Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints

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Part One - Purgatory, The Mystery of God's Justice

Chapter 40. Matter of Expiation - Lack of Charity and of Respect towards our Neighbor - Saint Louis Bertrand and the Departed Soul
asking Pardon - Father Nieremberg - Blessed Margaret Mary and the Benedictine Religious

True Charity is humble and indulgent towards others, respecting them as though they were their superiors. Her words are always friendly, and full of consideration for others, having nothing of bitterness nor coldness, nothing savoring of contempt, because she is born of a heart that is meek and humble like that of Jesus. She also carefully avoids all that could disturb unity; she takes every means, makes every sacrifice to effect a reconciliation, according to the words of our Divine Master, If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift. (Matthew 5:23).

A Religious having wounded Charity in regard to Saint Louis Bertrand, received a terrible chastisement after death. He was plunged into the fire of Purgatory, which he had to endure until he had made satisfaction to Divine Justice; nay, more, he could not be admitted into the abode of the elect until he had accomplished an act of exterior reparation, which should serve as an example to the living. The fact is thus related in the Life of the saint:

When Saint Louis Bertrand, of the Order of Saint Dominic, resided at the convent of Valencia, there was a young Religious in the community who attached too much importance to profane science. Doubtless letters and erudition have their value, but, as the Holy Ghost declares.

They should yield to the fear of God and the science of the saints. Non super timentem Dominion - "There is none above him that fears the Lord." (Ecclus. 25:13). This science of the saints, which Eternal Wisdom came to teach us, consists in Humility and Charity. The young Religious of whom we speak, while but little advanced in Divine science, allowed himself to reproach Father Bertrand with his little knowledge, and said to him, "One can see. Father, that you are not very learned!" "Brother replied the saint with meek firmness," Lucifer was very learned, and yet he was damned.

The brother who had committed this fault did not think of repairing it. Nevertheless, he was not a bad Religious, and some time after, falling dangerously sick, he received the last Sacrament in very good dispositions, and expired peacefully in the Lord. A considerable time elapsed, and meanwhile Louis was nominated Prior. One day, having remained in choir after Matins, the deceased appeared to him enveloped in flames, and prostrating humbly before him, said, "Father, pardon me the offensive words which I formerly addressed to you. God will not permit me to see His face until you shall have pardoned my fault and offered Holy Mass for me." The saint willingly forgave him, and the next morning celebrated Mass for the repose of his soul. The following night, being again in choir, he saw the deceased brother reappear, but radiant with glory and going up to Heaven.

Father Eusebius Nieremberg, Religious of the Company of Jesus, author of the beautiful book, Difference between Time and Eternity, resided at the College of Madrid, where he died in the odor of sanctity in 1658. This servant of God, who was singularly devout towards the souls in Purgatory, was praying one day in the church of the college for a Father who had recently died. The deceased, who for a long time had been a professor of theology, had proved himself to be as good a Religious as he was a learned theologian; he had been distinguished for his great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, but one vice had crept in among his virtues - he was uncharitable in his words, and frequently spoke of the faults of his neighbor. Now, whilst Father Nieremberg was recommending his soul to God, this Religious appeared, and revealed to him the state of his soul. He was condemned to frightful torments for having frequently spoken against charity. His tongue, the instrument of his fault, was tortured by a devouring fire. The Blessed Virgin, in recompense for the tender devotion which he had cherished towards her, had obtained permission for him to come and ask for prayers; he was, at the same time, to serve as an example to others, that they might learn to be guarded in all their words. Father Nieremberg, having offered many prayers and penances for him, finally obtained his deliverance.

The Religious of whom mention is made in the Life of Blessed Margaret Mary, and for whom that servant of God suffered so terribly for the space of three months, among other faults, was also punished for his sins against Charity. The revelation is thus related:

Blessed Margaret Mary, we read in her Life, being one day before the Blessed Sacrament, suddenly saw before her a man totally enveloped in fire, the intense heat of which seemed about to consume herself The wretched state in which she saw this poor soul caused her to shed tears. He was a Benedictine Religious of the monastery of Cluny, to whom she had formerly confessed, and who had done good to her soul by ordering her to receive Holy Communion. In reward for this service, God had permitted him to address himself to her, that he might find some alleviation in his sufferings.

The poor departed asked that all she should do and suffer for the space of three months might be applied to him. This she promised, after having obtained permission. Then he told her that the principal cause of his intense suffering was for having sought his own interests before the glory of God and the good of souls, by attaching too much importance to his reputation. The second was his want of charity towards his brethren. The third, the natural affection for creatures to whom, through weakness, he had yielded, and to which he had given expression in his spiritual intercourse with them, "this being," he added, "very displeasing to God."

