Purgatory

==== Popular notions of purgatory ====
Some Catholic saints, theologians and laity have had ideas about purgatory beyond those adopted by the Catholic Church, reflecting or contributing to the popular image, which includes the notions of purification by actual fire, in a determined place and for a precise length of time. 

===== As a place =====

In his ''La naissance du Purgatoire'' (''The Birth of Purgatory''), [[Jacques Le Goff]] attributes the origin of the idea of a third other-world domain, similar to heaven and hell, called Purgatory, to Paris intellectuals and [[Cistercians|Cistercian monks]] at some point in the last three decades of the twelfth century, possibly as early as 1170−1180.{{refn|Though a place in which "space and time were different in Purgatory than space and time here below-governed by different rules" and "marvelous".<ref name="leGoff"/>{{rp|7}} }} Previously, the [[Latin]] adjective ''purgatorius'', as in ''purgatorius ignis'' (cleansing fire) existed, but only then did the noun ''purgatorium'' appear, used as the name of a place called Purgatory.<ref name=leGoff>{{cite book |last1=Le Goff |first1=Jacques |title=The birth of purgatory |date=1986 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226470832}}</ref>{{rp|167–168}} [[Robert Bellarmine]] also taught "that Purgatory, at least the ordinary place of expiation, is situated in the interior of the earth, that the souls in Purgatory and the reprobate are in the same subterranean space in the deep abyss which the Scripture calls Hell."<ref>Catech. Rom., chap. vi. § 1.</ref>{{check|date=January 2024}}<ref>{{cite book|chapter=[[s:Purgatory:_illustrated_by_the_lives_and_legends_of_the_saints/Part_1#5|Chapter IV.]]|title=Purgatory: illustrated by the lives and legends of the saints|year=1920|publisher=Benziger Brothers|first=F.X.|last=Schouppe|location=London|page=5}}</ref> <!-- Hmmm. The 1923 English edition of the catechism of tent has quite a different thing at that reference: and it uses "abodes" rather than "places"-->
[[File:William Frederick Wakeman Lough Derg.png|thumb|The island of St Patrick's Purgatory]]
The change happened at about the same time as the composition of the book ''[[Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii]]'', an account by an English Cistercian of a penitent knight's visit to the land of Purgatory reached through a cave in the island known as Station Island or [[St Patrick's Purgatory]] in the lake of [[Lough Derg (Donegal)|Lough Derg]], [[County Donegal]], [[Ireland]]. Le Goff said this book "occupies an essential place in the history of Purgatory, in whose success it played an important, if not decisive, role".<ref name=leGoff/>{{rp|193}}

One of the earliest depictions of St Patrick's Purgatory is a fresco in the Convent of San Francisco in [[Todi]], Umbria, Italy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Station Island |url=http://creatureandcreator.ca/?p=2677 |website=Creature and Creator | date=26 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918160723/http://creatureandcreator.ca/?p=2677 |archive-date=2020-09-18 |access-date=22 April 2022}}</ref><ref>MacTréinfhir, N. (1986). The Todi Fresco and St. Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg. Clogher Record, 12, 141-158.</ref> Whitewashed long ago, this fresco was only restored in 1976. The painter was likely Jacopo di Mino del Pellicciaio, and the date of the fresco is around 1345. Purgatory is shown as a rocky hill filled with separate openings into its hollow center. Above the mountain St Patrick introduces the prayers of the faithful that can help attenuate the sufferings of the souls undergoing purification. In each opening, sinners are tormented by demons and by fire. Each of the seven deadly sins – avarice, envy, sloth, pride, anger, lust, and gluttony – has its own region of purgatory and its own appropriate tortures.

