Are there levels or regions in Purgatory?
Open question Private revelation
Open question What the Church holds
Theology speaks of degrees of purification proportioned to each soul’s debt, and of nothing more: no regions, storeys or stages are defined. The Directory on Popular Piety (§258) lists the application of “spacio-temporal categories to the dead” among the things to be avoided.
Private revelation What the saints and mystics report
Almost every visionary describes Purgatory as layered, and no two layer it alike: three regions (Frances of Rome), prisons sorted by sin (Magdalen de Pazzi), three stages (the Unpublished Manuscript), a great, middle and summit (the Portuguese Visions), three levels (Maria Simma) — and no regions at all for Catherine of Genoa.
Accounts that bear on this
- MED-77Frances of Rome: three regions; the lowest a burning sea, seven years per forgiven mortal sin "as an average"; angels assist …
- EMO-10Magdalen de Pazzi: St Magdalen de Pazzi's two-hour ecstatic walk through the "prisons" of Purgatory, sorted by sin (overheard by her …
- UMP-R2Sr Mary of the Cross (the Manuscript): Three stages (the great Purgatory, the second, and the Purgatory of desire or "Threshold"), with many degrees in …
- VIS-04The Portuguese visionary: The grades: the great Purgatory (a silent, immobile fire, "equal to hell except in the duration", holding priests, …
- SIM-R2Maria Simma: Levels: three main levels, "as many levels as souls"; fire and Satan's attacks only in the lowest; prayers reach the …