Fresno Famous

In downtown Fresno, at St. John's Cathedral there is the legend of Sister Irenita. Sister Irenita served the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno in the early 1900's. It was there she passed away, but never really left. For months her spirit could be seen wandering the halls of the rectory.  

Finally a special mass was done to put her spirit at rest and the sightings stopped. What's really interesting is that a root from a tree had broken into the Sisters grave a few years later. When she was disinterred, her body showed no sign of decay whatsoever and it looked as she had been buried for only a few days.

This story has circulated for years as it was one of the first local ghost stories I had come across when I started doing my research back in 2000. Not sure what attracted to me it more, the Catholic in me or the idea that a church was haunted by a nun.  Though Sister Irenita hasn't been seen in decades I did happen to meet someone who worked at the rectory.  They told me shadows were reported being seen there and lights turning on and off when no one else was there.  I asked if I could possibly visit the rectory and the person said they would ask.  Next time I ran into that person I asked them about the visit, but they said they no longer worked at the rectory.  If this is true or not its's hard to say.