Purgatory by Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

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"'Well, I will not conceal from you that the Souls in Purgatory have
visibly protected me; and to make known to you, in a few words, all my
little history, I must tell you that, two or three years ago, I heard
people speak so favorably of the Association for the Souls in
Purgatory--I heard so much about it, indeed, that from that day
forward, I placed all my little business under the care of the
Suffering Souls, and ever since, I am happy to tell you, to the credit
of those holy Souls, that my affairs go, as if they were on wheels!"
(These are his own words.) "I give my thirty-three dollars a year
without any injury to myself; on the contrary, all goes the better for
it. My store is not much to look at, but it is well filled, and all
that is in it is my own. Apart from that, and what is still better, I
have not a penny of debt.'

"He then added, in a lower tone: 'I have, moreover, the happiness of
honoring in that way the thirty-three years of labors and sufferings
which Our Divine Lord spent on earth. That thought does my poor heart
good.

"'Ah, sir,' said he, with an impulse of true faith which made my heart
thrill--'Ah, sir, if men believed more, they would do wonders, and the
word of Our Lord never fails, and He has said that the more one gives
the more they receive, for charity never makes any one poor; only we
must give without distrust, and without speculation.'

"I warmly shook hands with this admirable man, and returned home as
charmed with my visit as delighted with so much faith. Then I said to
myself: 'There is a fine example to follow. How many others might have
no debts, if they knew how to make sacrifices for the dear Suffering
Souls!'"_--Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory, 1877_

HOW TO PAY ONE'S DEBTS.

Speaking just now of that generous man who had no debts, we called to
mind an example that teaches a pretty way of paying debts. We are about
to furnish the receipt, so that no one may complain, giving to each the
chance of making use of it. In divulging this secret we shall certainly
pass for the least selfish man in the world; for, to furnish every one
with the means of paying their debts, is it not to procure for each the
opportunity of enriching himself? But, dear reader, laying aside all
thanks, hasten only to profit by the receipt, and we shall, each of us,
have obtained our object.

We take this secret from the Chronicles of the good Friars Minors, an
authority to which no one can take exception.

The Blessed Berthold belonged to the great Franciscan family. His fine
talents and rare virtues had caused him to be appointed a preacher of
the Order. The Sovereign Pontiff, seeing all the good that Berthold was
destined to do by his eloquent sermons, had given him power to grant to
each of his hearers, an indulgence of ten days; which was a great
privilege for the faithful, as well as a mark of esteem and distinction
for himself.

Friar Berthold, then, had preached a most moving sermon on alms-giving,
and had granted the ten days' indulgence to all who were present.
Amongst the audience was a lady of quality who, owing to a reverse of
fortune, was in great distress and loaded with debt. She had hitherto
been content to suffer in silence, being prevented by a false shame
from making her condition known; but overcome by the enthusiastic
charity of the good father, she went privately to him to explain how
she was situated, giving him thus an opportunity of putting in practice
what he had so eloquently preached. But Friar Berthold, who, like his
father St. Francis, had chosen poverty for his lady and mistress, could
not come to her relief. Nevertheless, as poverty, in the man who
suffers and endures it voluntarily for the love of God, becomes
strength and even riches, Berthold, strong in his sacrifice and rich in
his poverty--Berthold, inspired by the Holy Ghost, repeated to her what
Peter of old, inspired by God, said to the lame man at the gate of the
Temple who had asked him for alms: "Silver and gold have I none, but
that which I have I will give unto thee." He then assured the lady that
she had gained ten days' indulgence by being present at his preaching,
and he added: "Go to such a banker in the city. Hitherto he has busied
himself much more about temporal riches than spiritual treasures, but
offer him in return for the donation he will give you, to make over to
him the merit of this indulgence, so that the pains awaiting him in
Purgatory may be diminished. I have every reason to think," continued
the good Father, "that he will give you some assistance."