It is difficult to say all that the Blessed Sister had to suffer during the three months following. The deceased never left her. On the side where he stood she seemed all on fire, with such excruciating pain, that she could not cease to weep. Her Superior, touched with compassion, ordered her penances and disciplines, because pain and suffering greatly relieved her. The torments which the Sanctity of God inflicted upon her were insupportable. It was a specimen of the suffering endured by the poor souls.

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Part One - Purgatory, The Mystery of God's Justice

Chapter 41. Matter of Expiation - Abuse of Grace - Saint Magdalen de Pazzi and the Dead Religious - Blessed Margaret Mary and
the Three Sou is in Purgatory

There is another disorder in the soul which God punishes severely in Purgatory, to wit, the abuse of grace. By this is understood the neglect to correspond to the aids which God gives us, and to the invitations which He presses upon us to the practice of virtue for the sanctification of our souls. This grace which He offers us is a precious gift, which we may not throw away; it is the seed of salvation and of merit, which it is not permitted to leave unproductive. Now, this fault is committed when we do not respond with generosity to the Divine invitation. I receive from God the means of giving alms; an interior voice invites me to do so. I close my heart, or I give with a miserly hand; this is an abuse of grace. I can hear Mass, assist at the sermon, frequent the Sacraments; an interior voice urges me to go, but I will not give myself the trouble. This, again, is an abuse of grace.

A young Religious must be obedient, humble, mortified, devoted to her duties; God requires this, and gives her the grace in virtue of her vocation. She does not apply herself thereto; she does not labor to overcome herself, in order to cooperate with the assistance which God gives her; this is an abuse of grace.

Now this sin, as we have said, is severely punished in Purgatory. Saint Magdalen de Pazzi tells us that one of her sisters in religion had much to suffer after death for not having on three occasions corresponded to grace, it happened that on a certain feast day she felt inclined to do some little work; it was only some simple piece of embroidery, but it was not at all necessary, and could be conveniently postponed to some other time. The inspiration of grace told her to abstain from it.

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Part Two - Purgatory, The Mystery of God's Mercy

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." -2 Machabees 12:46


Chapter 1. Fear and Confidence - The Mercy of God - Saint Lidwina and the Priest - Venerable Claude de la Colonnbiere

We have just considered the rigors of Divine Justice in the other life; they are terrific, and it is impossible to think of them without trembling. That fire, enkindled by Divine Justice, those excruciating pains, compared to which all the penances of the saints, all the sufferings of the martyrs put together, are as nothing, who is there that thinks he will be able to look upon them and not shudder from very fear?

This fear is salutary and conformable to the spirit of Jesus Christ. Our Divine Master desires that we should fear, and that we should fear not only Hell, but also Purgatory, which is a sort of mitigated Hell. It is to inspire us with this holy fear that He shows us the dungeons of the Supreme Judge, whence we shall not depart until we have paid the last farthing. (Matthew 5:26). We may say of the fire of Purgatory that which is said of Hell fire: Fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him that can cast both soul and body into Hell. (Matthew 10:28).

Yet it is not the intention of Our Lord that we should have an excessive and barren fear, a fear which tortures and discourages, a gloomy fear without confidence. No; He wishes that our fear should be tempered with great trust in His mercy; He desires that we should fear evil in order to prevent and avoid it; He desires that the thought of those avenging flames should stimulate us to fervor in His service, and cause us to expiate our faults in this world rather than in the other. "Better is it to purge away our sins, and cut off our vices now," says the author of the Imitation, "than to keep them for purgation hereafter." (I mil. 1, 24).

Moreover, if, notwithstanding our endeavors to live well, and to satisfy for our sins in this world, we have well-grounded fears that we shall have to undergo a Purgatory, we must look forward to that contingency with unbounded confidence in God, who never fails to console those whom He purifies by sufferings.

Now, to give our fear this practical character, this counterpoise of confidence, after having contemplated Purgatory in all the rigor of its pains, we must consider it under another aspect and from a different point of view - that of the Mercy of God, which shines forth therein no less than His Justice.

If God reserves terrible chastisements in the other life for the least faults. He does not inflict them without, at the same time, tempering them with clemency; and nothing shows better the admirable harmony of the Divine perfection than Purgatory, because the most severe Justice is there exercised, together with the most ineffable Mercy. If Our Lord chastises those souls that are dear to Him, it is in His love, according to the words, Such as I love I rebuke and chastise. (Apocalypse 3:19) With one hand He strikes, with the other He heals. He offers mercy and redemption in abundance: Quoniam apud Dominum misericordia, et copiosa apud eum redemptio. (Psalm 129)

This infinite Mercy of our Heavenly Father must be the firm foundation of our confidence; and, after the example of the saints, we must keep it always before our eyes. The saints never lost sight of it; and it was for this reason that the fear of Purgatory never deprived them of their peace and joy of the Holy Ghost.

