ACCORDING to the saints, there
is great diversity in the corporal pains of Purgatory. Although fire is the
principal instrument of torture, there is also the torment of cold, the torture
of the members, and the torture applied to the different senses of the human
body. This diversity of suffering seems to correspond to the nature of the
sins, each one of which demands its own punishment, according to these words :
Quia per qua peccat quis, per hcec et torquetur. By what things a man sinneth, by
the same also is he tormented. It is
just that it should be so with regard to the chastisement, since the same diversity
exists in the distribution of the reward. In Heaven each one receives according
to his works, and, as Venerable Bede says, each one receives his crown, his
robe of glory. For the martyr this robe is of a rich purple colour, whilst that
of the confessor has the brilliancy of a
dazzling whiteness.
The historian John Vasquez, in
his chronicle of the year 940, relates how Sancho, king of Leon, appeared to
Queen Guda, and by the piety of this princess was delivered from Purgatory.
Sancho, who had led a truly Christian life, was poisoned by one of his
subjects. After his death, Queen Guda passed her time in praying and causing
prayers to be offered for the repose of his soul. Not content with having a
great number of Masses offered for his release, in order that she might weep
and pray near the dear remains, she took the veil in the convent of Castile,
where the body of her husband had been deposited. One Saturday, whilst praying
at the feet of the Blessed Virgin, and recommending to her the soul of her departed
husband, Sancho appeared to her ; but in what a condition! Great God! he was
clad in garments of mourning and wore a double row of red-hot chains around his
waist. Having thanked his pious widow for her suffrages, he conjured her to
continue her work of charity. ”Ah ! if you knew, Guda, what I suffer,” said he
to her, “you would do still more. By the bowels of Divine Mercy, I conjure you
help me, dear Guda; help me, for I am devoured by these flames.
The Queen redoubled her
prayers and good works ; she distributed alms among the poor, caused Masses to
be celebrated in all parts of the country, and gave to the convent a
magnificent ornament for use of the altar.
At the end of forty days the
King again appeared. He had been relieved of the burning cincture and of all
his other sufferings. In place of
his robes of mourning, he wore a mantle of dazzling whiteness, like the sacred
ornament which Guda had given to the convent. “ Behold me, dear Guda,” said he,”
thanks to your prayers, delivered from all my sufferings. May you be for ever
blessed. Persevere in your holy exercises ; often meditate upon the severity of
the pains of the other life, and upon the joys of Paradise, whither I go to
await you.” With these words he disappeared, leaving the pious Guda overflowing
with con solation.
One day a woman, quite
disconsolate, went to tell St.Lidwina that she had lost her brother. “ My
brother has just died,” she said, “and I
come to recommend his poor soul to your charity. Offer to God for him some prayers
and a part of the sufferings occasioned by your malady. “The holy patient promised
her to do so, and some time after, in one of her frequent ecstasies, she was
conducted by her angel-guardian into the subterranean dungeons, where she saw
with extreme compassion the torments of the poor souls plunged in flames. One
of them in particular attracted her attention. She saw her transpierced by iron
pins. Her angel told her that it was the deceased brother of that woman who had
asked her prayers. “If you wish,” he added, “ to ask any grace in his favour,
it will not be refused to you.”
“I ask, then,” she replied, “that
he may be delivered from those horrible irons that transpierce him.” Immediately
she saw them drawn from the poor sufferer, who was then taken from this special
prison and placed in the one occupied by those souls that had not incurred any
particular torment. The sister of the deceased returning shortly^ after
to St.Lidwina, the latter made known to her the condition of her brother, and advised
her to assist him by multiplying her prayers and alms for the repose of his
soul. She herself offered to God her supplications and sufferings, until
finally he was delivered.
We read in the Life of Blessed
Margaret Mary that a soul was tortured in a bed of torments on account of her
indolence during life ; at the same time she was subjected to a particular
torture in her heart, on account of certain wicked sentiments, and in her
tongue, in punishment of her un charitable words. Moreover, she had to endure a
frightful pain of an entirely different nature, caused neither by fire nor
iron, but by the sight of a condemned soul. Let us see how the Blessed Margaret
describes it in her writings.
“I saw in a dream,” she says,“
one of our sisters who had died some time previous. She told me that she
suffered much in Purgatory, but that God had inflicted upon her a suffering
which surpassed all other pains, by showing her one of her near relatives
precipitated into Hell. “At these words I awoke, and felt as though my body was
bruised from head to foot, so that it was with difficulty I could move. As we
should not believe in dreams, I paid little attention to this one, but the
Religious obliged me to do so in spite of myself. From that moment she gave me
no rest, and said to me incessantly, Pray to God for me ; offer to Him your
sufferings united to those of Jesus Christ, to alleviate mine; and give me all
you shall do until the first Friday in May, when you will please communicate
for me. This I did, with permission of my superior. “Meanwhile the pain which
this suffering soul caused me increased to such a degree that I could find
neither com fort nor repose. Obedience obliged me to seek a little rest upon my
bed; but scarcely had I retired when she seemed to approach me, saying, You recline at your ease upon your bed; look
at the one upon which I lie, and where I endure intolerable sufferings. I saw
that bed, and the very thought of it
makes me shudder. The top and bottom was of sharp flaming points, which pierced
the flesh. She told me then, that this was on account of her sloth and
negligence in the observance of the rules. My heart is torn/ she continued, and
causes me the most terrible suffering for my thoughts of disapproval and criticism
of my superiors. My tongue is devoured by vermin, and, as it were, torn from my
mouth continually, for the words I spoke against charity and my little regard for
the rule of silence. Ah 1 would that all souls consecrated to God could see me
in these torments. If I could show them what is prepared for those who live
negligently in their vocation, their zeal and fervour would be entirely renewed,
and they would avoid those faults which now cause me to suffer so much. “At
this sight I melted into tears. Alas ! said she, one day passed by the whole
community in exact observance would heal my parched mouth ; another passed in the
practice of holy charity would cure my tongue; and a third passed without any
murmuring or disapproval of superiors would heal my bruised heart ; but no one
thinks to relieve me. ”After I had offered the Communion which she had asked of
me, she said that her dreadful torments were much diminished, but she had still
to remain a long time in Purgatory, condemned to suffer the pains due to those souls
that have been tepid in the service of God. As for myself,” adds Blessed
Margaret Mary, “ I found that I was freed from my sufferings, which I had been
told would not diminish until the soul herself should be relieved.”
