Purgatory by Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

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Is there not in all this a semblance of belief in our doctrine of
Purgatory?

REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD AMONGST THE EGYPTIANS.

In Egypt, as all over the East, the lives of women amongst the
wealthier classes are for the most part spent within the privacy of
their homes, as it were in close confinement: they are born, live, and
die in the bosom of that impenetrable sanctuary. It is only on Thursday
that they go forth, with their slaves carrying refreshments and
followed by hired weepers. It is a sacred duty that calls them to the
public cemetery. There they have funeral hymns chanted, their own
plaintive cries mingling with the sorrowful lamentations of the
mourners. They shed tears and flowers on the graves of their kindred,
which they afterwards cover with the meats brought by their servants,
and all the crowd, after inviting the souls of the dead, partake of a
religious repast, in the persuasion that those beloved shades taste of
the same food and are present at the sympathetic banquet. Is there not
in this superstition a distorted tradition of the dogma by which we are
commanded not to forget the souls of our brethren beyond the grave?--
_Annals of the Propagation of the Faith_, Vol. XVII.

REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD THROUGHOUT EUROPE.

PART I.

ANNA T. SADLIER.

"Hark! the whirlwind is in the wood, a low murmur in the vale; it is
the mighty army of the dead returning from the air." These beautiful
words occur in one of the ancient Celtic poems quoted by Macpherson and
dating some thousand years later than Ossian. For the Celts held to the
doctrine of the immortality of souls, and believed that their ethereal
substance was wafted from place to place by the wind on the clouds of
heaven. Amongst the Highlanders a belief prevailed that there were
certain hills to which the spirits of their departed friends had a
peculiar attachment. Thus the hill of Ore was regarded by the house of
Crubin as their place of meeting in the future life, and its summit was
supposed to be supernaturally illumined when any member of the family
died. It was likewise a popular belief that the spirits of the departed
haunted places beloved in life, hovered about their friends, and
appeared at times on the occasion of any important family event. In the
calm of a new existence,

"Side by side they sit who once mixed in battle their steel."

There is a poetic beauty in many of these ancient beliefs concerning
the dead, but they are far surpassed in grandeur and sublimity, as well
as in deep tenderness, by the Christian conception of a state of
purgation after death, when the souls of the departed are still bound
to, their dear ones upon earth by a strong spiritual bond of mutual
help. They dwell, then, in an abode of peace, although of intense
suffering, and calmly await the eternal decree which summons them to
heaven; while the time of their probation is shortened day by day,
month by month, year by year by the Masses, prayers, alms-deeds and
other suffrages of their friends who are still dwellers on earth,
living the old life; and in its rush of cares and duties, of pleasures
and of pains, forgetting them too often in all save prayer. That is the
reminder. The dead who have died in the bosom of the Holy Church can
never be quite forgotten. "The mighty army of the dead returning from
the air" might in our Catholic conception be that host of delivered
souls who, after the Feast of All Souls, or some such season of special
prayer for them, are arising upwards into everlasting bliss. But it is
our purpose in the present chapters to gather up from the byways of
history occasions when the belief in prayer for the dead is made
manifest, whether it be in some noted individual, in a people, or in a
country. It is "the low murmur of the vale" going up constantly from
all peoples, from all times, under all conditions.

In Russia not only is prayer for the dead most sedulously observed by
the Catholic Church, but also in a most particular manner by the
Schismatic Greeks. The following details under this head will be, no
doubt, of interest to our readers:

"As soon as the spirit has departed, the body is dressed and placed in
an open coffin in a room decorated for the purpose. Numerous lights are
kept burning day and night; and while the relations take turns to watch
and pray by the coffin, the friends come to pay the last visit to the
deceased.... On the decease of extraordinary persons, the Emperor and
his successor are accustomed to visit the corpse, while the poor, on
the other hand, never fail to lament at the door the loss of their
benefactor, and to be dismissed with handsome donations. Total
strangers, too, come of their own accord to offer a prayer for the
deceased; for the image of a saint hung up before the door indicates to
every passenger the house of mourning.... The time of showing the
corpse lasts in general only three or four days, and then follow the
blessing of the deceased, and the granting of the pass. The latter is
to be taken literally. The corpse is carried to the Church, and the
priest lays upon the breast a long paper, which the common people call
'a pass for heaven.' On this paper is written the Christian name of the
deceased, the date of his birth and that of his death. It then states
that he was baptized as a Christian, that he lived as such, and before
his death, received the Sacrament--in short, the whole course of life
which he led as a Greek Russian Christian.... All who meet a funeral
take off their hats, and offer a prayer to Heaven for the deceased, and
such is the outward respect paid on such occasions, that it is not
until they have entirely lost sight of the procession that they put on
their hats again. This honor is paid to every corpse, whether of the
Russian, Protestant, or Catholic Communions.... After the corpse is
duly prepared, the priests sing a funeral Mass, called in Russian
clerical language, _panichide_.... On the anniversary of the death
of a beloved relative, they assemble in the Church, and have a
_panichide_ read for his soul.... Persons of distinction found a
lamp to burn forever at the tombs of their dead, and have these
_panichides_ repeated every week, for, perhaps, a long series of
years. Lastly, every year, on a particular day, Easter Monday, a
service and a repast are held for all the dead."

