Saint John's University

Saint John's University, located in central Minnesota among a large scattering of lakes, is known for its history, beauty, academics, and as the home of the world's largest Benedictan monastery.

But Saint John's has another side. The 150 year old campus has been called the most haunted in the nation.

The legends range from the average to the highly unusual. One ghost is that of an old school mascot, Murro the Bear. He attacked a student and was exterminated immediately. His haunting image and low growl can be heard along the shores of Lake Sagatagan.

Across Lake Sagatagan from the main campus is the solitary Stella Maris Chapel. The widowless and pewless structure with its burnt altar is anything but forgotten. Everyone claims to have as uneasy feeling when alone in the small stone structure.

An angry spirit haunts the Abbey. A young monk was killed during its construction. His mother stormed to the campus, angry and unsatisfied with the monastery's explanation of his death. She cursed the other monks and the building. When leaving, her buggy overturned into a lake and she was drowned. Shortly after the Abbey was finally opened, a crack opened down the main aisle. To this day, wet footprints can be seen leading toward the altar.

The Alcuin Library basement is a dark and quiet place, where shadows have been sighted walking among the building's sea of volumes. These shadows are quickly seen but never heard.

The campus is full of smaller, older, and more intimate residence halls. This intimacy seems to be the genesis for many of the school's legends.

A student was said to have killed himself here, in the Saint Gregory House, known as the Greg House by its residents. His ghost could be heard walking the halls of the old building.

In an example of a person being haunted rather than a building, when the Faculty Resident of the Greg House moved to Mary Hall Three, the Greg House's activity seemed to stop. But at Mary Three, it was just beginning.

Saint Mary Hall, where doors were slammed, footsteps were heard, and disembodied voices echoed off of the cinder block walls. My former dorm, room 323 is located on the third level all the way to the left. The bathrooms, central point to much of the building's activity, are located just to the right of 323.

Saint Mary Hall room 323 where I spent the Spring 1994 semester. Note how the beds are bunked over the desks and heating system as described in The Halls of Mary Three.