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PURGATORY
PURGATORY MARY ANNE MADDEN SADLIER R. I. P.
INTRODUCTION
I have written many books and translated many more on a great variety
of subjects nearly all of which I thank God now with all my heart
were more or less religious at least in their tendency; but the circle
of these my life-long labors seems to me incomplete. One link is
wanting to the chain and that is a work specially devoted to the souls
in Purgatory. This omission I am anxious to supply while the working
days of my life are still with me for a few more years at most and
for me "the night cometh when no man can work."
As we advance into the vale of years and journey on the downward slope
we are happily drawn more and more towards the eternal truths of the
great untried world beyond the grave. Foremost amongst these stands out
more and still more clearly in all its awful reality the dread but
consoling doctrine of Purgatory. When we have seen many of our best
beloved relatives many of our dearest and most devoted friends--those
who started with us in "the freshness of morning" on the road of life
which then lay so deceitfully fair and bright before them and us--they
who shared our early hopes and aspirations and whose words and smiles
were the best encouragement of our feeble efforts--when we have seen
them sink one by one into the darkness of the grave leaving the
earth more bleak and dreary year by year for those who remain--then do
we naturally follow them in spirit to those gloomy regions where one or
all may be undergoing that blessed purification which prepares them for
the eternal repose of Heaven.
Of all the divine truths which the Catholic Church proposes to her
children assuredly none is more acceptable to the pilgrim race of Adam
than that of Purgatory. It is beyond conception dear and precious as
one of the links that connect the living with the vanished dead and
which keeps them fresh in the memory of those who loved them on earth
and whose dearest joy it is to be able to help them in that shadowy
border-land through which in pain and sorrow they must journey before
entering the Land of Promise which is the City of God seated on the
everlasting hills.
When I decided on adding yet another to the many books on Purgatory
already existing even in our own language I at the same time
resolved to make it as different as possible from all the others and
thus fill up a void of which I have long been sensible in our English
Purgatorial literature. Doctrinal works books of devotion e have in
abundance but it is unhappily only the pious the religiously-
inclined who will read them. Knowing this and still desirous to
promote devotion to the Holy Souls by making Purgatory more real more
familiar to the general reader I thought the very best means I could
take for that end would be to make a book chiefly of legends and of
poetry with enough of doctrinal and devotional matter to give a
substantial character to the work by placing it on the solid
foundations of Catholic dogma patristic authority and that at the
same time of the latest divines and theologians of the Church by
selections from their published writings.
I have divided the work into five parts viz.: Doctrinal and
Devotional comprising extracts from Suarez St. Catherine of Genoa
St. Augustine St. Gertrude St. Francis de Sales of the earlier and
middle ages; and from Archbishop Gibbons Very Rev. Faa di Bruno
Father Faber Father Muller C.S.S.R. Father Binet S.J. Rev. J. J.
Moriarty and others.
The Second Part consists of Anecdotes and Incidents relating to
Purgatory and more or less authentic. The Third Part contains
historical matter bearing on the same subject including Father
Lambing's valuable article on "The Belief in a Middle State of Souls
after Death amongst Pagan Nations." The Fourth Part is made up of
"Thoughts on Purgatory from Various Authors Catholic and non-
Catholic" including Cardinals Newman Wiseman and Manning; the
Anglican Bishops Jeremy Taylor and Reginald Heber Dr. Samuel Johnson
William Hurrell Mallock Count de Maistre Chateaubriand.
The Fifth and last part consists of a numerous collection of legends
and poems connected with Purgatory. Many of these are translated from
the French especially the _Legendes de l'Autre Monde_ by the
well-known legendist J. Colin de Plancy. In selecting the legends and
anecdotes I have endeavored to give only those that were new to most
English readers thus leaving out many legends that would well bear
reproducing but were already too well known to excite any fresh
interest.
In the poetical section I have represented as many as possible of the
best-known poets from Dante down and some poems of rare beauty and
merit were translated from French and Canadian poets by my daughter
who has also contributed some interesting articles for the historical
portion of the work. As may be supposed this book is the fruit of much
research. The collection of the material has necessarily been a work of
time the field from which the gleanings were made being so vast and
the selections requiring so much care.