The history of France, like that of all Catholic nations, abounds in
instances of public intercession for the dead, the pomp and splendor of
royal obsequies, the solemn utterances of public individuals; the
celebrations at Pere la Chaise, the magnificent requiems. In a nation
so purely Catholic as it was and is, though the scum of evil men have
arisen like a foul miasma to its surface, it does not surprise us. We
shall therefore select from its history an incident or two, somewhat at
random. That beautiful one, far back at the era of the Crusades, where
St. Louis, King of France, absent in the East, received intelligence of
the death of Queen Blanche, his mother. The grief of the Papal Legate,
who had come to announce the news, was apparent in his face, and Louis,
fearing some new blow, led the prelate into his chapel, which,
according to an ancient chronicler, was "his arsenal against all the
crosses of the world." Louis, overcome with sorrow, quickly changed his
tears and lamentations into the language of resignation, and desiring
to be left alone with his confessor, Geoffrey de Beaulieu, recited the
office of the dead. "He was present every day at a funeral service
celebrated in memory of his mother; and sent into the West a great
number of jewels and precious stones to be distributed among the
principal churches of France; at the same time exhorting the clergy to
put up prayers for the repose of his mother. In proportion with his
endeavors," continues the historian, "to procure prayers for his
mother, his grief yielded to the hope of seeing her again in heaven;
and his mind, when calmed by resignation, found its most effectual
consolation in that mysterious tie which still unites us with those we
have lost, in that religious sentiment which mingles with our
affections to purify them, and with our regrets to mitigate them." [1]

[Footnote 1: "Michaud's Hist. of the Crusades," Vol. II., pp. 477-8.]

In the Instructions which St. Louis addressed on his death-bed to his
son, Philip the Bold, is to be found the following paragraph:

"Dear Son, I pray thee, if it shall please our Lord that I should quit
this life before thee, that thou wilt help me with Masses and prayers,
and that thou wilt send to the congregations of the kingdom of France,
to make them put up prayers for my soul, and that thou wilt desire that
our Lord may give me part in all the good deeds thou shalt perform."
[1]

[Footnote 1: These instructions were preserved in a register of the
Chamber of Accounts. See Appendix to "Michaud's History of Crusades,"
Vol. II., p. 471.]

Philip, on the death of his father, in a letter which was read aloud in
all the churches, begs of the clergy and faithful, "to put up to the
King of kings their prayers and their offerings for that prince; with
whose zeal for religion and tender solicitude for the kingdom of
France, which he loved as the apple of his eye, they were so well
acquainted." In the Chronicles of Froissart, as well as in the Grande
Chronique of St. Denis, we read that the body of King John, who died a
prisoner in England, was brought home with great pomp and circumstance,
on the first day of May, 1364. It was at first placed in the Abbey of
St. Anthony, thence removed to Notre Dame, and finally to St. Denis,
the resting-place of royalty, where solemn Mass was said. On the day of
his interment, the Archbishop of Sens sang the requiem. Thus did Holy
Mother Church welcome the exile home.

A pretty anecdote is that of Marie Lecsinska, Queen of Louis XV., who,
on hearing of the death of Marshal Saxe, a Lutheran by profession, and
but an indifferent observer of the maxims of any creed, cried out:
"Alas! what a pity that we cannot sing a _De Profundis_ for a man
who has made us sing so many _Te Deums_."