[[File:Dante03.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Dante gazes at Purgatory (shown as a mountain) in this 16th-century painting.]]
Le Goff dedicates the final chapter of his book to the ''[[Purgatorio]]'', the second canticle of the ''[[Divine Comedy]]'', a poem by fourteenth-century Italian author [[Dante Alighieri]]. In an interview Le Goff declared: "Dante's ''Purgatorio'' represents the sublime conclusion of the slow development of Purgatory that took place in the course of the Middle Ages. The power of Dante's poetry made a decisive contribution to fixing in the public imagination this 'third place', whose birth was on the whole quite recent."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2005/09/27/invenzione-del-purgatorio.html |title=Fabio Gambaro, "L'invenzione del purgatorio" in ''La Repubblica'', 27 September 2005 |date=27 September 2005 |access-date=3 January 2019 |archive-date=19 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119214643/https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2005/09/27/invenzione-del-purgatorio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Dante pictures Purgatory as an island at the [[antipodes]] of Jerusalem, pushed up, in an otherwise empty sea, by the displacement caused by the fall of [[Dante's Satan|Satan]], which left him fixed at the central point of the globe of the Earth. The cone-shaped island has seven terraces on which souls are cleansed from the [[seven deadly sins]] or capital vices as they ascend. Additional spurs at the base hold those for whom beginning the ascent is delayed because in life they were [[Excommunication|excommunicates]] indolent or late repenters. At the summit is the [[Garden of Eden]], from where the souls, cleansed of evil tendencies and made perfect, are taken to [[Heaven#Christianity|heaven]].

The Catholic Church has included in its teaching the idea of a purgatory rather as a condition than a place. On 4 August 1999, [[Pope John Paul II]], speaking of purgatory, said: "The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence. Those who, after death, exist in a state of purification, are already in the love of Christ who removes from them the remnants of imperfection as "a condition of existence".<ref name="Audience of 4 August 1999"/>

=====Fire=====
Fire has an important place in the popular image of purgatory and has been the object of speculation by theologians, speculation to which the article on purgatory in the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' relates the warning by the Council of Trent against "difficult and subtle questions which tend not to edification."<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia on Purgatory">{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Purgatory|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2005-09-11|archive-date=2005-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050904040952/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Fire has never been included in the Catholic Church's defined doctrine on purgatory, but speculation about it is traditional. "The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM#$1BW |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1031 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2020-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301083621/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM#$1BW |url-status=live }}</ref> In this regard the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' references in particular two New Testament passages: "If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire"<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Corinthians|3:15|ESV}}</ref> and "so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ".<ref>{{Bibleverse|1|Peter|1:7|ESV}}</ref> Catholic theologians have also cited verses such as "I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God'",<ref>{{Bibleverse|Zechariah|13:9|ESV}}</ref> a verse that the Jewish [[House of Shammai|school of Shammai]] applied to God's judgment on those who are not completely just nor entirely evil.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjHdj_3oYkQC&q=%22Zechariah+13%3A9%22+%22shammai%22&pg=PA149 |title=Daniel Sperber, ''Why Jews Do what They Do: The History of Jewish Customs Throughout the Cycle of the Jewish Year'' (KTAV 1999), p. 149 |isbn=9780881256048 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2021-03-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312095635/https://books.google.com/books?id=PjHdj_3oYkQC&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=%22Zechariah+13%3A9%22+%22shammai%22&source=bl&ots=PWPceefoHN&sig=PyERoB-CSmPjcCDsMiCDxb9e3aE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjC4c6wgsrfAhVzTBUIHYuuCYcQ6AEwDHoECAMQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Zechariah%2013%3A9%22%20%22shammai%22&f=false |url-status=live |last1=Sperber |first1=Daniel |year=1999 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://catholicstraightanswers.com/do-we-know-what-happens-in-purgatory-is-there-really-a-fire/ |title=Edward P. Saunders, "Do we know what happens in Purgatory? Is there really a fire?" |date=21 May 2013 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2019-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103110139/http://catholicstraightanswers.com/do-we-know-what-happens-in-purgatory-is-there-really-a-fire/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Use of the image of a purifying fire goes back as far as [[Origen]] who, with reference to {{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|3:10–15|ESV}}, seen as referring to a process by which the dross of lighter transgressions will be burnt away, and the soul, thus purified, will be saved,<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia on Purgatory"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Scott |author-link=Scott L. Smith, Jr. |title=Where is Purgatory in the Bible? |url=https://www.thescottsmithblog.com/2018/07/where-is-purgatory-in-bible-complete.html |website=All Roads Lead to Rome |access-date=6 January 2021 |archive-date=26 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126124352/https://www.thescottsmithblog.com/2018/07/where-is-purgatory-in-bible-complete.html |url-status=live }}</ref> wrote: 

