The treacherous priestThe world of legends
The spiritual shepherds had a beneficial effect on the lively people of Andermatt. In ancient times, however, as folk tradition tells us, there were also priests in the Ursern Valley from the circle of secular clergy, who were not members of any monastic order. The last of them came from Grisons – although the people of Ursern and Grisons were in serious conflict with each other over the frontier.
This priest once told his compatriots on the other side of the Oberalp that they should take the Ursern people by surprise on a certain Sunday; every single one of them would be in church. He even told them what time the service would be held. The Sunday in question arrived around Christmastime and was bitterly cold. Heavily armed, the people from Grisons crossed the Oberalp in large numbers. They were already appearing on the slopes above the village of Andermatt.
However, a woman who had recently given birth had stayed at home; she saw the enemy, whose intention she immediately guessed, rushed to the carefully locked church, smashed the windows and shouted as loud as she could: “D’Valzauser cheemet, d'Valzauser cheemet!” (The Valzauser are coming!). The Ursern men furiously smashed the pews, used the wreckage as clubs, advanced to meet their cunning foes and thrashed them so thoroughly that only two men from their ranks were left alive.
They chased away or killed the treacherous priest, who had deliberately held a longer service than usual that Sunday. From then on, the people of Andermatt requested that Capuchin monks act as their parish priests.
Speaker: Myriam Planzer
Sound recording: Florian Arnold
