The undead lady of Lucerne
Marie Josse d’Hemel was a distinguished lady who married a Lucerne patrician. She is also said to have died twice. The first time a gravedigger wanted to steal her expensive clothes, which prompted her to return from the dead and live on for another 20 years – a cautionary tale for any would-be grave robbers.
Michael van Orsouw
Michael van Orsouw has a PhD in history and is a performance poet and author. He regularly publishes historical books.
Website: geschichte-texte.ch
It wasn’t long before the Pfyffer von Wyher-d’Hemel family had two daughters and two residences: a double townhouse at Mühlenplatz in Lucerne plus the wonderful Wyher Castle near Ettiswil. Marie Josse was a strikingly beautiful lady who brought exquisite French fashion to Lucerne. She was the first lady in the town to sport a parapluie and parasol. This did not go down well among the local elders who asked their new fellow citizen in 1755 whether she would be amenable to more conservative attire, as was the convention at the time in Central Switzerland.
Events then took a sinister turn: the following night a rapacious grave digger dug her up and opened the coffin. He took the deceased’s clothes and jewellery. When he tried to remove her petticoat, so the story goes, Marie Josse suddenly opened her eyes and stepped out of the coffin. Clad in her burial garment, she then walked through Lucerne from Hofkirche to her home in Mühlenplatz, where she lived for another 20 years until 1800 – although she never smiled again.
Whether the thief was after a dress or a ring, this is one spooky tale. It doesn’t exclusively relate to Lucerne either. Kurt Lussi, a Lucerne folklorist, has proven that variations of the story are also told about other places. That makes it a wandering legend, i.e. a fable of which there are different variants for different locations. For example, there is Lady Emma Edgcumbe in England who returned to the living after a graveyard thief unscrewed her coffin.
The thinking behind the stories is evident: the gruesome tale is to discourage would-be grave robbers, so the deceased can rest in peace.
“(…) The lamp gave forth an eerie glow, lighting up the nocturnal darkness, the baroness stirs in her coffin, awoken from her eternal slumber, the miscreant starts, gripped by sudden horror, as suddenly the pale corpse rises up. In the dull starlight, a poor lady staggers home, Lady von Wyher, so sick in body and mind. She lives another twenty years, for her children and husband, never again will she smile, in the bright knight’s hall. The nefarious grave digger fled over field and valley, overcome by horror, he falls in the dew. Wayfarers find the miscreant in the morning pale and stiff, the grave robber by night – was a rescuer too.”
