Location Of Purgatory
-St Magdalen de Pazzi-
The following is an account of that of St. Magdalen de Pazzi, a
Florentine Carmelite, as it is related in her Life by Father Cepare. It
gives more of a picture of Purgatory, whilst the preceding vision but
traces
it's outlines.
Some time before her death, which took place in 1607, the servant of
God,
Magdalen de Pazzi, being one evening with several other Religious in the
garden of the convent, was ravished in ecstasy, and saw Purgatory open
before her. At the same time, as she made known later, a voice invited her
to visit all the prisons of Divine Justice, and to see how truly worthy of
compassion are the souls detained there.
At this moment she was heard to say, "Yes, I will go." She consented to
undertake this painful journey. In fact, she walked for two hours round
the
garden, which was very large, pausing from time to time. Each time she
interrupted her walk, she contemplated attentively the sufferings which
were
shown to her. She was then seen to wring her hands in compassion, her face
became pale, her body bent under the weight of suffering, in presence of
the
terrible spectacle with which she was confronted.
She began to cry aloud in lamentation, "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. Nevertheless
there
are others still deeper. How happy should I esteem myself were I not
obliged
to go down into them."
She did descend, however, for she was forced to continue her way. But
when she had taken a few steps, she stopped terror-stricken, and, sighing
deeply, she cried, "What! Religious also in this dismal abode! Good God!
how
they are tormented! Ah, Lord!" She does not explain the nature of their
sufferings; but the horror which she manifested in contemplating them
caused
her to sigh at each step. She passed from thence into less gloomy places.
They were the dungeons of simple souls, and of children in whom ignorance
and lack of reason extenuated many faults. Their torments appeared to her
much more endurable than those of the others. Nothing but ice and fire
were
there. She noticed that these souls had their angel-guardians with them,
who
fortified them greatly by their presence; but she saw also demons whose
dreadful forms increased their sufferings.
Advancing a few paces, she saw souls still more unfortunate, and she
was
heard to cry out, "Oh! how horrible is this place; it is full of hideous
demons and incredible torments! Who, O my God, are the victims of these
cruel tortures? Alas! they are being pierced by sharp swords, they are
being
cut into pieces." She was answered that they were the souls whose conduct
had been tainted with hypocrisy.
Advancing a little, she saw a great multitude of souls which were
bruised, as it were, and crushed under a press; and she understood that
they
were those souls which had been addicted to impatience and disobedience
during life. Whilst contemplating them, her looks, her sighs, her whole
attitude betokened compassion and terror.
A moment later her agitation increased, and she uttered a dreadful cry.
It was the dungeon of lies which now lay open before her. After having
attentively considered it, she cried aloud, "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."
She then went to the prison of those souls which had sinned through
weakness, and she was heard to exclaim, "Alas! I had thought to find you
among those who have sinned through ignorance, but I am mistaken; you burn
with an intenser fire."
Farther on, she perceived souls which had been too much attached to the
goods of this world, and had sinned by avarice.
"What blindness," said she, "thus eagerly to seek a perishable fortune!
Those whom formerly riches could not sufficiently satiate, are here gorged
with torments. They are smelted like metal in the furnace."
From thence she passed into the place where those souls were imprisoned
which had formerly been stained with impurity. She saw them in so filthy
and
pestilential a dungeon that the sight produced nausea. She turned away
quickly from that loathsome spectacle. Seeing the ambitious and the proud,
she said, "Behold those who wished to shine before men; now they are
condemned to live in this frightful obscurity."
Then she was shown those souls which had been guilty of ingratitude
towards God. They were prey to unutterable torments, and, as it were,
drowned in a lake of molten lead, for having by their ingratitude dried up
the source of piety.
Finally, in a last dungeon, she was shown souls that had not been given
to any particular vice, but which, through the lack of proper vigilance
over
themselves, had committed all kinds of trivial faults. She remarked that
these souls had share in the chastisements of all vices, in a moderate
degree, because those faults committed only from time to time rendered
them
less guilty than those committed through habit.
After this last station the saint left the garden, begging God never
again to make her witness of so heartrending a spectacle: she felt that
she
had not strength to endure it. Her ecstasy still continued, and,
conversing
with Jesus, she said to Him, "Tell me, Lord, what was your design in
discovering to me those terrible prisons, of which I knew so little, and
comprehended still less? Ah! I now see; you wished to give me the
knowledge
of your infinite sanctity, and to make me detest more and more the least
stain of sin, which is so abominable in your eyes."
Taken from: Purgatory Explained (pp 13-16)
Compiled by: Father F.X. Schouppe, S.J.
Imprimatur: Herbertus Card.Vaughan, Archiep. Westmonasterien
Published by: www.TanBooks.com
Copyright: Original October 11, 1893
--
Jesse Gomez Jr
In Beautiful Norway
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