Priest summoned to nursing home haunted by ghosts: report

Oct 28, 2006, 16:23 GMT

Oslo - The ghost of an old nurse that haunts a Norwegian nursing home has frightened some patients and staff so much that management approached a priest in connection with the matter, a news report said Saturday.

Staff have even noticed the scent of the nurse's perfume in the corridors, the Telemarksavisa reported, saying other ghosts had also been sighted at the nursing home in Porsgrunn, south-west of the capital, Oslo.

'First of all I want to say that these ghosts were not threatening,' nursing home director Sigrid Oyen told the newspaper, adding that although she had not had any personal encounters she believed her staff.

The sighted ghosts 'were friendly, but of course some people feel that it is quite scary when they experience something that is not quite 'normal,' she added.

Other sightings at the nursing home built in the 1930s include a little boy sitting at the end of a corridor and two old women who ask if everything is alright.

Local priest Morten Edvardsen told Telemarksavisa he had been contacted and had tried to offer his help, saying he had 'prayed and offered some blessings.'

Edvardsen said the subject of haunted places was quite taboo, and that the phenomena had nothing in common with how it is depicted in commercial television programmes.

Some 85 per cent of the 4.6 million Norwegians are members of the Lutheran Church of Norway.