Purgatory (pronounced pur-guh-tree (U), pur-guh-tawr-ee (non-U) or pur-guh-tohr-ee (non-U)
(1) In the orthodox theology of the Roman Catholic Church
(and in some other Christian denominations), a condition or place in which the
souls of those dying penitent (in a state of grace) are purified from venial
sins, or undergo the temporal punishment that, after the guilt of mortal sin
has been remitted, still remains to be endured by the sinner.
(2) In the Italian Purgatorio
(pronounced poor-gah-taw-ryaw), the second part of Dante's (Dante Alighieri
(circa 1265–1321)) Divine Comedy (1320), in which repentant sinners are
depicted.
(3) Any condition or place of temporary punishment,
suffering, expiation, or the like; any place of suffering, usually for past
misdeeds.
(4) Serving to cleanse, purify, or expiate.
1160-1180: From the Middle English purgatorie (place or condition of temporal punishment for spiritual cleansing after death of souls dying penitent and destined ultimately for Heaven), from the Old French purgatore & purgatorie, from the Medieval Latin pūrgātōrium (means of cleaning), noun use of neuter of the Late Latin pūrgātōrius (purging, literally “place of clensing”), the construct being pūrgā(re) (to purge) + -tōrius (-tory), the adjectival suffix, from purgat-, past-participle stem of pūrgāre (to purge, cleanse, purify). The adjectival form developed in the late thirteenth century, independent of the evolution in Church Latin. The figurative use (state of mental or emotional suffering, expiation etc) dates from the late fourteenth century, originally used poetically especially despairingly when speaking of unrequited love, or (and this may seem a paradox to same and merely descriptive to others), of marriage. In old New England it was used of narrow gorges and steep-sided ravines, a reference to the difficulties to be dad when negotiating such terrain. Purgatory, purgatorium & purgatorian are nouns and purgatorial is an adjective; the noun plural is purgatories.
Mankind's Eternal Dilemma: The Choice Between Virtue and Vice (1633) by Frans Francken the Younger (1581–1642), Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston.
In the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the
purgatory is the condition of souls of the dead who die with punishment but not
damnation due them for their sins committed on Earth. Purgatory is conceived as a condition of
suffering and purification that leads to union with God in heaven and is something
thus inherently temporary and has always been a bit of a theological problem
because it’s not mentioned (or even alluded to) in the Bible. The usual rationalization of this scriptural
lacuna is the argument that prayer for the dead is an ancient practice of
Christianity and one which has always assumed the dead can be in a state of
suffering, something which the living can improve by their prayers. Theological positions have hung on thinner
strands than that and within Roman Catholicism, purgatory has never attracted the controversy
which so excited critics of limbo, a rather more obviously unjust medieval
conjecture, but many branches of Western Christianity, notably the Protestant
tradition, deny its existence although among the more ritualistic, there are
those who conceive purgatory as a place and one often depicted as filled with
fire. The transitory nature of the condition
has often encouraged misunderstanding for it is not a place of probation; the
ultimate salvation of those in purgatory assured, the impenitent not received
into purgatory. Instead, the souls in
purgatory receive relief through the prayers of the faithful and through
the sacrifice of the mass, the confusion perhaps arising from the imagining the
destructive nature of fire on Earth whereas upon the soul with no
earthly attachment, it can be only cleansing.
So purgatory is the state of those who die in God's grace
but are not yet perfectly purified; they are guaranteed eternal salvation but
must undergo purification after death to gain the holiness needed to enter
heaven. The purgatory, the framework of
which was fully developed at the Councils of Florence (1431-1449) and Trent (1545
and 1563), is totally different from the punishment of the damned who are subject
to a cleansing fire, the scriptural explanation being "The person will be saved, but only through
fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15) but even then the Church recognized degrees
of sin as Pope Gregory I (Saint Gregory the Great, circa 540–604; pope 590-604)
helpfully clarified: "As for certain
lesser faults, there is a purifying fire." The possibilities were made explicit during
the Council of Trent in the statement “God
predestines no one to hell” which made clear that damnation is visited upon
sinners only by a persistence in mortal sin until death and God would much prefer "all to come to repentance" (2 Peter
3:9). In the Roman ritual, the relevant
line is "save us from final damnation and count us among those you have
chosen" and through purgatory, souls "achieve the holiness necessary
to enter the joy of heaven". Mortal
sin incurs both temporal punishment and eternal punishment, venial sin ("forgivable
sin” in this context) incurs only temporal punishment. The Catholic Church
makes a distinction between the two.