As regards the legendary portion of the work whether prose or poetry
the reader will of course understand that I give the legends
precisely for what they are worth; by no means as representing the
doctrinal belief of Purgatory but merely as some of the wild flowers
of poetry and romance that have grown in the long lapse of time from
the rich soil of faith and piety amongst the Catholic peoples of every
land--intensified in this instance by the natural affection of the
living for their dear departed ones and the solemn and shadowy mystery
in which the dead are shrouded when once they have passed the portals
of eternity and are lost to mortal sight. Some of these legends though
exceedingly beautiful will hardly bear close examination in the light
of Catholic dogma. Of this class is "The Faithful Soul" of Adelaide
Procter which is merely given here as an old French legend nearly
connected with Purgatory and having really nothing in it contrary to
faith though in a high degree improbable but yet from its intrinsic
beauty and dramatic character no less than the subtle charm of Miss
Procter's verse eminently worthy of a place in this collection. The
same remark applies more or less to some of Colin de Plancy's legends
notably that of "Robert the Devil's Penance" and others of a similar
kind as also T. D. McGee's "Penance of Don Diego Rias" and Calderon's
"St. Patrick's Purgatory"--the two last named bearing on the same
subject. Nevertheless they all come within the scope of my present
work and are therefore presented to the reader as weird fragments of
the legendary lore of Purgatory.
Taken altogether I think this work will help to increase devotion to
the Suffering Souls and excite a more tender and more sensible feeling
of sympathy for them at least amongst Catholics showing as it does
the awful reality of those purgative pains awaiting all with few or no
exceptions in the after life; the help they may and do receive from
the good offices of the living and the sacred and solemn' duty it is
for Christians in the present life to remember them and endeavor to
relieve their sufferings by every means in their power. To answer this
purpose I have made the dead ages unite their solemn and authoritative
voice with that of the living actual present in testimony of the truth
of this great Catholic dogma. The Saints the Fathers the Doctors of
the Church in the ages of antiquity and the prelates and priests of
our own day all speak the same language of undoubting faith of solemn
conviction regarding Purgatory--make the same earnest and eloquent
appeal to the faithful on behalf of the dear suffering souls. Even the
heathen nations and tribes of both hemispheres are brought forward as
witnesses to the existence of a middle state in the after life. Nor is
Protestantism itself wanting in this great and overwhelming mass of
evidence as the reader will perceive that some of its most eminent
divines and secular writers have joined with no hesitating or
faltering voice in the grand _Credo_ of the nations and the ages
in regard to Purgatory.
What remains for me to add except the earnest hope that this book may
have the effect it is intended to produce by bringing the faithful
children of the Church to think more and oftener of their departed
brethren who having passed from the Militant to the Suffering Church
are forever crying out to the living from their darksome prison--"Have
pity on us have pity on us at least you who were our friends have
pity on us for the hand of the Lord is heavy upon us!"
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART I.
DOCTRINAL AND DEVOTIONAL.
Doctrine of Suarez on Purgatory
St. Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory
Extracts from the Fathers on Purgatory
Verses from the Imitation _Thomas a Kempis._
St. Augustine and his Mother St. Monica
St. Gertrude and the Holy Souls
St. Joseph's Intercession for the Faithful Departed
St. Francis de Sales on Purgatory
Cardinal Gibbons on Purgatory
Archbishop Hughes on Purgatory
Archbishop Lynch on Purgatory
Purgatory Surveyed _Father Binet S. J._
Father Faber on Devotion to the Holy Souls
Why the Souls in Purgatory are called "Poor" _Mullcr._
Appeal to all Classes for the Souls in Purgatory _By a Paulist
Father._
The Souls in Purgatory _Rev. F. X. Weninger S. J._
Popular View of Purgatory _Rev. J. J. Moriarty._
Extracts from "Catholic Belief" _Very Rev. Faa Di Bruno D.D._
Purgatory and the Feast of All Souls _Alban Butkr._
PART II.
ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.
The Fruit of a Mass _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_.
Faith of a Pious Lady _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_.
Pay what Thou Owest _Ave Maria_.
VIA CRUCIS _Footsteps of Spirits_.
Strange Incidents _Footsteps of Spirits_.
True Story of the "_De Profundis_" _Ave Maria_.
Confidence Rewarded _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_
Anecdote of the "_De Profundis_"
Strange Occurrence in a Persian Prison _Life of St. John the
Almoner_.
A Swiss Protestant Converted by the Doctrine of Purgatory
_Catechism in Examples_.
The Dead Hand _Ave Maria_.
A Beautiful Example _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_.