The poor woman, full of that faith which is so powerful, went as she
was told, in all simplicity. God touched the heart of the rich man, who
received her kindly. He asked her how much she expected to receive in
exchange for her ten days' indulgence. Feeling herself animated by an
interior strength, she replied: "As much as it weighs in the balance."
--"Well!" said the banker, "here is the balance. Write down your ten
days' indulgence, and put the paper in one scale; I will place a piece
of money in the other." O prodigy! the scale with the paper in it does
not rise, but the other does. The banker, much amazed, puts in another
piece of money, but the weight is not changed; he puts in another, then
another; but the result is still the same, the paper on which the
indulgence is written is still the heaviest. The Banker puts down then
five, ten, thirty pieces, till there was as much as the whole amount
which the lady required for her present needs. Then only did the two
scales become equal.

The banker, struck with astonishment, saw in this marvel a precious
lesson for him; he was at length made sensible of the value of the
things of heaven.

The poor Souls understand it still better, as, for the slightest
earthly indulgence they would give all the gold in the world.

You, then, who have no money to give for the Souls in Purgatory--you,
too, who have financial difficulties on your shoulders, offer up
indulgences for the poor Souls, and they will make themselves your
bankers; they will pay you double, nay, a hundred-fold for whatever you
have put in the scale of the balance of mercy. They will pay you not
only in spiritual treasures, but even in temporal wealth, which will
procure for you the double advantage of paying your debts here below,
and those of the other world.--_Almanac of the Souls in Purgatory_,
1877.

FAITH REWARDED.

"One day, in the month of July," relates a zelator of the Association,
[1] "I met one of our members. He was a man of an amiable disposition,
and remarkable for his piety and his devotion to good works. He was a
merchant of good standing, engaged in a respectable business. Like many
others, however, he had seen bad days; and to the commonplace question,
'How goes business?' he replied: 'Ah! badly enough; I can hardly pay
expenses, and I am doubly unfortunate. I had a house which brought me
in two or three hundred dollars a year, and I have had the misfortune
of being unable to rent it this year, so that, losing on all sides, I
find myself a good deal embarrassed.'--'Will you allow me,' said I, 'to
give you a little advice? Promise some Masses for the Souls in
Purgatory in case you have the good fortune to rent your house. It will
be, as it were, the tithe of your rent. We too often forget that we owe
to Our Lord a part of what He gives us so freely. It is, nevertheless,
only an offering that we make Him of His own goods; and, at the same
time, an act of gratitude for that He has deigned to give it to us.
Furthermore, it is an act of homage, an acknowledgment of His
supremacy. And we shall derive the more profit from it according as we
do it with a good heart. Besides all that, you have the additional
happiness of assisting your relatives and friends who are suffering in
the flames of Purgatory.'

[Footnote 1: For the Relief of the Souls in Purgatory.]

"This little exhortation seemed to strike him to whom it was addressed,
and, as if awaking from a long lethargy, he suddenly said: 'Why did I
not think of that before? I promise,' added he, 'five dollars for the
Souls in Purgatory, if I find a tenant.'

"This eagerness to do good, this species of regret for not having done
it sooner, this pious disposition which makes us desire to relieve
those who are in affliction, must have been very pleasing to God, for,
within the week, the gentleman came to me with his five dollars, and
said, smiling: 'I lose no time, you see, in keeping my promise.'--'Why,
have you already rented your house?'--'Yes, a manufacturer from the
country who had just had the misfortune of being burned out, saw my
house by chance, came to ask my terms, and we agreed at once. He is to
take possession next week.'

"A week passed, even a month, then two, and no tenant, when I happened
again to meet my friend, whom I almost suspected of having forgotten
his promise. 'Ah!' said he, 'I am worse off than ever, and I was so
sure of having rented my house.'--' How! did that person not come back,
then?'--' No, and I thought him such an honest man! The disappointment
has been a great loss to me.'--'Write to him, then, threatening to make
him responsible for the whole rent. But, better than that, wait still,
and have confidence; the Holy Souls cannot fail to bring the matter to
a favorable issue. It is, perhaps, a want of faith on your part which
has delayed the fulfillment of the contract.'

"Three days had scarcely passed when I again saw our Associate. 'This
time,' said he, 'I come to pay; my tenant has arrived.'--'But he has
made you lose five or six weeks' rent.'--'Not so; he is, just as I
thought, an honorable, upright man. He arrived two days ago. It was I
that hired your house,' said he, 'and I come to take possession of
it.'--'Mr.----,' said I, 'I am very glad, but I expected you sooner.'--
'It is true I was to have come before now, but was prevented from doing
so by important business. How long is it since I rented your house?'--
'Just nine weeks.'--'It is only right, then, that I should pay you for
the time I have made you lose;' then handing me a sum of money,
'there,' said he, 'is the amount coming to you; and now, my family
arrive to-morrow, so we take possession at once of your house, and your
rent shall be paid regularly.'

