Saint Nazianz Investigation
This blog post was written by Whitney Dankemeyer.
Saint Nazianz is believed to be one of the most haunted places in Wisconsin. But why? Good question! Let me tell you.
On March 14, 1801, in Mundelfingen, Fürstenberg, a man named Ambrose Oschwald was born. When of age, he was ordained a priest in 1833, but he also studied the healing properties of plants and herbs. This was a bit strange for a priest in this time period, so while others deemed him crazy, he still believed he was a mystic blessed with the ability to heal.
Come the year of 1854, Ambrose was fleeing religious persecution when he arrived in Wisconsin. It is said he was suspected by the Roman Catholic Church for “mystical, prophetic, and heretical works” in his small village of Black Town, Germany. He sailed to America on a ship called the Feast of Corpus Christi in May of that year with a couple of folks. He wound up purchasing 3,840 acres of land for $3.50 per acre in Manitowoc County when he arrived in Milwaukee by train.
In August of 1854, Oschwald sent a few men to search for the land he purchased. These men had to cut through forest to get there, but once it was found, Ambrose joined them. They named their site Saint Nazianz, in honor of a man named Saint Gregory Nazianzus, a Theologian of his time. In September of 1854, they started to build their community with log homes.
When Father Ambrose Oschwald originally left the church, the congregation uprooted their lives and moved to Wisconsin to be with him. When the congregation joined the community, they decided to call themselves “The Association,” and worked without pay to support their community. They did well for years.
It all began going downhill the minute Father Oschwald fell ill. In 1873, he was bedridden and unable to take care of himself. This was also the same time strange occurrences started happening within their small town. A witness claimed the Father would extend his arms in blessing and shoo away people who weren’t there. Another peculiar experience happened the night of February 26th, when banging was heard from every room in town, including Father Oschwald’s. The next morning, the priest had passed, and the banging stopped reverberating in everyone’s homes.
Days before the funeral, a judge from Manitowoc was invited to come view the body. Upon observation, the judge almost didn’t go through with the funeral due to the lifelike complexion the priest had. He was even convinced the body was still alive, though it wasn’t. Because the chamber to place him in wasn’t readily available, they had to wait months to perform the burial of Father Ambrose. On April 29, 1873, they did a final examination of the body before he was put into the chamber. Multiple witnesses (including another priest) stated that his eyes were sunken in, but his body wasn’t decaying. To make things even weirder, his fingernails and hair were still growing, and his body had no odor. Still, he was officially buried in the chamber on April 30th, 63 days after he died.
On October 4, 1926, the chamber was opened. They were moving Father Oschwald to a new mausoleum beneath Loretto Hill (where he still is present day) and opened his coffin. Even 53 years after his death in 1873, his body was still intact. While the iron of his coffin was already rusting, he was still very well put together.
After Oschwald passed, his society invited other leaders to their town, and later that same year, they turned over the governorship of their land to the Salvatorians. Between the 1920s and 30s, they renovated the current church and built a new one within the property, calling it the “St. Ambrose Church.” Along with it, they constructed a new Monastery, a gymnasium, farm buildings, and a chapel for the sisters. By the year 1939, the church had up to 150 seminarians.
In the 1960s, however, the seminary started to decline. They only had a few students enrolling each year, so they decided to convert their school into the John F. Kennedy Preparatory High School. Renovations were made in the 70s, but they still couldn’t maintain enrollment. Due to lack of funding, it was officially shut down in 1982. The old Seminary is now a huge abandoned building that has been sitting vacant since the early 1980s. It is also rumored to be the most haunted building in the entire town.
When it comes to paranormal activity in Saint Nazianz, it is rumored to be a curse on the town by the priest. The reason? Some believe it was due to the state taking a majority of the Father’s land from The Association. In 2000, a massive tornado swept through the area and caused nearly 100-million in property damage. Other reasons involving the town’s hauntings point a finger back to the school.
Some say there are ghosts who haunt JFK Prep due to the abusive treatment they received from nuns while studying the church. It is possible to hear the sounds of children screaming and their laughter throughout the halls, if you should ever get close enough, that is. Many articles state the residents of the town keep an eye on the abandoned buildings, and this is because of a gymnasium break-in that resulted in stolen money.