The noun purgatory appeared perhaps between 1160 and
1180, giving rise to the idea of purgatory as a place but the Roman Catholic
tradition of purgatory as a transitional condition has a history that pre-dates
even the birth of Christ. There was, around the world, a widespread practice of both caring for and praying for the dead, the idea that prayer contributed to their purification
in the afterlife. Anthropologists note
the ritual practices in other traditions, such as the way medieval Chinese
Buddhists would make offerings on behalf of the dead, said to suffer
numerous trials so there is nothing novel
in the practice which is mentioned in what the Roman Catholic
Church has declared to be part of Sacred Scripture, and which was adopted by
Christians from the beginning, a practice that pre-supposes that the dead are
thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final and eternal abode.
Whether purgatory is actually a place has in Roman
circles been discussed for centuries. In
2011 Pope Benedict XVI (b 1927; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus since), speaking
of Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510), said that in her time the purgatory
was pictured as a location in space, but that she saw it as a purifying inner
fire, such as she experienced in her profound sorrow for sins committed, such a
contrast with God's infinite love. The
failing of man she said was being bound to the desires and suffering that
derive from sin and that makes it impossible for the soul to enjoy the beatific
vision of God. Noting that little
appeared to have changed, Benedict noted "We too feel how distant we are, how full we are of so many things that
we cannot see 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."
The Eastern Catholic Churches are Catholic churches sui iuris of Eastern tradition, (in full
communion with the Pope) but there are some differences with Rome on aspects of
purgatory, mostly relating to terminology and speculation. The Eastern Catholic Churches of Greek
tradition do not generally use the word "purgatory", but agree that
there is a "final purification" for souls destined for heaven and
that prayers can help the dead who are in that state of "final
purification". In neither east nor
west are these matters thought substantive and are regarded as nuances and
differences of tradition. The Eastern
Catholic Churches belonging to the Syriac Tradition (Chaldean, Maronite and
Syriac Catholic), generally believe in the concept of Purgatory but use a
different name (usually Sheol) and claim there is contradiction with the Latin-Catholic
doctrine. Rome appears never to have
pursued the matter.
La Divina Commedia di Dante (Dante and His Poem), oil on canvas by Domenico di Michelino (1417–1491) after Alesso Baldovinetti (1425–1499), collection of Florence Cathedral, Italy. This work, in depicting the seven terraces in the form of the mountain were one approach to Dante's Purgatory, the other a focus on one level.
The Eastern Orthodox Church rejects the term
"purgatory" but does admit an intermediate state after death, the determination
of Heaven and Hell being stated in the Bible and it notes prayer for the dead
is necessary. The position of Constantinople
and environs is that the moral progress of the soul, for better or worse, ends
at the very moment of the separation of body and soul; it is in that
instant the definite destiny of the soul in the everlasting life is decided. There is no way of repentance, no way of
escape, no reincarnation and no help from the outside world, the eternal place
of the soul decided forever by its Creator and judge. Thus the Orthodox position is that while all
undergo judgment upon death, neither the just nor the wicked attain the final
state of bliss or punishment before the last day, the obvious exception being
the righteous soul of the Theotokos (the Blessed Virgin Mary), "who was
borne by the angels directly to heaven".
Generally, Protestant churches reject the doctrine of purgatory although more than one Archbishop of Canterbury may have come to regard Lambeth Palace as Purgatory on Earth. One of Protestantism's most cited tenets is sola scriptura (scripture alone) and because the Bible (from which Protestants exclude deuterocanonical books such as 2 Maccabees) contains no obvious mention of purgatory, it’s therefore rejected as an unbiblical and thus un-Christian. There are however variations such as the doctrine of sola fide (by faith alone) which hold that pure faith, apart from any action, is what achieves salvation, and that good deeds are but mere manifestations of that faith so salvation is a discrete event that takes place once for all during one's lifetime, not the result of a transformation of character. What does seem to complicate that is that most Protestant teaching is that a transformation of character naturally follows the salvation experience; instead of distinguishing between mortal and venial sins, Protestants believe that one's faith dictates one's state of salvation and one's place in the afterlife, those saved by God destined for heaven, those not excluded. Purgatory is thus impossible.
