Purgatory

===Catholicism===
The [[Catholic Church]] holds that "all who die in God's grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified" undergo a process of purification after death, which the church calls purgatory, "so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of [[Heaven in Christianity|heaven]]".<ref name="vatican.va">{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030–1031|website=www.vatican.va|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|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Though in popular imagination Purgatory is pictured as a place rather than a process of purification, the idea of Purgatory as a physical place is not part of the church's doctrine.<ref name="Audience of 4 August 1999">{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_04081999_en.html|title=4 August 1999 – John Paul II|website=www.vatican.va|access-date=15 March 2020|archive-date=31 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531082150/http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_04081999_en.html|url-status=live}}</ref> However, the church's understanding has typically been that purgatory has a temporal (temporary, terminating, non-eternal) component with only God being outside of time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Is purgatory a physical place? |url=https://www.catholic.com/video/is-purgatory-a-physical-place |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=Catholic Answers}}</ref> Fire, another important element of the Purgatory of popular imagination, is also absent in the Catholic Church's doctrine. 

Purgatory and [[indulgences]] are defined (i.e. official Catholic) doctrines, unlike [[limbo]]. Catholicism bases its teaching also on the practice of praying for the dead, in use within the church ever since the church began, and mentioned in the [[Deuterocanonical books|deuterocanonical]] book [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Maccabees+12%3A43-46&version=DRA 2 Maccabees 12:46].<ref>{{Cite web|title= Catechism of the Catholic Church - IntraText|url= https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM|website= www.vatican.va|at=1030-32 |access-date= 2020-05-12|archive-date=2020-03-01|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200301083621/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM |url-status= live}}</ref>

==== The purgatory of Catholic doctrine ====
At the [[Second_Council_of_Lyon#Purgatory|Second Council of Lyon]] in 1274, the Catholic Church defined, for the first time, its teaching on purgatory, in summary two points:
# some saved souls need to be purified after death;
# such souls benefit from the prayers and pious duties that the living do for them.

The council declared:
{{Quote| [I]f they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments, … And to relieve punishments of this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, [[alms]], and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church.<ref>[http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/dw0.htm [Denzinger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411220700/http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/dw0.htm |date=2019-04-11 }} 856; original text in Latin: [http://catho.org/9.php?d=bxx#bqn "Quod si vere paenitentes ..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224111826/http://catho.org/9.php?d=bxx#bqn |date=2021-02-24 }}</ref>|author=|title=|source=}}

A century and a half later, the Council of Florence repeated the same two points in practically the same words,<ref>[http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/dw2.htm Denzinger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108175510/http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/dw2.htm |date=2019-01-08 }} 1304]; original text in Latin: [http://catho.org/9.php?d=bx0#b1o "Item, si vere paenitentes ..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018055446/http://catho.org/9.php?d=bx0#b1o |date=2007-10-18 }}</ref> again excluding certain elements of the purgatory of popular imagination, in particular fire and place, against which representatives of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] spoke at the council.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/patrologiaorient15pariuoft/page/40 "First speech by Mark, Archbishop of Ephesus, on the purifying fire" in ''Patrologia Orientalis'', vol. 15, pp. 40–41]</ref>

The Council of Trent repeated the same two points and moreover in its 4 December 1563 ''Decree Concerning Purgatory'' recommended avoidance of speculations and non-essential questions:
{{Quote|Let the more difficult and subtle "questions", however, and those which do not make for "edification" (cf. 1Tm 1,4), and from which there is very often no increase in piety, be excluded from popular discourses to uneducated people. Likewise, let them not permit uncertain matters, or those that have the appearance of falsehood, to be brought out and discussed publicly. Those matters on the contrary, which tend to a certain curiosity or superstition, or that savor of filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling blocks to the faithful.<ref>[http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/dxd.htm Denzinger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203155452/http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/dxd.htm |date=2018-12-03 }} 1820; original text in Latin: [http://catho.org/9.php?d=bx5#chf "Cum catholica Ecclesia, Spiritu Sancto edocta, ..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315081325/http://www.catho.org/9.php?d=bx5#chf |date=2016-03-15 }}</ref>}}

Catholic doctrine on purgatory is presented as composed of the same two points in the ''[[Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'', first published in 2005, which is a summary in dialogue form of the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church''. It deals with purgatory in the following exchange:<ref>''Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church'', [https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html#I%20Believe%20in%20the%20Holy%20Spirit 210–211] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304060600/http://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html#I%20Believe%20in%20the%20Holy%20Spirit |date=2020-03-04 }}</ref>
{{quotation|'''210. What is purgatory?'''
:Purgatory is the state of those who die in God's friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.