{{quote|"Suppose you have built, after the ''foundation'' which Christ Jesus has taught, not only ''gold, silver, and precious stones'' − if indeed you possess gold and much silver or little − suppose you have ''silver, precious stones'', but I say not only these elements, but suppose that you have also ''wood and hay and stubble'', what does he wish you to become after your final departure? To enter afterwards then into the holy lands with your ''wood'' and with your ''hay'' and ''stubble'' so that you may defile the Kingdom of God? But again do you want to be left behind in the fire on account of the ''hay'', the ''wood'', the ''stubble'', and to receive nothing due you for the ''gold'' and the ''silver'' and ''precious stone''? That is not reasonable. What then? It follows that you receive the ''fire first'' due to the ''wood'', and the ''hay'' and the ''stubble''. For to those able to perceive, our God is said to be in reality ''a consuming fire''."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=I2g1z_oltV8C&q=wood+hay Origen, Homily 16, in ''Homilies on Jeremiah and 1 Kings 28'' (CUA Press 1998), pp. 173−174]; original text: [https://books.google.com/books?id=wnDYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA315 ''Patrologia graeca'', vol. 13, col. 415 C−D]</ref> }}
Origen also speaks of a refining fire melting away the lead of evil deeds, leaving behind only pure gold.<ref name=origen>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLpDsFbzv2wC&pg=PA330|title=Homily VI on Exodus section 4 (''Patrologia graeca'', vol. 12, col. 334–335|year=1862|last1=Migne|first1=Jacques-Paul|access-date=2015-12-12|archive-date=2016-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503095139/https://books.google.com/books?id=sLpDsFbzv2wC&pg=PA330|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Saint Augustine|Augustine]] tentatively put forward the idea of a post-death purgatorial fire for some Christian believers: 

{{quote|"69. It is not incredible that something like this should occur after this life, whether or not it is a matter for fruitful inquiry. It may be discovered or remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner or later to be saved by a sort of purgatorial fire, in proportion as they have loved the goods that perish, and in proportion to their attachment to them."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/augustine_enchiridion_02_trans.htm#C18|title=St. Augustine, Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope, and Love (1955). English translation}}</ref>}}

[[Gregory the Great]] also argued for the existence, before Judgment, of a ''purgatorius ignis'' (a cleansing fire) to purge away minor faults (wood, hay, stubble) not mortal sins (iron, bronze, lead).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/0590-0604,_SS_Gregorius_I_Magnus,_Dialogorum_Libri_IV-De_Vita_et_Miraculis_...,_LT.pdf |title=Gregory the Great, ''Dialogues'', book IV, chapter 39 |access-date=2012-11-15 |archive-date=2013-05-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524145302/http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/0590-0604,_SS_Gregorius_I_Magnus,_Dialogorum_Libri_IV-De_Vita_et_Miraculis_...,_LT.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Pope Gregory, in the Dialogues, quotes Christ's words (in Mat 12:32) to establish purgatory: 

{{quote|"But yet we must believe that before the day of judgment there is a purgatory fire for certain small sins: because our Saviour saith, that he which speaketh blasphemy against the holy Ghost, that it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. (Mat 12:32) Out of which sentence we learn, that some sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_04_dialogues_book4.htm#C39|title = Gregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 4. Pp. 177-258.}}</ref>}}

[[Gregory of Nyssa]] several times spoke of purgation by fire after death,<ref>"When he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the ''purging fire'' shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil" (Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead, pp. 13:445, 448)</ref> but he generally has [[apocatastasis]] in mind.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfGZAAAAQBAJ&q=Ramelli+Nyssa+%22throughout+his+production%22&pg=PA374 |title=Ilaria Ramelli, ''The Christian Doctrine of ''Apokatastasis'': A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena'' (Brill 2013), p. 374 |isbn=9789004245709 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2019-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103010001/https://books.google.ie/books?id=YfGZAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA374&lpg=PA374&dq=Ramelli+Nyssa+%22throughout+his+production%22&source=bl&ots=9LDuWX_THF&sig=U8kGYdiMMoq5TNkJH5iR2NBZNUU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwifn5CU5M7fAhXzuXEKHS4ABO4Q6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=Ramelli%20Nyssa%20%22throughout%20his%20production%22&f=false |url-status=live |last1=Ramelli |first1=Ilaria |date=9 August 2013 |publisher=BRILL }}</ref>

