The Ghost of the Chapel Walls: A Folktale from the Village of Benaulim

 

Exploring the village of Benaulim

- written by Jemimah Sarah Rodrigues (2408017)

Benaulim a village known for its beaches, costal restaurants and parties, there are quite a few chill places too. Benaulim isn’t a new place to me, as I’ve been there a quite a few times and even lived there when I was little. The teacher assigned a group assignment to us where we had to visit any village and collect folktales about that village, as we were deciding which village should we go to, we chose to go to Benaulim. As me and my group made our way there, I realized I knew nothing about the village despite living there. As we researched about different locations where we could find a folktale or a legend in that area, we came across a chapel which was on a hill. We climbed up the hill and explored the place, it didn’t seem creepy at all, but you could tell that the chapel was quite old and it could be seen from the structure of the chapel. We looked around if there was anyone who could tell us about the chapel, any mystery about it, any old tale that happened on that hill years back, but no one was around, we took a few pictures and left. We asked other locals about it, they told us about a priest who was murdered there. I went back home with curiosity and researched on the internet about it as much as I could, looked through old new paper archives online and reasons why someone murdered a priest, there wasn’t a full story about a priest murder. I was getting just a headline say oh yes, a priest was murdered in that chapel many years ago by some guy due to marriage conflicts, that’s about it. That isn’t a very interesting story anyone would want to read, so I let my imagination run wild and came up with this story about why was there a murder and what was the motive….  

hill top chapel

The Ghost of the Chapel Walls

In the village of Benaulim a land that was lifted from the seas with an arrow shot by a warrior, says an old legend land. But this story isn’t about that legend but about something that happened in this village. The village of Benaulim where on a hilltop stood a chapel, looking through the keyhole we see a mysterious past, a past barely spoken about, a dark past which will give you goosebumps… Jump to 200 years ago on a hilltop stood a chapel where a priest lived in this chapel who was old, very bitter and regretted his decisions. He lived his life in that chapel in loneliness. But he found himself through prayers, as he spent most of his time praying. Many of the villagers would walk up the hill to pray as they would say their prayers were being answered. This would make the priest extremely happy, as people would come to visit the chapel. On a misty morning as the chapel doors were opened by the priest, he saw a couple walking up the hill. He found them odd. The couple approached him and asked him to marry them immediately and said they were in a hurry as they were planning on leaving the village. The priest refused and was angry and told them to get out. He recognized the girl and took off to tell her parents. The parents were so furious at their daughter that they burned her alive and beat the man unconscious and when he woke up, he saw her ashes. The man was in shock and in disbelief that his beloved was no longer with him. The man wanted the priest dead. On a late night the man walked up the hill with anger and rage, a dagger in one of his hands and a bag of mud in the other. He kicked open the chapel doors and ran towards the priest and stabbed him to death, he then proceeded to break the walls and stuff the dead priest in the walls and seal it with mud. The man ran far away from the village and has never returned. The soul of the priest is trapped in the chapel walls. As his ghost floats all around making noises and whispers of the priest’s prayers. People have claimed to have seen a white figure roaming around the chapel at night. It is said that if you pray at the chapel the prayers will be answered, just like how they were answered when the priest was around. 200 years later the ghost of the priest is still said to be there trapped in the walls of the chapel waiting to be free.

Inside the chapel (picture taken from a hole in the door)