'''211. How can we help the souls being purified in purgatory?'''
:Because of the [[communion of saints]], the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth are able to help the souls in purgatory by offering prayers in suffrage for them, especially the Eucharistic sacrifice. They also help them by almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance.
}}

These two questions and answers summarize information in sections 1030–1032<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030–1032 |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 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 1054<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2R.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Churchm 1054 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2020-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301083641/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2R.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref> of the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', published in 1992, which also speaks of purgatory in sections 1472−1473.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1472−1473 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2013-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306113329/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref>

===== Role in relation to the church =====
The prayers of the saints in Heaven and the good deeds, [[works of mercy]], prayers, and [[indulgences]] of the living have a twofold effect: they help the souls in purgatory atone for their sins and they make the souls' own prayers for the living effective,<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p5.htm#958 Catechism of the Catholic Church 958]</ref> since the merits of the saints in Heaven, on Earth, and in Purgatory are part of the [[treasury of merit]]. Whenever the Eucharist is celebrated, souls in Purgatory are purified - i.e., they receive a full remission of sin and punishment - and go to Heaven.<ref>[http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a12.htm#1032 Catechism of the Catholic Church 1032]</ref>

===== Role in relation to sin =====

According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, those who die in God's grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the [[beatific vision|joy of God]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2R.HTM |title=CCC 1054 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2020-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301083641/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2R.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref>

Unless "redeemed by repentance and God's forgiveness", [[mortal sin]], whose object is grave matter and is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, "causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning back."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6C.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1855−1861 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2020-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301084835/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6C.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref> Such sin "makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the 'eternal punishment' of sin".<ref name=CCC1472>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1472 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2013-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306113329/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Venial sin]], while not depriving the sinner of friendship with God or the eternal happiness of heaven,<ref name="CCC 1863">{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6C.HTM|title=CCC 1863|access-date=2020-03-15|archive-date=2020-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301084835/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P6C.HTM|url-status=live}}</ref> "weakens charity, manifests a disordered affection for created goods, and impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment",<ref name="CCC 1863"/> for "every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the 'temporal punishment' of sin".<ref name=CCC1472/>

{{quote| "These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain."<ref name="CCC1472"/>}}

[[Joseph Ratzinger]] has paraphrased this as: "Purgatory is not, as [[Tertullian]] thought, some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where man is forced to undergo punishment in a more or less arbitrary fashion. Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God, and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AfomsX5KtYkC&q=supra-worldly+concentration&pg=PA230 |author=Joseph Ratzinger |title=Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life |publisher=CUA Press |year=2007 |page=230|isbn=9780813215167 }}</ref>

This purification from our sinful tendencies has been compared to rehabilitation of someone who needs to be cleansed of any addiction, a gradual and probably painful process. It can be advanced during life by voluntary self-mortification and penance and by deeds of generosity that show love of God rather than of creatures. If not completed before death, it can still be needed for entering the divine presence.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=5bOBVYHxXrEC&dq=Mulder+unhealthy+attachment&pg=PA182 Jack Mulder, ''Kierkegaard and the Catholic Tradition: Conflict and Dialogue'' (Indiana University Press 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514165837/https://books.google.com/books?id=5bOBVYHxXrEC&pg=PA182&dq=Mulder+unhealthy+attachment&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LM6KVLbWBsS17ga1n4DwAw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Mulder%20unhealthy%20attachment&f=false |date=2015-05-14 }} {{ISBN|978-0-25335536-2}}), pp. 182–183</ref> 

A person seeking purification from sinful tendencies is not alone. Because of the [[communion of saints]]: "the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1475 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2013-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306113329/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref> The Catholic Church states that, through the granting of indulgences for manifestations of devotion, penance and charity by the living, it opens for individuals "the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1478 |access-date=2020-03-15 |archive-date=2013-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306113329/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4G.HTM |url-status=live }}</ref>

