The Ghost of Mary Doran

A female spirit returns to haunt the New England church she helped establish . . .

Compton, Rhode Island, part of West Warwick today, was first settled in the early 1800s. A cotton mill carved out of the area’s virgin forest was built on the Pawtuxet River in 1807.

As this mill expanded a problem arose, the areas sparse population could not fill the need for the additional employees now needed.

In the 1840s, Irish immigrants driven from their homeland during the Potato Famine started to arrive in Compton. They at first were welcomed because they were skilled textile workers.

But it wasn’t long before the local Anglo-Protestants clashed with the new Catholic immigrants. Suspicious of a religion that was not their own, the locals became fearful, which caused intolerance to spread.

The Irish immigrants had to walk 10 miles to Providence to attend mass. So they decided to build a church of their own. Catching wind of this, the Protestants decided to block their efforts.

They refused to sell any land to the Catholics.

A local couple, Mary and Paul Doran sympathetic to the immigrant’s problem conspired to help them. They sold an acre of land to the Irish Catholics under the guise of expanding their own holdings.

They then deeded the land to the Roman Catholic bishop in Hartford. In 1844, construction began on the church. Mary Doran, however, died before the work was complete.

One legend states Mary died as a result of a curse that was placed upon her in retaliation for helping the immigrants. People point to this curse as a possible reason why Mary Doran’s spirit still lingers at this church.

St. Mary's church.

For over a century members of St. Mary’s church * have claimed to feel an eerie presence in their midst.

For decades after Mary’s death, members of this church mainly, children avoided the building stating it “made them uncomfortable.” Even today members say they will not go into this church alone after dark.

One eyewitness who experienced this haunting regularly is Father Edmund H. Fitzgerald. He was the pastor of St. Mary’s from 1984 until 1992.

He, like most of the congregation, agrees that Mary Doran's spirit haunts the old church.

While at St. Mary's, he often heard footsteps right behind him on the cedar wood floors. When he would turn around, no one was there. The Father emphasizes that he never felt threatened by this presence.

In one written statement he recounts one Christmas Eve in 1990 after mass, the church's tower bell rang. He heard it at 5:30 p.m. as he was locking the door to leave.

When he went back in to investigate, he found the bell-rope moving up and down. There was nobody else in the church. The Father noted that “even recent hurricanes did not cause the bell to ring in this way.”

Organ and choir loft.

During his time at the church he discovered that Mary often made her presence known by playing the church organ. When this occurred, the instrument was closed, locked and covered with a cloth, and the loft lights were out.

Father Fitzgerald states that he got a fleeting glimpse of Mary’s ghost. He was standing looking out over the church parking lot when he felt a presence by his side. Out of the “corner of his eye,” he saw a female figure—when he turned his head, she was gone.

*  St. Mary's was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978. This church was built in the Gothic style and is the oldest Catholic church building still in use in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.