"So there is an end to my anxiety, and you cannot believe how happy I
am in bringing you the trifling sum I promised; but while keeping my
promise, I thank you very sincerely for the confidence wherewith you
inspired me in the Holy Souls. May God bless you for it!"--_Almanac
of the Souls in Purgatory_, 1881.

APPARITION OF A CITIZEN OF ARIES.

LECOYER, in his "Tales of Ghosts and Apparitions," [1] relates a
historical occurrence which had great publicity. In the reign of King
Charles IV. of France, surnamed the Fair, the last king of the first
branch of the Capets, who died in 1323, the soul of a citizen, some
years dead and abandoned by his relations, who neglected to pray for
him, appeared suddenly in the public square at Aries, relating
marvellous things of the other world, and asking for help. Those who
had seen him in his lifetime at once recognized him. The Prior of the
Jacobins, a man of saintly life, being told of this apparition,
hastened to go and see the soul. Supposing at first that it might be a
spirit that had taken the form of this citizen, he took, with lighted
tapers, a consecrated host, which he held out to it. But the soul
immediately showed that it was really there itself, for it prostrated
itself and adored Our Lord, asking naught else but prayers which might
deliver it from Purgatory, to the end that it might enter purified into
heaven.

[Footnote 1: "Histoires des Spectres et des Apparitions."]

THE COUNTESS OF STRAFFORD.

The Countess of Strafford, before her conversion to the Catholic faith,
went often to see Monseigneur de la Mothe, Bishop of Amiens, and her
conversations with him always made the deepest impression on her mind.
But what touched her more than all was a sermon which he preached on
the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the chapel of the Ursulines in
Amiens. After hearing this discourse, she felt within her a lively
desire to believe as did the preacher who had so much edified her. She
still had some doubts, however, on the Sacrifice of the Mass and
Purgatory. She went to propose them to the holy Bishop, who, without
disputing with her or openly attacking her prejudices, deemed it his
duty to speak thus to her, in order to undeceive her: "Madam, you know
the Bishop of London and have confidence in him? Well, I beg you to ask
him what I am going to tell you: The Bishop of Amiens has told me a
thing that surprised me; he says that if you can deny that St.
Augustine said Mass and prayed for the dead, and particularly for his
mother, he himself will become a Protestant." This advice was followed.
The Bishop of London made no reply, but contented himself with saying
to the bearer of the letter that Lady Strafford had been breathing a
contagious atmosphere which had carried her away, and that anything he
could write to her would probably not remedy the evil. This silence on
the part of a man whom she had trusted implicitly, finished opening the
eyes of Lady Strafford, and she soon after made her abjuration at the
hands of the Bishop of Amiens.--_Vie de Monsgr. de la Mothe._

THE MARQUIS BE CIVRAC. _(From une Commune Vendeenne.)_

The belief that the living friends may be of use to their friends in
the grave, has in it I know not what instructive and natural which one
meets in hearts the most simple and unsophisticated. A pious peasant
woman of La Vendee kneeling on the coffin of her good master, the
Marquis de Civrac, cried out: "O my God, repay to him all the good he
has done to us!" Does not this fervent cry of grateful affection
signify: "My God, some rays are perchance wanting in the crown of our
benefactor; supply them, we beseech Thee, in consideration of our
prayer and all he has done for us?" and this is precisely the consoling
doctrine of Purgatory.

GRATITUDE OF THE HOLY SOULS.

[Rev. James Mumford, S.J., born in England in 1605, and who labored for
forty years for the cause of the Catholic Church in his native country,
wrote a remarkable work on Purgatory; and he mentions that the
following incident was written to him by William Freysson, a publisher,
of Cologne. May it move many in their difficulties to have recourse to
the Holy Souls.]

