The Saints and Mystics

Beyond the defined teaching of the Church, many saints and mystics have received private revelations concerning the state of the holy souls in Purgatory. These revelations are not binding on the faithful, but they have been received with respect by the Church and have nourished the devotion of the faithful across the centuries.

St. Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510)

The most celebrated mystical account of Purgatory is the Treatise on Purgatory ( Trattato del Purgatorio) by St. Catherine of Genoa, a laywoman who experienced profound mystical states during her lifetime. Her Treatise is remarkable for its emphasis not on the sufferings of Purgatory but on the joy and love that pervade it. According to St. Catherine, the souls in Purgatory suffer intensely — but their suffering is borne willingly and even joyfully, because they understand that the fire is purifying them for the vision of God. They would not wish to be elsewhere, for they see that the fire is an expression of God's love.

She writes that the soul in Purgatory has a "happiness that increases day by day" as the rust of sin is burned away, and that "no peace is comparable to that of the souls in Purgatory except that of the saints in Heaven." At the same time, the pain is real and intense, because the soul perceives how its own impurities have separated it from God, whom it now loves with an ardour beyond anything it felt in life. The Treatise has been praised by theologians and popes and remains one of the most widely read works of Catholic mysticism.

St. Padre Pio (1887–1968)

The stigmatist Capuchin friar St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina spoke frequently of the holy souls in Purgatory and was known to have been visited by them. He said: "More souls of the dead from Purgatory than living people climb this mountain to attend my Masses and seek my prayers." He urged the faithful never to neglect prayer for the departed, especially the offering of the Holy Mass.

St. Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938)

The apostle of Divine Mercy recorded in her Diary several visions of Purgatory. She describes being led by her guardian angel to "a misty place full of fire" where she saw the souls suffering greatly, praying fervently, and unable to help themselves. She writes: "I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment is longing for God". In the account indexed here as FAU-10 (Diary §748), the encounter occurs on the evening of All Souls’ Day; the sign of release—three white doves rising from the altar—comes at Mass the following day.

St. Thomas More (1478–1535)

The great English martyr, writing in his Supplication of Souls (1529), gives voice to the holy souls themselves, pleading with the living not to forget them: "If ye pity the blind, there is none so blind as we, who are here in the dark, except for the light of faith, which yet we have, and nothing else... Remember what kin ye and we be together... Pity must your heart needs compel you to remember us." This work was composed in defence of the doctrine of Purgatory against the attacks of the English reformers.

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824)

The Augustinian mystic and stigmatist was shown visions of Purgatory in which she saw the immense variety of sufferings experienced by different souls according to their sins and the degree of purification needed. She also witnessed the tremendous relief brought to the souls by the prayers of the faithful and above all by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Private revelations concerning Purgatory, however edifying, do not belong to the deposit of faith. They may be believed with human faith where the Church has approved the integrity of the visionary, but no Catholic is obliged to accept them. The defined doctrine — that Purgatory exists, that its sufferings are real, and that the suffrages of the living are efficacious — stands on the authority of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, not on private revelation.