And how do the residents view the hauntings? Let’s take a look at the different opinions shared about this small town in an article I came across:
“Those of us that live on this property now owned and operated by United Ministries are not “edgy.” This is our home. The ministry has owned this property for over 15 years and have done renovations to some of the buildings. Renovations take money and the only thing that makes us “edgy” are those that continue to break in – again private property and our home-and cause destruction in a variety of ways. Starting fires, setting off fire extinguishers in the thrift store etc. There are buildings that are off limits for a reason – They Are NOT Safe-falling apart and are full of asbestos. We run a Christian Thrift Store and Food Pantry here on property – helping many in the community. We hold FREE Children's Camps, Men’s Retreats, Women's Retreats and so much more. The property has a 5 acre Community Garden – again that some feel it is okay to cause damage to. I personally have lived here for 9 years with the ministry. We welcome people to visit the ground During the hours of 8am – 6pm, but understand buildings are closed off for safety reasons. Sorry to be a downer – but as Christians The Holy Spirit abides with us.” -A Local Christian
“My family has lived in the town since the beginning. I live in the suburbs and have visited many times in my life. I truly believe the town is cursed. I have never been there and not felt presences. I have never been able to sleep the night through. My mother grew up in the town in a house that was said to be haunted. She is not one to embellish. She has told me story after story about her personal experiences. My grandpa took my brother and I for a walk when we were younger to the seminary and we went to Father Oschwald’s mausoleum. Being that close was terrifying. I have always been skeptical of ghost stories but I can tell you, from personal experience and a family history of experiences, St Nazianz is truly haunted.” -A lifelong resident
After my research and skimming through others’ opinions, our group came to the solution every paranormal team would result with: checking out the location for ourselves to see if it is truly haunted.
We drove up to that part of Wisconsin on Saturday, February 3, 2024. We arrived in Saint Nazianz around four in the evening, realizing quickly just how small the town actually was. You could drive any direction for 60 seconds and wind up on the edge of town. It didn’t take long for us at all to do a sweep of the area and conduct our investigation.
We first visited a newer church, followed by driving past the Monastery. We then made our way to the most ancient part of the town, and that is where the old school, church, and Ambrose’s resting place was. We pulled into the drive that led us to the thrift store they had on property. We did not get a chance to look inside due to the fact that it was already closed. When we tried to pull onto the gravel road leading to Ambrose, there was a plow clearing the snow on it. We had waited around for the opportunity to go down the gravel road, but it never came.
To begin an Estes Method session, we pulled out of the driveway and into the lot of one of the abandoned buildings. Once we parked the car, we got cozy in our seats and began recording.
Swan put the headphones on her head, and the first word we heard come out of her mouth was, “Attachment.” Nicole asked if there was a spirit attached to this place, and I asked if Oschwald was the one we were speaking to. Swan responded, “Old man.”
We asked the priest if he could further explain his gifts to us. Swan answered for him, “Able, victim, target.” She then said, “Okay.” We pondered what this could be about and believe his answer could’ve been regarding magick of some sort.
The conversation veered off topic for a moment because Ambrose said, “Protect.” We asked him if he protected this place, but his answer was, “Hide from me” and "People." Were the people living here afraid to believe in his presence? The temperature gauge sounded immediately after his response, and the necrometer app said, “Nineteen-sixties” and “Haunted house.” This was followed by, “Reaction.” Although he wouldn’t have been alive in the 1960s, that was the decade the seminary started to decline. This was also the same decade they turned the seminary into a prep school. Could those chain of events be related to what Ambrose was telling us?
In the middle of that conversation, Ambrose reverted back to his interest in mysticism. Swan said she heard, “I’m about to allow the Devil,” so we asked him if he dove into the dark arts before he passed. This was when Swan said, “He beat me,” and “Oh no.” I asked if that was the reason for him falling ill. Swan said, “Addicted,” so we asked Ambrose if he was addicted to working with magick. The temperature gauge sounded.
A new friend came to accompany us during the session, and she said her name was Tiffany. We asked if Tiffany had a significance, and she said, “Hang on.” Swan told us this came through as a female voice, so we asked if Tiffany was our female visitor. The response we got was, “Buddy,” and then Swan said she heard someone say, “Wife.” Oschwald was a Catholic Priest in his waking life, which meant he found love after death. That was when Tiffany said, “Hello.”