=====St Catherine of Genoa=====
On the cusp of the Reformation, St [[Catherine of Genoa]] (1447–1510) re-framed the theology of purgatory as voluntary, loving and even joyful: {{quote| "As for paradise, God has placed no doors there. Whoever wishes to enter, does so. An all-merciful God stands there with His arms open, waiting to receive us into His glory. I also see, however, that the divine presence is so pure and light-filled – much more than we can imagine – that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand hells than appear thus before the divine presence."<ref>Quoted in [https://books.google.com/books?id=oPuESCWr9RcC&dq=Groeschel+purgatory&pg=PT36 Benedict J. Groeschel, ''A Still, Small Voice'' (Ignatius Press 1993] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514165213/https://books.google.com/books?id=oPuESCWr9RcC&pg=PT36&dq=Groeschel+purgatory&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ptOKVJSQFMar7AabgoHQAw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Groeschel%20purgatory&f=false |date=2015-05-14 }} {{ISBN|978-0-89870436-5}}</ref>}}

So purgatory is a state of both joy and voluntary pain:

{{Blockquote|text=Again the soul perceives the grievousness of being held back from seeing the divine light; the soul’s instinct too, being drawn by that uniting look, craves to be unhindered”|source=''Treatise on Purgatory'', Chapter 9}}

[[Pope Benedict XVI]] recommended to theologians the presentation of purgatory by Catherine of Genoa, for whom purgatory is not an external but an inner fire: 
{{quote|"In her day it was depicted mainly using images linked to space: a certain space was conceived of in which Purgatory was supposed to be located. Catherine, however, did not see purgatory as a scene in the bowels of the earth: for her it is not an exterior but rather an interior fire. This is purgatory: an inner fire."<ref name="benedictxvi">[https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html Saint Catherine of Genoa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309191119/http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html |date=2021-03-09 }}. Benedict XVI General Audience, January 12, 2011, accessed May 15, 2018</ref>}}

He further said that:
{{quote|"'The soul', Catherine says, 'presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God'.…The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html |title=Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience of 12 January 2011 |access-date=15 January 2021 |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309191119/http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In his 2007 encyclical ''Spe salvi'', Pope Benedict XVI, referring to the words of [[Paul the Apostle]] in {{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|3:12–15|ESV}} about a fire that both burns and saves, spoke of the opinion that "the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away.<ref name= ESs/>

{{quote|This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation 'as through fire'. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.<ref name= ESs/><br /> 
The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.<ref name= ESs/>}}

=====Duration=====
In his 2007 encyclical ''Spe salvi'', Pope Benedict XVI teaches:<ref name= ESs/>

{{quote| It is clear that we cannot calculate the 'duration' of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world. The transforming 'moment' of this encounter eludes earthly time-reckoning – it is the heart's time, it is the time of 'passage' to communion with God in the Body of Christ."<ref name= ESs>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html Encyclical ''Spe salvi''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129201409/http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html |date=2015-01-29 }}, 46–47].</ref>}}

=====Eastern Catholics=====
The popular conceptions of Purgatory that, especially in late medieval times, were common among Catholics of the [[Latin Church]] have not necessarily found acceptance in the [[Eastern Catholic Churches]], of which there are 23 in [[full communion]] with the Pope. Some have explicitly rejected the notions of punishment by fire in a particular place that are prominent in the popular picture of Purgatory.{{cn|date=August 2023}} 

The representatives of the Eastern Orthodox Church at the [[Council of Florence]] (1431-1449) argued against these notions, while declaring that they do hold that there is a cleansing after death of the souls of the saved and that these are assisted by the prayers of the living: 

{{quote|"If souls depart from this life in faith and charity but marked with some defilements, whether unrepented minor ones or major ones repented of but without having yet borne the fruits of repentance, we believe that within reason they are purified of those faults, but not by some purifying fire and particular punishments in some place."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/patrologiaorient15pariuoft/page/40 "First Speech by Mark, Archbishop of Ephesus, on Purifying Fire" in ''Patrologia Orientalis'', vol. 15, pp. 40–41]</ref> }}

The definition of purgatory adopted by that council excluded the two notions with which the Orthodox disagreed and mentioned only the two points that, they said, were part of their faith also. Accordingly, the agreement, known as the [[Union of Brest]], that formalized the admission of the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]] into the full [[communion (Christian)|communion]] of the Roman Catholic Church stated: "We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1595brest.html|title=Treaty of Brest, Article 5|access-date=2007-12-26|archive-date=2007-08-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070830222705/http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/MOD/1595brest.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== 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>