One festival day, when my place of business was closed, I was occupying
myself in reading a book which you had lent me, and which was on "The
Souls in Purgatory." I was absorbed in my subject when a messenger came
and told me that my youngest child, aged four years, showed the first
symptoms of a very grave disease. The child rapidly grew worse, and the
physicians at length declared that there was no hope. The thought then
occurred to me that perhaps I could save my child by making a vow to
assist the Suffering Souls in Purgatory. I accordingly repaired at once
to a chapel, and, with all fervor, supplicated God to have pity on me;
and I vowed I would distribute gratuitously a hundred copies of the
book that had moved me in behalf of the suffering souls, and give them
to ecclesiastics and to religious to increase devotion to the Holy
Souls. I had, I acknowledge, hardly any hope. As soon as I returned to
the house I found the child much better. He asked for food, although
for several days he had not been able to swallow anything but liquids.
The next day he was perfectly well, got up, went out for a walk, and
ate as if he had never had anything the matter with him. Filled with
gratitude, I was only anxious to fulfill my promise. I went to the
College of the Jesuit Fathers and begged them to accept as many copies
of the work as they pleased, and to distribute them amongst themselves
and other communities and ecclesiastics as they thought fit, so that
the suffering souls, my benefactors, should be assisted by further
prayers.

Three weeks had not slipped away, however, when another accident not
less serious befell me. My wife, on entering the house one day, was
suddenly seized with a trembling in all her limbs, which threw her to
the ground, and she remained insensible. Little by little the illness
increased, until she was deprived of the power of speech. Remedies
seemed to be in vain. The malady at length assumed such aggravated
proportions that every one was of opinion she had no chance of
recovery. The priest who assisted her had already addressed words of
consolation to me, exhorting me to Christian resignation. I turned
again with confidence to the souls in Purgatory, who had assisted me
once before, and I went to the same church. There, prostrate before the
Blessed Sacrament, I renewed my supplication with all the ardor with
which affection for my family inspired me. "O my God!" I exclaimed,
"Thy mercy is not exhausted: in the name of Thy infinite bounty, do not
permit that the recovery of my son should be paid by the death of his
mother." I made a vow this time, to distribute two hundred copies of
the holy book, in order that a greater number of persons might be moved
to intercede for the suffering souls. I besought those who had already
been delivered from Purgatory to unite with me on this occasion. After
this prayer, as I was returning to the house, I saw my servants running
towards me. They told me with delight that my wife had undergone a
great change for the better; that the delirium had ceased, and she had
recovered her power of speech. I at once ran on to assure myself of the
fact: all was true. Very soon my wife was so perfectly recovered that
she came with me into the holy place to make an act of thanksgiving to
God for all His mercies.--_Ave Maria_.

A STRANGE INCIDENT.

A young German lady of rank, still alive to tell the story, arriving
with her friends at one of the most noted hotels in Paris, an apartment
of unusual magnificence on the first floor was apportioned to her use.
After retiring to rest she lay awake a long while, contemplating, by
the dim light of a night-lamp, the costly ornaments in the room, when
suddenly the folding-doors opposite the bed, which she had locked, were
thrown open, and, amid a flood of unearthly light, there entered a
young man in the garb of the French navy, having his hair dressed in
the peculiar mode _a la Titus_. Taking a chair and placing it in
the middle of the room, he sat down, and drew from his pocket a pistol
of an uncommon make, which he deliberately put to his forehead, fired,
and fell back as if dead. At the moment of the explosion the room
became dark and still, and a low voice said softly: "Say an _Ave
Maria_ for his soul."

The young lady, though not insensible, became paralyzed with horror,
and remained in a kind of cataleptic trance, fully conscious, but
unable to move or speak, until, at nine o'clock next day, no answer
having been given to repeated calls of her maid, the doors were forced
open. At the same moment the power of speech returned, and the poor
young lady shrieked out to her attendants that a man had shot himself
in the night, and was lying dead on the floor. Nothing, however, was to
be seen, and they concluded that she was suffering from the effects of
a dream. Not being a Catholic, she could not, of course, understand the
meaning of the mysterious command.

A short time afterwards, however, the proprietor of the hotel informed
a gentleman of the party that the terrible scene witnessed by the young
lady had in reality been enacted only three nights previously in that
very room, when a young French officer put an end to his life with a
pistol of a peculiar description, which, together with the body, was
then lying at the Morgue awaiting identification. The gentleman
examined them both, and found them to correspond exactly with the
description of the man and the pistol seen in the apparition.