We tried to ask the couple questions about The Association, but Tiffany kept changing the subject. When we pressed questions further about Oschwald, they then changed the subject by saying, “Dance with me.” Nicole, of course, told them she would love to dance with them, and they answered, “Wonderful.”
Our necrometer gave us somewhat of a tip throughout this session, as it randomly said, “Knockers” during our conversation. My mind immediately went to the knocking on the walls the night before his passing, so I asked what the source of the knocking was the night that he died. The response we got was, “Angry.” We took this as a sign of bad spirits.
The next words we received were, “Stronger” and “Help.” We thought this could’ve been related to knocking on the walls, but after Swan said, “Did hold,” we realized he was talking about the temperature gauge/spirit box in Swan’s lap. While Nicole and I briefed about them touching the device, Swan said, “In my hand.” We told him he was incredibly intelligent and thanked him for being a part of our session. Swan responded, “Hold still. Yeah. Hi.”
A question gnawing at us was if we could go to the mausoleum. Nicole asked, and the answer was, “Maybe” and “Teetering.” We asked again if we could go to the cemetery, and Swan said, “Three, real.” We thought maybe we weren't allowed back there because of the three people who sat outside the first two times we tried. Before we could say anything else about it, Swan said, “Refuse, ugh.” We asked why, and Swan said, “Young atlas, so no.” We took this as confirmation that we may have been too adventurous for the other people on property.
Nicole kept talking about what it would be like to visit the mausoleum, and Swan said, “You’d like it.” This made us chuckle. Swan followed with, “Hi, what was your name?” so we introduced ourselves. We told them it was nice to meet them, and Swan said, “Blonde.” Nicole was the only blonde woman in the car. We pointed Nicole out, and they said they liked her. She asked if it was because she had a Bible in her backpack, and Swan said, “You.”
Nicole decided to pull the Bible out of her bag, and while doing so, Swan said, “Grab it.” Nicole handed me her phone to hold while she did this. That was when I noticed the phone stopped recording. I asked Nicole if she turned it off, and Swan said, “Oops! Hey!” It appeared the spirits accidentally bumped the phone and ended the video recording on their own.
Nicole retrieved her Bible and asked if she should open it to a specific page. Swan said she could see a congregation in white as if she were standing in front of them. This was compelling. We asked what page to turn to, and Swan answered, “First, 35.” We took this as the Old Testament on page 35.
We got to page 35, and Nicole pointed out that we were in Genesis. Swan said, "Tiffany" again, followed by, “Two of them.” We originally thought this meant Tiffany and Ambrose, but they could have also been referring to the two verses they made us read. They then told us, “Six,” so we read the line that had the '6' in front of it. It was about Jacob moving with his family and his cattle following him there. Because Swan was seeing a congregation in her head as we pulled the Bible out, we think this story is telling of when Ambrose left Germany and the congregation followed him to Wisconsin.
We asked for another story while Nicole was skimming through pages. She looked down and noticed we were now in Psalm. Swan said, “21,” and the title of Psalm 21 was “The Wicked Often Prosper.” While Nicole read it, it was telling of all the wicked people on the earth getting away with too much, raising their children to behave the same way. We discussed how much it resonated with current events. The part that stood out to us the most was, “Let their own eyes see their own destruction.”
When we were finished with our Bible study, we asked once more if we could go back to the mausoleum. The answer was, “Come on, let’s go for the people.” So, we took it as a sign to go. We drove back down by the entrance of the cemetery, and our tires started to sink the mud. It was at that moment when we realized this could’ve been Ambrose telling us yes, but to come back at another date. We already had discussed revisiting this location in the summertime without the snow, so this only supported the idea. Still, we thanked Ambrose and Tiffany for talking and took this as our sign to leave.
Post investigation, we were met up with by a hawk and eagle on our way out of town. The heavy level of protection made us question whether the town was just incredibly spiritual or if something lurked within it that we needed saving from. All of our lingering questions will soon be answered when we return to this mysterious, mystical town in coming months. Until next time, guys.
Thanks for reading.
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