A foggy scene of Mt. Irenaeus.
Photo Courtesy of Natalie Pronio
BY: CHRIS DOODY, CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Ghost stories at St. Bonaventure University have become a tradition that have been passed down through the generations. Some students have experienced paranormal phenomenons, others in the past have experienced professors in touch with spirits.
“In my sophomore year, I was News Editor for The Bona Venture,” said Bill Reed, Class of 1975. “I covered a speech by an expert on ghosts, demons, and paranormal activity, including exorcisms.”
Reed attended a speech in 1972, on ghostly topics, during the speech, one person attending screamed and ran out.
“[The speaker] told me that he had met with the woman [who had run out during the speech], who was not a student but a local resident. He determined that she was possessed by demons, and Fr. Trabold performed a ‘light exorcism’ on her.”
Other alumni have said that Fr. Trabold had an affinity for spirits.
“I did take his [Fr. Trabold] Theology class,” said Mary Beth Shea Wells, class of 1976, accounting major. “Can’t remember the official name. We called it ‘Spooks.’ It was required in his class to leave the first row empty for the spirits. He did not make eye contact with the students, he was always looking straight above our heads at the back wall.”
Some alumni recalled stories of Fr. Trabold describing ghosts.
“Fr. Trabold said poltergeists were playful noisy ghosts,” said Terri Oleszkiewicz, class of 1976, journalism major. “That they were ‘caught’ not knowing they were dead. He stressed that you cannot automatically call something a haunting. It requires much study and investigation.”
Oleszkiewicz said that because of Fr. Trabold she has to keep all of her closet doors shut.
“I took Christocentric Anthropology, one of the two required theology classes, from Fr. Trabold second semester my freshman year,” Madonna Wojtaszek-Healy, class of 1977, education major. “He always had the front row of seats left empty for his ‘poltergeist friends.’ He would wring his hands with a chuckle while lecturing.”
Fr. Trabold may have been involved in the film ‘The Exorcist’ according to Bonaventure alumni.
“During my first semester, he brought a man (with a Lebanese name) to give a lecture about their ghost hunting exploits,” said Wojtaszek-Healy. “There was that “haunted” house in Hinsdale they had infrared pictures of. Also, it was common belief that he was the technical advisor to the film ‘The Exorcist.’”
Some residents living in Devereux Hall this semester have said they may have encountered a ghostly presence.
“The first few nights back on campus, this semester, I could not sleep,” said Breanna Andolina, a sophomore psychology major. “I was getting such bad nightmares every night, and that hadn’t happened to me in so long. I ended up asking Fr. Steve to bless my room for me. After that I have been able to sleep just fine.”
Some students across campus fear ghosts and other spooky spirits.
“I personally think that the ghost stories were the scariest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” said Avon Vandervort, a freshman dual psychology and criminology major. “I remember when they did the haunted house at Dev, and I was at the pavilion, and I heard screaming from the bottom floor. I did not get to go in, but I heard some scary stuff about it.”
Some students are concerned about the probabilities of ghosts.
“I heard that the ghosts are real,” said Alexis Merritt, a freshman nursing major. “They’re actually gonna come get us.”
Some students on campus think something needs to be done because of the potential ghostly presence.
“I think we need a campus exorcism,” said Austyn Storms, a freshman psychology major.
Orientation leaders tell ghost stories during the first night of orientation.
“My favorite thing to talk about for tours and at orientation is Devereux [Hall] because it’s the oldest residency hall on campus,” said Katherine Squires, a senior strategic communications major. “I know a lot of students that know alumni, let’s say their parents or grandparents went here, a lot of times they also lived in Devereux. So I feel like it’s kind of like a legacy building that people always want to live in”
The fifth floor of Devereux Hall is currently off limits to students.
“A lot of people are kind of mystified by the fifth floor,” said Squires. “It used to once be, you know, a place for students. There’s a lot of different opinions on it. If students used to live up there, there was one article I saw that said students used to use that as their common space, students used to meet up there for their clubs and their groups. Obviously, it’s since been emptied. There’s nobody up there.”
In the past some groups have ventured up to the fifth floor of Devereux Hall.
“For Halloween, different student groups, like Lasso, students without borders or something else, take students up to the 5th floor for a tour,” said Squires. “So, I have been up there once, and it was really cool. It’s just empty, and right now it’s used for a lot of storage and stuff. But it is really spooky. There’s like a lot of writing on the walls.”
Squires said the fifth floor of Devereux Hall is in fact spooky.
“There’s a lot of spooky lore about what was actually done up there,” said Squires. “Some people think that there was a black mass done up there, like, decades and decades ago. They had a friar [Fr. Alphonsus Trabold, O.F.M], that performed an exorcism up there, and that’s why it’s never been the same.”
Some students said they know people who have had odd experiences in Devereux Hall.
“I know that if people live on the 4th floor,” said Squires. “They’ll kind of hear footsteps throughout the night or some of my friends last year would hear running water when there was nothing really happening.”
Hauntings are not limited to just Devereux Hall. De La Roche was not always known as it is today.
“So De La Roche is also one of the oldest academic buildings,” said Squires. “De La Roche [then Lynch Hall] was 5 stories, and, the top 2 burnt down. There used to be a bell tower on De la Roche, which a lot of people think is now the bell tower on Devereux.”
Lynch Hall was struck by lighting on April 18, 1933, according to the Bonaventure archives.
“So, the question is, what was lost in the fire? Was it people? I don’t think it was people, but, what if? Or was it lab materials? Were there any documents for science experiments that were kind of lost? That’s kind of what we tell our orientation students, and they get kind of mystified.”