We cannot take our leave of France, without noticing here the beautiful
prayer offered up by the saintly Princess Louise de Bourbon Conde, in
religion _Soeur Marie Joseph de la Misericorde_, on hearing of the
death of her nephew, the Duc d'Enghien, so cruelly put to death by the
first Napoleon. Falling, face downwards, on the earth, she prayed:
"Mercy, my God, have mercy upon him! Have mercy, Lord, on the soul of
Louis Antoine! Pardon the faults of his youth, remembering the precious
Blood, which Jesus Christ shed for all men, and have regard to the
cruel manner in which his blood was shed. Glory and misfortune have
attended his life. But what we call glory, has it any claims in Thy
eyes? However, Lord, it is not a demerit before Thee, when it is based
on true honor, which is always inseparable from devotion to our duties.
Thou knowest, Lord, those that he has fulfilled, and for those in which
he has failed, let the misfortunes of which he has been at last the
victim, be a repararation and an expiation. Again, Lord, I ask for
mercy for his soul." On the death of Napoleon, the murderer of this
beloved nephew, the same holy religious wrote to the Bishop of St.
Flour: "Bonaparte is dead; he was your enemy, for he persecuted you. I
think you will say a Mass for him; I beg also that you say a Mass on my
behalf for this unfortunate man."

Turning to the History of Rome, it will be of interest to take a glance
at the pious Confraternity _della Morte_ which was instituted in
1551, and regularly established in 1560, by His Holiness, Pius IV. It
was chiefly composed of citizens of high rank. Its object was to
provide burial for the dead. Solemnly broke upon the balmy stillness of
the Roman nights, all these years and centuries since its foundation,
its chanting of holy psalmody, and its audible praying for the dead,
borne along in its religious keeping. The glare of the waxen torches
fell upon the bier, the voices of the associates joined in the
_Miserere,_ and the Church reached, the corpse was laid there,
till the fitting hour, when the Requiem Mass should be sung, and the
final absolution given, preparatory to interment.

Florence supplies us with a brilliant picture of that sixth day of
July, 1439, the feast of Saint Romolo the Martyr, in the ninth year of
the Pontificate of Pope Eugenius IV., when long-standing differences
between the Greek and Latin Churches were brought to an end in a most
amicable manner. Alas! for the Greeks, that they did not accept the
decisions of that day as final. On the 22d of January, 1439, Cosmo de
Medici, then Gonfaloniere of Florence, received the Pope and his
cardinals, with a pomp and splendor unknown to the history of modern
Europe. On the 12th of the following month came the Patriarch, Joseph
of Constantinople, and his bishops and theologians. On the 15th arrived
the Greek Emperor, John Paleologus, who was received at the Porto San
Gallo by the Pope and all his cardinals, the Florentine Signory, and a
long procession of the members of the monastic orders. "A rare and very
remarkable assemblage," says a chronicler [1] "of the most learned men
of Europe, and, indeed, of those extra European seats of a past
culture, which were even now giving forth the last flashes from a once
brilliant light on the point of being quenched in utter darkness, were
thus assembled at Florence."

[Footnote 1: T. A. Trollope, in "History of the Commonwealth of
Florence," Vol. III., pp. 137-8.]

This was the inauguration of the far-famed Council of Florence, which
had the result of settling the points at issue between the Eastern and
Western Churches. "The Greeks confessed that the Roman faith proceeded
rightly (_prociedere bene_), and united themselves with it by the
grace of God." Proclamation was accordingly made in the Cathedral, then
called Santa Reparata, that the Greeks had agreed to hold and to
believe the five disputed articles of which the fifth was, "That he who
dies in sin for which penance has been done, but from which he has not
been purged, goes to Purgatory, and that the divine offices, Masses,
prayers, and alms are useful for the purging of him."