Medieval theologians accepted the association of purgatory with fire. Thus the ''[[Summa Theologica]]'' of [[Thomas Aquinas]] considered it probable that Purgatory was situated close to hell, so that the same fire that tormented the damned cleansed the just souls in Purgatory.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.AP2_Q1_A2.html |title=''Summa Theologica'', appendix 2, article 2: "Whether it is the same place where souls are cleansed, and the damned punished?" |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-date=2019-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103005107/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.AP2_Q1_A2.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ideas about the supposed fire of purgatory have changed with time: in the early 20th century the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' reported that, while in the past most theologians had held that the fire of purgatory was in some sense a material fire, though of a nature different from ordinary fire, the view of what then seemed to be the majority of theologians was that the term was to be understood metaphorically.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07207a.htm#VI|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Hell|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2007-12-20|archive-date=2018-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123082053/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07207a.htm#VI|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm#VI|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Purgatory|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2021-11-15|archive-date=2021-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026045432/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm#VI|url-status=live}}</ref>

=====Depictions=====
<gallery>
File:Peter Paul Rubens 172.jpg | Purgatory, by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]. Top: Trinity, with Mary; Middle: Angels; Lower: purified souls being pulled up towards heaven; Bottom: souls in non-fiery purgation
File:Concepcion Santa Cruz 09.jpg | Altar in [[Iglesia de la Concepción (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)|Iglesia de la Concepción]], [[Santa Cruz de Tenerife]]. Top: Trinity; Mid-top: Mary, John the Baptist, Holy family; Mid: archangel Michael; Lower: Saints interceding; Bottom: souls undergoing fiery purgation, still with worldly attachments (shackles) and venial sins (snakes).
File:Folio 113v - Purgatory.jpg | A fiery purgatory in the ''[[Très riches heures du Duc de Berry]]''. The faithful dead (bottom left) go through the furnace and once purified (top right) ascend towards Heaven. Some of the faithful are plucked by angels, the result of intercessory prayers. The icy water is a common pairing. 
File:Andrea Vaccaro - The Virgin intercedes for the Souls in Purgatory.jpg |Our Lady Interceding for the Souls in Purgatory, by [[Andrea Vaccaro]]. Top-right: Christ granting; Middle-left: Mary interceding; Bottom-right: purged souls capable of focus on Christ; Bottom-left: indistinct souls undergoing non-fiery purgation.
File:V.Carmen de Beniajan-general.jpg | [[Our Lady of Mount Carmel]] and purgatory, [[Beniaján]], [[Spain]]
File:LadyOfMtCarmelWithSufferingSouls.jpg | [[Our Lady of Mount Carmel]] and purgatory, [[North End, Boston]]
File:Auhausen St. Maria 473gf.JPG | Detail of altar in Lutheran church in [[Auhausen]], [[Bavaria]]
File:AMR Kirche - Altar 3.jpg | Our Lady, St Monica and souls in purgatory, [[Rattenberg]], [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrol]]
File:Kientzheim StFelix 30.JPG | Our Lady of Passau in St Felix Church, [[Kientzheim]], [[Alsace]]
File:Heidelberg cpg 144 Elsässische Legenda Aurea 338r St. Patricks Fegefeuer.jpg | Purgatory, 1419 drawing by unknown artist from [[Strasbourg]]
File:Michel-Serre-Vierge à l'enfant et le purgatoire.jpg | Painting by [[Michel Serre]] in the Saint Cannat Church, [[Marseilles]]
File:Wimpfen-stadtkirche-predell.jpg |Altar predella in the town church of [[Bad Wimpfen]], [[Baden-Württemberg]]
File:Mantlach - Velburg NM 002.JPG | Request for prayer for the souls in purgatory
File:Catedral de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico - DSC06866.JPG | Stained-glass window in [[Puerto Rico]] Cathedral
File:Cristobal Rojas 46a.JPG | Purgatory by Venezuelan painter [[Cristóbal Rojas (artist)|Cristóbal Rojas]] (1890)
File:St.Ulrich am Pillersee - Deckenfresko 1a.jpg | Ceiling of St Ulrich Church in [[Pillersee]], [[Tyrol (state)|Tyrol]], Austria
File:Stephan Lochner Souls in Purgatory.jpg | Miniature by [[Stefan Lochner]] showing souls in purgatory
File:Ánimas Benditas.jpg | [[Azulejo]] of souls in purgatory, [[Seville]], [[Spain]]. Top: Trinity, with Mary. Middle: angels pulling purged souls upward. Bottom right: soul being purged by fire, depicted placid and untortured.
</gallery>