Those Whom God Permitted to See — and to Tell

"I see so many souls from Purgatory that they don't frighten me any more. More souls of the dead than of the living climb this mountain to attend my Masses and seek my prayers." — Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Throughout the history of the Church, God has permitted certain souls of exceptional holiness to see, to hear, and sometimes to experience directly the reality of Purgatory. He has done this not to satisfy curiosity but to move the hearts of the faithful — to shatter the comfortable indifference with which we too easily forget our dead.

These are not private fancies or unverified legends. They are the testimonies of canonised saints, recorded by their confessors and biographers, examined by the Church in the processes of their canonisation, and preserved in the great tradition of Catholic spiritual literature.

They speak with one voice. And what they say should change the way we live.

Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina (1887–1968)

No saint of modern times was more continuously, more intimately, and more visibly united to the Holy Souls in Purgatory than the Capuchin stigmatist of San Giovanni Rotondo.

Throughout his fifty-one years as a priest, Padre Pio was visited by souls from Purgatory in visible human form. They came to him at the friary. They appeared in his room at night. They attended his Mass. They asked him to pray for them, to offer the Holy Sacrifice for them, to intercede with God on their behalf.

He himself said: "More souls of the dead than of the living climb this mountain to attend my Masses and seek my prayers."

The Soul of Pietro di Mauro

One night, Padre Pio was sitting alone in prayer when an old man entered and sat beside him. The man said: "Padre Pio, I am Pietro di Mauro, son of Nicola, nicknamed Precoco. I died in this friary on 18 September 1908, in cell number four, when it was still a poorhouse. One night, while in bed, I fell asleep with a lighted cigar, which ignited the mattress and I died, suffocated and burned. I am still in Purgatory. I need a holy Mass in order to be freed."

Padre Pio promised the Mass. The next morning he celebrated it for the soul of Pietro di Mauro. The superior of the friary later searched the civil registry and found that a man of that exact name had indeed died in that room, in that fire, on that date. The soul had spoken the truth. The Mass had freed him.

The Music of Liberation

Another evening, the friars of San Giovanni Rotondo heard the sounds of music and a choir coming from within the convent. They found Padre Pio absorbed in prayer and asked him what the singing was. He looked up, as if surprised at the question: "So, what? Why are you marvelling? Those are the voices of the angels, taking souls from Purgatory to Paradise!"

His Priesthood Offered for the Dead

In a letter to his spiritual director written early in his priesthood, Padre Pio expressed the burning desire that consumed him:

"For some time I have felt the need to offer myself to the Lord as a victim for poor sinners and for souls in Purgatory. This desire has grown continuously in my heart until now it has become a powerful passion. I made this offering to the Lord, imploring Him to lay on me the punishments that are prepared for sinners and for souls in Purgatory, even multiplying them upon me a hundredfold, as long as He converts and saves sinners and quickly releases the souls in Purgatory." — Padre Pio, Letters Vol. I, Our Lady of Grace Friary

When asked how long a particular soul would remain in Purgatory, he replied: "At least one hundred years. We must pray for the Souls in Purgatory. It is unbelievable what they can do for our spiritual good, out of the gratitude they have towards those on earth who remember to pray for them."

Saint Frances of Rome (1384–1440)

Saint Frances of Rome — the Benedictine oblate and foundress, canonised in 1608 — was granted a series of extraordinary visions of Purgatory in which her celestial guide, the Archangel Raphael, conducted her through the various regions of the purifying state.

Her visions, recorded by her confessor and preserved in the Acta Sanctorum, reveal Purgatory as having distinct regions corresponding to the different kinds of souls detained there.

The lowest region — the most severe — she saw as a place of intense fire. The intermediate region had three compartments: one of freezing cold "indescribably intense", one like a "huge caldron of boiling oil and pitch", and one of "liquid metal resembling molten gold or silver." The upper region, closest to Heaven, was the abode of souls suffering little except the pain of longing for God — and approaching swiftly the moment of their deliverance.

What struck Saint Frances most was not the terror of the lower regions — terrible as it was — but the patience and the love of the souls enduring it. They knew they were saved. They knew the end was coming. And they bore their suffering with a resignation and even a joy that astonished her.

Saint Magdalen de Pazzi (1566–1607)

Saint Magdalen de Pazzi, the Florentine Carmelite, was one evening in the garden of her convent with several other Religious when she was suddenly seized in ecstasy. A voice, as she later recounted, invited her to visit "all the prisons of Divine Justice" and to see how truly worthy of compassion were the souls detained there.