How to Pay One's Debts _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_.
Faith Rewarded _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_.
Apparition of a Citizen of Arles _Histoire des Spectres_.
Countess of Strafford _Vie de Monsgr. de la Mothe_.
Marquis de Civrac _Une Commune Vendeenne. 183
Gratitude of the Holy Souls _Ave Maria_.
Strange Incident _Ave Maria_.
PART III.
HISTORICAL.
Doctrine of Purgatory amongst the Pagan Nations of Antiquity _Rev.
A. A. Lambing_.
Devotion to the Dead amongst American Indians
Superstitious Belief amongst American Indians
Remembrance of the Dead amongst the Egyptians
Remembrance of the Dead throughout Europe _A. T. Sadlier_. Part
I.
Remembrance of the Dead throughout Europe _A. T. Sadlier_. Part
II.
Prayer for the Dead in the Anglo-Saxon Church _Dr. Lingard_
Singular French Custom _Voix de la Verite_
Devotion to the Holy Souls amongst the Early English _A. T.
Sadlier_
Doctrine of Purgatory in the Early Irish Church _Walsh_
Prince Napoleon's Prayer
Helpers of the Holy Souls _Lady G. Fullerton_
The Mass in Relation to the Dead _O'Brien_
Daniel O'Connell Funeral Oration on _Rev. T. N. Burke O.P._
Indulgence of the Portiuncula _Almanac of the Souls in
Purgatory_.
Catherine of Cardona _Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_.
The Emperor Nicholas Praying for his Mother _Anecdotes
Chretiennes_.
Pius VI. Funeral Oration on _Rev. Arthur O'Leary O.S.F._
Rev. Arthur O'Leary O.S.F. Funeral Oration on _Rev. M. D'Arcy_
_De Mortuis_. Our Deceased Prelates. _Archbishop Corrigan_
PART IV.
THOUGHTS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS ON PURGATORY.
Purgatory _Cardinal Newman_
Our Debt to the Dead _Cardinal Manning_
Purgatory _Cardinal Wiseman_
Reply to some Misstatements about Purgatory _Archbishop
Spalding_
Count de Maistre on Purgatory
What the Saints thought of Purgatory
Chateaubriand on Purgatory
Mary and the Faithful Departed _Brother Azarias._
Dr. Johnson on Prayer for the Dead
The Doctrine of Purgatory _Burnett._
Mallock on Purgatory
Boileau-Despreaux and Prayer for the Dead
All Saints and All Souls _Mrs. Sadlier._
Leibnitz on the Mass as a Propitiatory Sacrifice
Extracts from "A Troubled Heart"
Eugenie de Guerin and her Brother Maurice
Passages from the "Via Media" _Newman._
All Souls _From the French._
An Anglican Bishop Praying for the Dead
"Purgatory" of Dante _Mariotti._
Month of November _Mary E. Blake._
Litany of the Departed _Acolytus._
All Souls' Day _Mrs. Sadlier._
Cemeteries
Opinions of Various Protestants
Some Thoughts for November
PART V.
LEGENDARY AND POETICAL.
_Dies Irae_
Authorship of the _Dies Irae_
Dante's _"Purgatorio"_
Hamlet and the Ghost _Shakespeare._
Calderon's "Purgatory of St. Patrick"
The Brig o' Dread _Scott._
Shelley and the Purgatory of St. Patrick
On a Great Funeral _Aubrey de Vere._
_Morte d'Arthur_ _Tennyson._
Guido and his Brother _Collin de Plancy._
Berthold in Purgatory _Collin de Plancy._
Legend of St. Nicholas _Collin de Planey._
Dream of Gerontius _Newman. St. Gregory_
Releases the Soul of Trajan _Mrs. Jameson._
St. Gregory and the Monk Legend of Geoffroid d'lden
The Queen of Purgatory _Faber_.
The Dead Priest before the Altar _Rev. A. J. Ryan_.
Memorials of the Dead _R. R. Madden_.
A Child's "_Requiescat in Pace_" _Eliza Allen Starr_.
The Solitary Soul _Ave Maria_.
Story of the Faithful Soul _Adelaide Procter_.
Generade the Friend of St. Augustine _De Plancy_
St. Thomas Aquinas and Friar Romanus _De Plancy_.
The Key that Never Turns _Eleanor C. Donnelly_.
A Burial _Thomas Davis_.
Hymn for the Dead _Newman_.