In the history of Ireland, as might be expected, we come upon many
instances wherein the dead are solemnly remembered from that period,
when still pagan, and one of the ancient manuscripts gives us an
account of certain races, it calls them, which were held for "the souls
of the foreigners slain in battle." This was back in the night of
antiquity, and was no doubt some relic of the Christian tradition which
had remained amid the darkness of paganism. But to come to the
Christian period. The famous Hugues de Lasci, or Hugo de Lacy, Lord of
Meath, and one of the most distinguished men in early Irish annals,
founded many abbeys and priories, one at Colpe, near the mouth of the
Boyne, one at Duleek, one at Dublin, and one at Kells. The Canons of
St. Augustine, as we read, "in return for this gift, covenanted that
one of them should be constantly retained as a chaplain to celebrate
Mass for his soul and for those of his ancestors and successors." We
also read how Marguerite, wife of Gualtier de Lasci, brother of the
above, gave a large tract in the royal forest of Acornebury, in
Herefordshire, for the erection of a nunnery for the benefit of the
souls of her parents, Guillaume and Mathilda de Braose, who with their
son, her brother, had been famished in the dungeon at Windsor. In the
account of the death in Spain of Red Hugh O'Donnell, who holds a high
place among the chivalry of Ireland, it is mentioned that on his death-
bed, "after lamenting his crimes and transgressions; after a rigid
penance for his sins and iniquities; after making his confession
without reserve to his confessors, and receiving the body and blood of
Christ; after being duly anointed by the hands of his own confessors
and ecclesiastical attendants," he expired after seventeen days'
illness at the king's palace in Simancas. "His body," says the ancient
chronicler, "was conveyed to the king's palace at Valladolid in a four-
wheeled hearse, surrounded by countless numbers of the king's State
officers, council and guards, with luminous torches and bright
flambeaux of wax lights burning on either side. He was afterwards
interred in the monastery of St. Francis, in the Chapter, precisely,
with veneration and honor, and in the most solemn manner that any of
the Gaels had been ever interred in before. Masses and many hymns,
chants and melodious canticles were celebrated for the welfare of his
soul; and his requiem was sung with becoming solemnity."

On the death of the celebrated Brian Boroihme, historians relate how
his body was conveyed by the clergy to the Abbey of Swords, whence it
was brought by other portions of the clergy and taken successively to
two monasteries. It was then met by the Archbishop of Armagh, at the
head of his priesthood, and conveyed to Armagh, where the obsequies
were celebrated with a pomp and a fervor worthy the greatness and the
piety of the deceased monarch.

In view of the arguments which are sometimes adduced to prove that the
early Irish Church did not teach this doctrine of prayer for the dead,
it is curious to observe how in St. Patrick's second Council he
expressly forbids the holy sacrifice being offered up after death for
those who in life had made themselves unworthy of such suffrages. At
the Synod of Cashel, held just after the Norman conquest, the claim of
each dead man's soul to a certain part of his chattels after death was
asserted. To steal a page from the time-worn chronicles of Scotland, it
is told by Theodoric that when Queen Margaret of Scotland, that gentle
and noble character upon whom the Church has placed the crown of
canonization, was dying, she said to him: "Two things I have to desire
of thee;" and one of these was thus worded, "that as long as thou
livest thou wilt remember my poor soul in thy Masses and prayers." It
had been her custom in life to recite the office of the dead every day
during Lent and Advent. Sir Walter Scott mentions in his Minstrelsy of
the Scottish Border "a curious league or treaty of peace between two
hostile clans, by which the heads of each became bound to make the four
pilgrimages of Scotland for the benefit of those souls who had fallen
in the feud." In the Bond of Alliance or Field Staunching Betwixt the
Clans of Scott and Ker this agreement is thus worded: "That it is
appointed, agreed and finally accorded betwixt honorable men," the
names are here mentioned, "Walter Ker of Cessford, Andrew Ker of
Fairnieherst," etc., etc., "for themselves, kin, friends, maintenants,
assisters, allies, adherents, and partakers, on the one part; and
Walter Scott of Branxholm," etc., etc., etc. For the staunching of all
discord and variance between them and so on, amongst other provisions,
that "the said Walter Scott of Branxholm shall gang, or cause gang, at
the will of the party, to the four head pilgrimages of Scotland, and
shall say a Mass for the unquhile Andrew Ker of Cessford and them that
were slain in his company in the field of Melrose; and, upon his
expence, shall cause a chaplain to say a Mass daily, when he is
disposed, in what place the said Walter Ker and his friend pleases, for
the weil of the said souls, for the space of five years next to come.
Mark Ker of Dolphinston, Andrew Ker of Graden, shall gang at the will
of the party to the four head pilgrimages of Scotland, and shall gar
say a Mass for the souls of the unquhile James Scott of Eskirk and
other Scots, their friends, slain in the field of Melrose; and, upon
their expence, shall gar a chaplain say a Mass daily, when he is
disposed, for the heal of their souls, where the said Walter Scott and
his friend pleases, for the space of the next three years to come." We
may mention that the four pilgrimages are Scoon, Dundee, Paisley, and
Melrose. This devotion of praying for the dead seems, indeed, to have
taken strong hold upon these rude borderers, who, Sir Walter Scott
informs us, "remained attached to the Roman Catholic faith rather
longer than the rest of Scotland." In many of their ancient ballads, at
some of which we have already glanced, this belief is prominent. The
dying man, or as in the case of Clerk Saunders, the ghost begs of his
survivors to "wish my soul good rest." This belief is intermingled with
their superstitions as in that one attached to Macduff's Cross. This
cross is situated near Lindores, on the marsh dividing Fife from
Strathern. Around the pedestal of this cross are tumuli, said to be the
graves of those who, having claimed the privilege of the law, failed in
proving their consanguinity to the Thane of Fife. Such persons were
instantly executed. The people of Newburgh believe that the spectres of
these criminals still haunt the ruined cross, and claim that mercy for
their souls which they had failed to obtain for their mortal existence.