She walked for two hours around the large garden, pausing frequently, her face pale with horror and compassion at what she saw. Those who observed her heard her cry aloud:

"Mercy, my God, mercy! Descend, O Precious Blood, and deliver these souls from their prison. Poor souls! you suffer so cruelly, and yet you are content and cheerful. The dungeons of the martyrs in comparison with these were gardens of delight."

She descended into the deeper regions — and stopped, terror-stricken: "What! Religious also in this dismal abode! Good God! how they are tormented!"

She passed through the prisons of souls addicted to impatience and disobedience — she saw them "bruised and crushed under a press." She came to the dungeon of those who had sinned through lies: "Liars are confined in a place in the vicinity of Hell, and their sufferings are exceedingly great. Molten lead is poured into their mouths; I see them burn, and at the same time tremble with cold."

And in the midst of it all — this truth that Saint Catherine of Genoa had taught from the inside — the souls were "content and cheerful." They suffered with perfect willingness. They would not have it otherwise. They loved God.

Saint Magdalen de Pazzi gave the rest of her life to prayer and penance for the Holy Souls. She died in 1607 and was canonised in 1669.

Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938)

St. Mary Faustina Kowalska

Saint Faustina — the Polish religious to whom Our Lord revealed the devotion of Divine Mercy, whose Diary has been approved by the Church and whose canonisation was proclaimed by Saint John Paul II in 2000 — was likewise visited by souls from Purgatory and permitted to accompany them in spirit.

In her Diary she records one of these visits. A soul she had known in life appeared to her, "enveloped in flames," asking urgently for prayers. Saint Faustina prayed for her with all the fervour she had. Some time later, the same soul appeared again — but transformed:

"There were no longer any flames, as there had been before, and her face was radiant, her eyes beaming with joy. She told me that I had a true love for my neighbour and that many other souls had profited from my prayers. She urged me not to cease praying for the souls in Purgatory, and she added that she herself would not remain there much longer. How astounding are the decrees of God!" — Saint Faustina, Divine Mercy in My Soul, Diary, 58

And in another passage, Our Lord Himself speaks to Saint Faustina words that should be engraved in every Catholic heart:

"My daughter, tell souls that I am giving them My mercy as a defence. I Myself am fighting for them and am bearing the just anger of My Father." — Diary, 1516

Divine Mercy reaches the Holy Souls. It reaches them through us — through our prayers, our Masses, our acts of charity and penance offered for them. This is what Our Lord told Saint Faustina. This is what the whole tradition of the Church confirms.

Saint Gertrude the Great (1256–1302)

St. Gertrude the Great

Saint Gertrude — the great Benedictine mystic of Helfta, known as "the Herald of Divine Love" — was given by God a particular mission of intercession for the Holy Souls. She prayed for them unceasingly, and Our Lord revealed to her that her prayers were heard with great power.

Our Lord revealed to her a prayer of particular efficacy for the Holy Souls — the prayer that the faithful have prayed for seven centuries:

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, for those in my own home and within my family. Amen."

Our Lord showed Saint Gertrude a vast multitude of souls leaving Purgatory and going to Heaven as a result of this prayer — which she was accustomed to say frequently throughout the day.

The prayer is said to release one thousand souls from Purgatory each time it is prayed. The faithful have believed this for seven hundred years. Pray it. Pray it often. The souls are waiting.

Saint Catherine of Bologna (d. 1463)

Saint Catherine of Bologna — the Poor Clare artist and mystic, canonised in 1712 — testified from her own experience to a truth that deserves to be far better known among Catholics:

"Whenever she wished to obtain any grace, she had recourse to the Souls in Purgatory, and her prayers were immediately heard. She declared that by asking the intercession of these souls, she obtained many favours which she had not obtained through the intercession of the Saints in Heaven." (Powerful Means of Releasing Souls, purgatorysouls.blogspot.com)

The Holy Souls, burning with love for God and inflamed with gratitude toward those who pray for them, are among the most powerful intercessors we have. This is not a secondary devotion. It is one of the great treasures of Catholic life.

The Testimony Stands

From the first centuries to the twentieth, in every religious order, in every country of the Catholic world, the same testimony repeats itself: the dead are not gone. They are present to us in ways we cannot see. They are suffering. They are grateful. They are longing for our prayers. They are waiting to repay us, from the glory of Heaven, with an intercession and a protection that will accompany us to our own death.

God permitted these saints to see all this so that we would know.

Now we know. What we do with that knowledge is the question.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.