A church with the sinister name The Black Church in Dublin has a legend that claims if you follow the ritual, you will be able to summon the devil.
In the quiet streets of Dublin 7, where old stone and shadow mingle, there stands a building that has said to hold the power to summon the devil. Surprising enough, it is a former church and chapel.
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St Mary’s Chapel of Ease, better known as The Black Church, is built of dark calp limestone that seems to drink in the light. When it rains the limestone takes on a dark hue when getting wet, hence the name it was given. Once a place of worship, it now serves as offices, yet few locals can walk past it after dark without glancing over their shoulder. The reason is simple: the devil is said to dwell here.
The Church of Shadows
Built in 1830, protestant chapel, The Black Church was designed to serve parishioners who lived too far from St Mary’s on Marlborough Street. It even has a mention in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Over the years, however, its eerie appearance earned it a far darker reputation. The rough, blackened stone gave the building a funereal air, and as the decades passed, stories began to grow about strange whispers, cold drafts, and the feeling of being watched even in daylight.
When the church was deconsecrated in the 1960s, many claimed it was not just falling attendance that led to its closure, but something more sinister. Some even said that during its final service, the candles flickered violently and the air turned ice cold as if something within the walls had awoken.
Summoning the Devil
Every haunting has its ritual, and The Black Church has three. Locals whisper that there are only three ways to summon the devil himself.
- One version says you must run around the church three times at midnight, your footsteps echoing on the empty street.
- Another insists you must walk around it in reverse exactly thirteen times without looking away from the building.
- The final, and perhaps most blasphemous, claims that if you stand before its door and recite the Our Father backwards, the devil will appear before you.
No one admits to trying all three. Some say a student once dared to, only to vanish without a trace, his friends finding his shoes by the entrance the next morning.
A Warning in Stone
Though time has softened its purpose, The Black Church remains one of Dublin’s most enduring legends. Whether or not the devil ever walked its grounds, its stones hold a strange gravity that draws the curious and the foolish alike.
If you ever find yourself near St Mary’s Place on a still night, take care. You may feel tempted to test the legend, to run around its walls or whisper a forbidden prayer. But remember the warnings of the locals and those who call upon the darkness at The Black Church may find that it answers.
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References:
St Mary’s, Dublin (chapel of ease) – Wikipedia
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