Thus does the historian [1] mention the burial of St. Ninian, one of
the favorite Saints of the Scots: "He was buried in the Church of St.
Martin, which he had himself built from the foundation, and placed in a
stone coffin near the altar, the clergy and people standing by and
lifting up their heavenly hymns with heart and voice, with sighs and
tears."

[Footnote 1: Walsh's Hist, of the Cath. Church in Scotland.]

In the treasurer's books which relate to the reign of James IV. of
Scotland, there is the following entry for April, 1503: "The king went
again to Whethorn." (A place of pilgrimage.) "While there he heard of
the death of his brother, John, Earl of Mar, and charged the priests to
perform a 'dirge and soul Mass' for his brother, and paid them for
their pains."

In Montalembert's beautiful description of Iona, he mentions the
tradition which declares that eight Norwegian kings or princes, four
kings of Ireland, and forty-eight Scottish kings were buried there, as
also one king of France, whose name is not mentioned, and Egfrid, the
Saxon King of Northumbria. There is the tomb of Robert Bruce, the tombs
of many bishops, abbots, and of the great chiefs and nobles, the
Macdougalls, Lords of Lorn; the Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles; the
Macleods, and the Macleans. Nowhere, perhaps, has death placed his seal
on a more imposing assemblage, of truly royal stateliness, of
astonishingly cosmopolitan variety. In the midst of it all, in the very
centre of the burying-ground, stands a ruined chapel, under the
invocation of St. Oran, the first Irish monk who died in this region.
The church was built by the sainted Margaret, the wife of Malcolm
Canmore, and the mother of St. David. Its mission there was obvious.
From its altar arose to the Most High, the solemn celebration of the
dread mysteries, the psalm and the prayer, for prince and for prelate,
for the great alike in the spiritual and temporal hierarchy.

The Duke of Argyle, in his work on Iona, seems astonished to find that
St. Columba believed in all the principal truths of Catholic faith,
amongst others, prayers for the dead, and yet he considers that he
could not be called a Catholic. The process of reasoning is a curious
one.

Mention is made in the history of Scotland of a famous bell, preserved
at Glasgow until the Reformation. It was supposed to have been brought
from Rome by St. Kentigern, and was popularly called "St. Mungo's
Bell." It was tolled through the city to invite the citizens to pray
for the repose of departed souls.

In the great cathedrals of Scotland, before the Reformation, private
chapels and altars were endowed for the relief of the dead, while in
the cities and large towns, each trade or corporation had an altar in
the principal churches and supported a chaplain to offer up Masses and
prayers as well for the dead as for the living. The following incident
is related in the life of the lovely and so sadly maligned Mary Queen
of Scots. In the early days of her reign, when still struggling with
the intolerant fury of Knox and his followers,--it was in the December
of 1561--Mary desired to have solemn Mass offered up for the repose of
the soul of her deceased husband, the youthful Francis. This so aroused
the fury of the fanatics about her, that they threatened to take the
life of the priests who had officiated. "Immediately after the Requiem
was over, she caused a proclamation to be made by a Herald at the
Market Cross, that no man on pain of his life should do any injury, or
give offense or trouble to her chaplains."

The poet Campbell in his dirge for Wallace, makes the Lady of
Elderslie, the hero's wife, cry out in the first intensity of her
sorrow;

"Now sing you the death-song and loudly pray
For the soul of my knight 'so dear.'"

We shall now leave the wild poetic region of Scotland, and with it
conclude Part First, taking up again in Part Second the thread of our
narrative, which will wind in and out through various countries of
Europe, ending at last with a glance at our own America.

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