Turning her head, she saw that a cup
had fallen to the ground, its plastic lid and straw separated on the floor. Too
afraid to pick it up, she left the distinct pieces there. The next day, she
recounted this story to her friend. Upon hearing, he remembered that he had
borrowed a dish from her, and returned her cup – the same cup that she had seen
fall in her room the night before and the same cup she had passed in order to
visit this friend. A seemingly mundane, yet inexplicable event that can only be
attributed to paranormal happenings.
Another
student, whose books and papers regularly rearranged themselves, reported waking
in the middle of the night to find a specter with red glowing eyes hovering
over his bed. The figure pointed at him and then disappeared.
If you know of any other paranormal events that have happened here, or have a story of your own that you would like to share, we would love to hear from you!
Sources
xaverian.ca
roamnewroads.ca
walkingwithdeadpeople.com
I lived at Mount Saint Bernard from 1991-95, on 2nd Camden. Our RA's often told us to make sure that we tucked our chairs in at night as close to the desks as we could make them, otherwise we would wake up in the middle of the night to see a nun had dragged the chair out and was watching you from her seat at the foot of your bed. I didn't realize Gilmorra was where the haunting was. When I was there, the stories came from my friends who lived in Immaculata. It was a smaller floor than the rest of MSB and a lot of my dorm mates were scared after living up there. As a resident of MSB, I was allowed to study pretty much anywhere in the residence as long as I respected the sisters. I remember leaving my room once to study because the floor was just too rowdy to concentrate. I ended up in a quiet floor with a lot of statues and classrooms. It was perfect for studying but I couldn't settle down to do so. In the end, my best friend came for me and we went elsewhere to study. I remember I was in Gilmorra somewhere. It was creepy but I just put it down to all the empty rooms and statues.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Maureen!
DeleteThe poor nun and poor priest. I respect their vows and sacrifices for the cloth, but one can't help but wonder what their family and lives could be if they renounced one cause (God) for another (child and family).
ReplyDeleteI feel there's a poignant 'what if' story in that seed, somewhere, sometime...
I studied at X from 2012-2016. I remember staying over at my friends room in MSB one night because we wanted to see the blue nun. To our disappointment, nothing happened.
ReplyDeleteHowever, after a long day at the library, on my way home I would often stop at Gilmora to take the spiral stair case up to the 3rd or 4rd floor to practice piano in the instrument rooms. Up until this point, I had no idea that others had funny feelings about the spiral stair cases. But when I would walk up and down them, usually after the sun had already set, I always felt like there was something else in there with me and would usually run!
I remember trying to find a bit of a hidden office at one point as well, and it took me from the languages building into MSB (not the dorm side) and I got lost. Walking through those stairways I came across an MSB floor that had been barricaded by a big metal door and no one could get in. Rumour has it that the floor was closed to students because too much paranormal activity was going on.
I was on the search to find out more about the “blue lady/nun” that is said to haunt the Antigonish Health & Wellness Centre (previously the nurses’ residence at St Martha’s Regional Hospital. I wonder if she is somehow linked to this one at st fx...
ReplyDeletethere is tunnles all under antigonish that some how lead to St. Fx
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