Medium Raises Record Funds For St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center

It is not often that one has the opportunity to see a psychic medium perform in a puportedly haunted former church. It is uncommon to be served beer in a pew while marveling at portraits of your ancestors. It is even rarer to find laughter and fun in the dark subjects of death and loss.

To have the chance to do all of these things while providing needed funding for a valuable local institution is virtually unheard of.

But then, not every place is like . The venue, once an ornate Catholic Church, is now the site of a community-based non-profit, and offers the largest collection of fresco paintings in North America. In the 1940s Woonsocket parsioners served as models for Italian artist Guido Nincheri, who used the facility's walls as his canvass.  

Maureen Hancock, the "comedienne medium," gave a benefit performance for St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center Thursday night, entertaining a crowd of around 250 with her unique delivery of messages from the other side. With an evening that punctuated touching moments with genuine humor, the show proved to be an ideal middle ground for sceptic first-timers to the "medium" experience.

Hancock did a show in the center's basement last month and, inspired by the enormous collection of fresco paintings that grace the facility, and the story behind the former church, offered to return free of charge.

The evening began with a cocktail hour with hors d’oeuvres and entertainment by A Touch of Brass. Small clothed tables created a elegant lounge within the upper fresco gallery of the former church. As Hancock's performance begin, visitors moved to the church pews, where St. Ann's voluteer staff continued to serve them from the bar. 

"The energy in here is so intense and so powerful," said Hancock. "This is my first Catholic Church event."

Hancock began with the story of her journey toward becoming a professional medium. As a toddler, the medium spent three years in a hospital in Boston with lead paint poisoning. When she came back, Hancock says she saw ghosts everywhere.

"I turned it off for most of my life," she said. During a car accident years later, she heard the voice of her deceased grandmother on impact. The car was crushed and emergency workers were baffled as to how she had escaped with her life. Hancock believes her grandmother helped her.

"After that, I embraced this gift that I believe everyone has. We just ignore it."

According to the medium, the spirits struggle to get through during her performances, resulting in "double connections," where several are communicating at once. Audience members were asked to raise their hands if they believed the message she delivered was intended for them.    

"I have two husbands here and they're duking it out," Hancock said. Groups were pulled to the front to hear messages from their lost loved ones, though frequently, Hancock would stop to acknowledge a message for another audience member.

"Spirits have no etiqutte," she said. "But they try to let you know they're OK. They're not dead; they're just different."

"Do you have a dead Ed?" Hancock asked one woman. Although some of Hancock's observations did not apply to the families she spoke to, others were surprisingly accurate.

"He's saying 'my boys,'" she told a young lady who had recently lost a fiance. "Does he have children...? Three boys, maybe?"

"We have two and I'm pregnant, with one on the way," replied the teary-eyed listener.

To another smiling participant: "Your son could not speak?" Her deceased son, she replied, could not talk because of muscular atrophy.

While sceptics in the audience did not likely walk away with solid evidence of the validity of Hancock's claims, few could argue that the experience, including Hancock's comedy delivered in the breathtaking venue, was one to be remembered. Hancock's book "The Medium Next Door — Adventures of a Real Life Ghost Whisperer" was available for sale and crowds lined up after the performance for signings.

"She's just incredible," said the center's Executive Director, Dominique Doiron. "When we had her here about a month ago, I was just blown away."

At $40 a ticket, the event proved to be the most successful fundraiser in the center's history.

"It was great to have it in the upper gallery," Doiron said. "It really ties in to the whole idea of faces of our past."