Whether the young officer was insane, or lived long enough to repent of
his crime, is not known; however, the then Archbishop of Paris,
Monseigneur Sibour, was exceedingly impressed by the incident. He
called upon the young lady, and directing her attention to the words
spoken by the mysterious voice, urged her to embrace the Catholic
faith, to whose teaching it pointed so clearly.--_Ave Maria_,
August 15, 1885.

PART III.

HISTORICAL

All the ages, every clime
Strike the silver harp of time,
Chant the endless, holy story,
Souls retained in Purgatory.
Freed by Mass and holy rite,
Requiem, dirge and wondrous might,
A prayer which hut and palace send,
Where king and serf, where lord and hireling blend.
The vast cathedral and the village shrine
Unite in mercy's choral strain divine.

HISTORICAL.

THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY, OR A MIDDLE STATE, AMONG THE PAGAN NATIONS
OF ANTIQUITY.

BY THE REV. A. A LAMBING, A.M.

[This very interesting article was originally published in the "Ave
Maria."]

The attentive student of the mythology of the nations of antiquity
cannot fail to discover many vestiges of a primitive revelation of some
of the principal truths of religion, although in the lapse of time they
have been so distorted and mingled with fiction that it requires
careful study to sift the few remaining grains of truth from the great
mass of superstition and error in which they are all but lost. Among
these truths may be reckoned monotheism, or the belief in, and the
worship of, one only God, which the learned Jesuit, the Rev. Aug.
Thebaud, in his "Gentilism," has proved to have been the primitive
belief of all nations. It may not, however, be so generally known that
the doctrine of Purgatory, or a future state of purification, was also
held and taught in all the religious systems in the beginning. While a
knowledge of this fact cannot add anything to the grounds of our faith
as Catholics, it will not be wholly without interest, and it will,
besides, better enable us to give a reason for the faith that is in us.
It was left to Martin Luther to found an ephemeral religious system
that should deny this dogma, founded no less on revelation than on
right reason; but, then, logic has never been one of the strong points
of Protestants.

Before turning my attention to the nations of the pagan world, I shall
briefly give the Jewish belief on this point. It may not generally be
known that the doctrine of a middle state is not explicitly proposed to
the belief of the Jews in any of the writings of the Old Testament,
although it was firmly held by the people. We depend for our knowledge
of this fact mainly on the celebrated passage of the Second Book of
Machabees (xii. 43-46). The occasion on which the doctrine was stated
was this: Some of the soldiers of Judas Machabeus, the leader of the
Jewish armies, fell in a certain battle; and when their fellow-soldiers
came to bury them, they discovered secreted in the folds of their
garments some parts of the spoils of one of the pagan shrines, which it
was not permitted them to keep. After praying devoutly, the sacred
writer goes on to say that Judas, "Making a gathering, sent twelve
thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifices to be offered
for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the
resurrection [for if he had not hoped that they who were slain should
rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the
dead]. And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with
godliness had great grace laid up for them. It is, therefore, a holy
and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed
from sins."

The Catholic doctrine is thus briefly laid down in the Catechism:
"Purgatory is a place of punishment in the other life where some souls
suffer for a time before they can go to heaven;" or, in the words of
the Catechism of the Council of Trent, there is "the fire of Purgatory,
in which the souls of just men are cleansed by a temporary punishment
in order to be admitted into their eternal country, 'into which nothing
defiled entereth.'"

How far the pagan notions of a middle state harmonize with the
Christian doctrine the reader will be able to determine as we proceed.

I must premise by stating that almost all, if not all, the forms of
paganism were two-fold, containing a popular form of religion, believed
and practiced by the mass of the people, and a more recondite form that
was known only to the initiated, whether this was the priestly caste,
as was generally the case, or whether they were designated by some
other name. It should also be observed that the forms of religion were
constantly undergoing changes of greater or less importance. Nor must
we lose sight of the fact that different nations embodied the same idea
under different terms. The conception of the phlegmatic Norseman would
be different from that of the imaginative Oriental, and the language of
the refined Greek would be far other than that of the rude American
savage. But yet the same truth may be found to underlie all, the
outward garb alone differing.

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