Saint Lidwina, who so well knew the frightful severity of expiratory suffering, was animated with that spirit of confidence, and endeavored to inspire others with the same. One time she received a visit from a pious priest. Whilst he was seated at her bedside, together with other virtuous persons, the conversation turned on the sufferings of the other life. Seeing in the hands of a woman a vase filled with grains of mustard seed, the priest took occasion to remark that he trembled when thinking of the fire of Purgatory. "Nevertheless," he added, "I should be satisfied to go there for as many years as there are grains of seed in this vase; then, at least, I should be certain of my salvation." "What do you say. Lather?" replied the saint. "Why so little confidence in the Mercy of God. Ah! if you had a better knowledge of what Purgatory is, of what frightful torments are there endured!" "Let Purgatory be what it may," he replied. "I persist in what I say."

Some time after, this priest died, and the same persons who had been present during his conversation with Saint Lidwina, questioning the saint as to his condition in the other world, she replied, "The deceased is well off, on account of his virtuous life; but it would be better for him if he had had more confidence in the Passion of Jesus Christ, and if he had taken a milder view of the subject of Purgatory."

In what consisted this lack of confidence which met the disapproval of our saint? In the opinion which this good priest had that it is almost impossible to be saved, and that we shall enter Heaven only after having undergone innumerable years of torture. This idea is erroneous, and contrary to Christian confidence. Our Saviour came to bring peace to men of good will, and to impose upon us, as a condition of our salvation, a yoke which is sweet and a burden which is not heavy. Therefore, let your will be good, and you will find peace, you will see all difficulties and terrors vanish. Good will! that is everything. Be of good will, submit to the Will of God, place His Holy Law above all else, serve the Lord with all your heart, and He will give you such powerful assistance that you will enter Paradise with an astonishing facility. I could never have believed, you will say, that it was so easy to enter Heaven! Again, I repeat, to effect in us this wonder of Mercy, God asks on our part an upright heart, a good will.

Good will consists, properly speaking, in submitting and conforming our will to that of God, who is the rule of all good will; and this good will attains its highest perfection when we embrace the Divine Will as the sovereign good, even then when it imposes the greatest sacrifices, the most acute suffering. Oh, admirable state! The soul thus disposed seems to lose the sensation of pain, and this because the soul is animated with the spirit of love; and, as Saint Augustine says, when we love we suffer not, or, if we suffer, we love the suffering.

Venerable Claude de la Colombiere, of the Society of Jesus, possessed this loving heart, this perfect will, and in his Retrait Spirituelle he thus expresses his sentiments: "We must not cease to expiate the past disorders of our life by penance; but it must be done without anxiety, because the worst that can befall us, when our will is good and we are submissive and obedient, is to be sent for a long time to Purgatory, and we may say with good reason that this is a great evil. I do not fear Purgatory. Of Hell I will not speak, for I should wrong the Mercy of God by having the least fear of Hell, although I have merited it more than all the demons together. Purgatory I do not fear. I wish I had not deserved it.

Since I could not do so without displeasing God; but, as I have inherited to go there, I am delighted to go and satisfy His Justice in the most rigorous manner it is possible to imagine, and that even to the pay of Judgment. I know that the torments there endured are horrible, but I know that they honor God, and cannot prove an injury to the souls; that there we are certain never to oppose the Will of God; that we shall never resent His severity; that we shall even love the rigors of His justice, and await with patience [until it shall be entirely appeased. Therefore, I have given with my whole heart all my satisfactions to the souls in Purgatory, and even bequeath to others all the suffrages which shall be offered for me after my death, in order that God may be glorified in Paradise by souls who shall have merited to be raised to a higher degree of glory than myself."

Behold to what an excess of Charity, the love of God and our neighbor transports us when it has once taken possession of the heart; it transforms, transfigures suffering in such a manner, that all its bitterness is changed into sweetness. "When thou shalt arrive thus far, that tribulation shall be sweet to thee, and thou shalt relish it for the love of Christ: then think that it is well with thee, for thou hast found a Paradise upon earth." (Imit. 2,12). Let us therefore have great love for God, great Charity, and we shall have little fear of Purgatory. The Holy Ghost bears testimony in the depths of our hearts that, being children of God, we have no need to dread the chastisements of a Father.