The Two Students _De Plancy_.
The Penance of Don Diego Riaz _McGee_.
The Day of All Souls _Eliza Allen Starr_.
Message of the November Wind _Eleanor C. Donnelly_.
Legend of the Time of Charlemagne
The Dead Mass
The Eve of St. John _Sir Walter Scott_.
Request of a Soul in Purgatory
All Souls' _Marion Muir_.
The Dead _Octave Cremasie_
A REQUIEM _Sir Walter Scott_.
Penance of Robert the Devil _De Plancy_.
All Souls' Eve
Commemoration of All Souls _Harriet M. Skidmore_.
The Memory of the Dead _Faber_.
The Holy Souls.
Author of "Christian Schools and Scholars."
The Palmer's Rosary _Eliza Allen Starr_.
A Lyke Wake Dirge.
All Souls' Day _Lyra Liturgica_.
The Suffering Souls. _E. M. V. Bulger._
"The Voices of the Dead." _M. R. in "The Lamp."_
The Convent Cemetery. _Rev. A. J. Ryan._
One Hour after Death. _Eliza Allen Starr._
A Prayer for the Dead. _T. D. McGee._
The _De Profundis Bell._ _Harriet M. Skidmore._
November. _Anna T. Sadlier._
For the Souls in Purgatory.
All Souls' Eve.
Our Neighbor. _Eliza Allen Starr._
Old Bells.
O Holy Church. _Harriet M. Skidmore._
An Incident of the Battle of Bannockburn. _Sir Walter Scott._
Pray for the Martyred Dead.
In Winter. _Eliza Allen Starr._
_Oremus._ _Mary E. Mannix._
Funeral Hymn. _A. T. Sadlier._
_Chant Funebre._ _Nisard._
_Requiescat in Pace._ _Harriet M. Skidmore._
The Feast of All Souls in the Country. _Anna T. Sadlier._
_Requiem AEternum_ _T. D. McGee._
APPENDIX.
Association of Masses and Stations of the Cross.
Extracts from _The Catholic Review_ of New York.
A Duty of November. _The Texas Monitor._
Purgatorial Association. _Catholic Columbian._
The Holy Face and the Suffering Souls.
When will they Learn its Secret? _Baptist Examiner._
PART I.
DOCTRINAL AND DEVOTIONAL.
"But now brethren if I come to you speaking with tongues: what shall
I profit you unless I speak to you either in revelation or in
knowledge or in prophecy or in doctrine?"
--ST. PAUL I. COR. PURGATORY:
DOCTRINAL AND DEVOTIONAL.
DOCTRINE OF SUAREZ ON PURGATORY.
THE PLACE.
It is a certain truth of faith that after this life there is a place of
Purgatory. Though the name of Purgatory may not be found in Holy
Scripture that does not matter if we can show that the thing meant by
the name can be found there; for often the Church either because of
new heresies or that the doctrine of the faith may be set forth more
clearly and shortly gives new and simple names in which the mysteries
of the faith are summed up. This is evident in the cases of the Holy
Trinity the Incarnation and the Holy Eucharist.
The doctrine of Purgatory is proved by:--the Old Testament the New
Testament the Councils of the Church especially those of Florence and
of Trent the Fathers and Tradition and by theological reasons.
WHERE PURGATORY IS.
Nothing is said in Holy Scripture about this place nor is there any
definition of the Church concerning it. The subject therefore comes
within the range of theological discussion. Theologians however
suppose Purgatory to be a certain corporeal place in which souls are
kept till they pay fully the debt which they owe. It is true that they
do not in themselves need a corporeal place since they are spirits;
but yet as they are in this world they must of necessity be in some
corporeal place--at any rate with regard to substantial presence. Thus
we see that God in His providence has made definite places for the
Angels according to the difference of their states. Gehenna is
prepared for the devil and his angels whereas the empyreal Heaven is
made for the good angels. In this way it is certain that the souls
paying their debt are kept in a corporeal place. This place is not
heaven for nothing that is defiled enters there; nor is it hell for
in hell there is no redemption and from that place no souls can be
saved.
PAIN OF LOSS AND SENSE.
The pain of loss is the want of the vision of God and of the whole of
our everlasting beatitude. The pain of sense is the suffering of
punishment specially inflicted over and above the loss of the beatitude
of Heaven.
We must assert that the souls in Purgatory suffer the pain of loss
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Unpublished Work 