Wishing to excise any hint of popery from religion, purgatory
was addressed in two of the foundation documents of Anglicanism in the sixteenth
century. Prayers for the departed were
deleted in the 1552 revision to the 1549 Book
of Common Prayer because they implied a doctrine of purgatory (it was the
nineteenth century Anglo-Catholic that saw them restored to some editions) and Article
XXII of the the Thirty-Nine Articles of
Religion (1571) was most explicit: "The Romish Doctrine concerning
Purgatory . . . is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty
of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God." In the twenty-first century, the Anglicans,
finding it hard to sit anywhere but on the fence, now say “Purgatory is seldom mentioned in Anglican descriptions or speculations
concerning life after death, although many Anglicans believe in a continuing
process of growth and development after death.” The post-modern church writ small; one wonders if the
PowerPoint slides of Anglican accountants and Anglican theologians greatly differ.
In Judaism, Gehenna is a place of purification where, according to some traditions, sinners spend up to a year before release. For some, there are three classes of souls: (1) the righteous who shall at once be written down for the life everlasting, (2) the wicked who shall be damned and (3), those whose virtues and sins counterbalance one another shall go down to Gehenna and float up and down until they rise purified. Other sects speak only of the good and the bad yet, confusingly, most also mention an intermediate state. There’s also variance between the traditions regarding the time which purgatory in Gehenna lasts, some saying twelve months and others forty-nine days, both opinions based upon Isaiah 66:23–24: "From one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before Me, and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched"; the former interpreting the words "from one new moon to another" to signify all the months of a year; the latter interpreting the words "from one Sabbath to another", in accordance with Leviticus 23:15-16, to signify seven weeks. Whatever the specified duration, there are exceptions made for the souls of the impure which prove resistant to the persuasions of the Gehenna. According to the Baraita (a Jewish oral law tradition), the souls of the wicked are judged, and after these twelve months are are consumed and transformed into ashes under the feet of the righteous whereas the "great seducers and blasphemers" are to undergo eternal tortures in Gehenna without cessation. The righteous however and, according to some, also the sinners among the people of Israel for whom Abraham intercedes because they bear the Abrahamic sign of the covenant, are not harmed by the fire of Gehenna even when they are required to pass through the intermediate state of purgatory.
Relief sculpture on a side wall at the Chapel of Souls, (Capilla de Animas) in Compostela, Spain. These are the souls of the lustful on the seventh terrace, praying for release, which they have been promised will (eventually) be granted by the cleansing flames, something dependent on true repentance.
It was the Florentine poet Dante (Dante Alighieri, circa 1265–1321) who, in the second cantica of the epic poem Divine Comedy (1320) gave the world a vivid depiction of the place he called Purgatorio. Dante described Purgatory as a mountain which rose on the far side of the world, opposite Jerusalem, with seven terraces, each corresponding to the one of the seven deadly sins, each terrace a place of purification for souls who are penitent and seeking to cleanse themselves of their sins, so to be judged worthy of entering Paradise. In the valley at the base of the mountain is Ante-Purgatory and here sit the souls of the excommunicated and those who delayed repentance (the so called the “late repentant”) as they await their turn to begin their ascent of the terraces. Throughout Purgatory, angels and guides assist the souls and Dante's guide is the Roman poet Virgil (symbolizing human reason). Virgil leads Dante until they reach Earthly Paradise where Beatrice (representing divine wisdom) takes over as the guide to Heaven.
The
seven terraces
First
Terrace (Pride): Here the souls are humbled by being made to carry heavy stones
on their backs, forcing them to bend and contemplate humility.
Second
Terrace (Envy): Envious souls are punished by having their eyes sewn shut with twists
of iron wire so they may learn to appreciate the beauty of charity and
generosity.
Third
Terrace (Wrath): Souls of the wrathful Souls enveloped in a thick smoke that
blinds them, teaching them to cultivate patience and peace.
Fourth
Terrace (Sloth): The slothful are punished by being forced incessantly to run, encouraging
diligence and zeal.
Fifth
Terrace (Avarice and Prodigality): These souls have to lie face down in the
dirt and weep, teaching them to balance their desire for material wealth with
the virtues of generosity and moderation.
Sixth
Terrace (Gluttony): The gluttonous are starved so extreme hunger and thirst constantly
will remind them of the importance of temperance.
Seventh
Terrace (Lust): Souls here walk through walls of flames, purging the sin of
lust, teaching chastity and love for God.
Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.
That all sound rather grim but at the mountain’s summit sits the reward: Earthly Paradise (the Garden of Eden). Here, in this place of peace and beauty, symbolizing the restored innocence and grace, souls are purified completely and ready to ascend to Heaven. So, the purpose of Dante's Purgatory is less the punishments which must be endured than the possibility of redemption from sin through repentance to purification, leading ultimately to the soul's readiness for Paradise. In this it contrasts with the eternal sufferings which are the fate of those souls condemned to the circles of Hell.
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