WE have said that the total
amount of the debt of suffering for Purgatory comes from all the faults not
atoned for upon earth, but especially from mortal sins remitted to their guilt.
Now men who pass their whole lives in a habitual state of mortal sin, and who
delay their conversion until death, supposing that God grants them that rare grace,
will have to undergo the most frightful punishment. The example of Lord
Stourton gives them good cause for reflection. Lord Stourton, an English
nobleman, was at heart a Catholic, although, to retain his position at court, he
regularly attended the Protestant service. He kept a Catholic priest concealed
in his house, at the risk of great danger, promising himself to make good use
of his ministry by being reconciled with God
at the hour of his death. But he met with a sudden accident, and, as often
happens in such cases, by a just decree of God, he had not the time to realise
his desire of tardy conversion. Nevertheless Divine Mercy, taking into
consideration what he had done for the persecuted Catholic Church in England,
vouchsafed him the grace of perfect contrition, and consequently secured his
salvation. But he had to pay dearly for his culpable negligence.
Years passed by. His widow
married again and had children. It was one of her daughters, Lady Arundel, who
relates this fact as an eye-witness : One day my mother asked F. Cornelius, a
Jesuit of much merit, and who, later, died a martyr, to say Mass He was betrayed by a servant of
the Arundel family, and was executed at Dorchester in 1594. for the repose of
the soul of John, Lord Stourton, her first husband He promised to do so ; and
whilst at the altar, between the Consecration and the Memento for the dead, he
paused for a long time as if absorbed in prayer. After Mass, in an exhortation
which he addressed to those present, he told them of a vision which he had just
had during the Holy Sacrifice. He had seen an immense forest stretched out
before him, but entirely on fire, forming one vast cauldron. In the midst of it
was the deceased nobleman, uttering lamentable cries, bewailing the guilty life
he led in the world and at court. Having made a full confession of his faults,
the unfortunate man ended with these words, which Holy Scripture places in the
mouth of Job : Have pity on me! Have pity on me, at least you my friends, for
the hand of the Lord hath touched me. He then disappeared. Whilst relating
this, F. Cornelius shed abundance of tears, and we all, members of the family,
to the number of twenty-four persons, wept also. Suddenly, whilst the Father was
still speaking, we perceived upon the wall against which the altar stood what
seemed to be the reflection of burning coals.
Such is the recital of Dorothy,
Lady Arundel, which may be read in the History of England, by Daniel. St. Lidwina saw
in Purgatory a soul that suffered also for mortal sins not sufficiently
expiated on earth. The incident is thus related in the Life of the saint. A man
who had been for a long time a slave of the demon of impurity, finally had the
happiness of being converted. He confessed his sins with great contrition, but,
prevented by death, he had not time to atone by just penance for his numerous
sins. Lidwina, who knew him well, prayed much for him. Twelve years after his
death she still continued to pray, when, in one of her ecstasies, being taken
into Purgatory by her angel-guardian, she heard a mournful voice issuing from a
deep pit. It is the soul of that man, said the angel, for whom you have prayed
with so much fervour and constancy. She was astonished to find him so deep in Purgatory
twelve years after his death. The angel, seeing her so greatly affected, asked if
she was willing to suffer something for his deliverance. With all my heart,
replied the charitable maiden. From that moment she suffered new pains and frightful
torments, which appeared to surpass the strength of human endurance. Nevertheless,
she bore them with courage, sustained by a charity stronger than death, until
it pleased God to send her relief. She then breathed as one restored to a new
life, and, at the same time, she saw that soul for which she had suffered so
much come forth from the abyss as white as snow and take its flight to Heaven.
