This article is the third part of a series about Purgatory, a topic that is rarely discussed today. A knowledge of Purgatory is essential if souls are to avoid the pains of this place of expiation. The first article can be found here.
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Even during her lifetime, Saint Lidwina of Scheidam (1380-1433) was credited with many healings in the region of Holland where she lived. It seemed that the only person she could not cure was herself. At the age of fifteen, she fell while ice skating and broke a rib. Not only did that injury never heal properly, but she gradually lost the use of most of her body. As she grew older, her pains became intense, and paralysis eventually extended to every part of her body.
Today, some medical historians conclude that Lidwina suffered the first known case of multiple sclerosis.
The Saint and the Sinner
Lidwina’s sufferings only made her more holy. As her physical strength ebbed, her prayers gained intensity and power. She began to have visions that took her to places she had never visited in person. After the vision ended, her recollections were so precise that she could describe them accurately and in detail. As stories of these events spread, she received many visitors who requested her prayers.
Shortly after her death, Friar John Brugman wrote a biography of Lidwina, whose grave was already becoming a pilgrimage destination. In this book, he first recorded the vision described below.
At some point, Lidwina became acquainted with an unrepentant sinner. The exact nature of his sins is unrecorded. Father Schouppe merely says that he was “entangled in the corruptions of the world.”1
As she often did, Lidwina offered up her prayers and some of her sufferings for this young man. After some period of time, he realized the enormity of his sins. At Lidwina’s urgings, he went to a priest, made a sincere confession and received absolution. He appeared to be well on his way to a better life when he suddenly died.
Suffering to Deliver a Soul
Lidwina did not make the mistake that so many modern people do, assuming that the man’s confession freed him from all the consequences of his sins. She continued to pray for him.
Some time after the man’s death, Lidwina had a vision of Purgatory, guided by her guardian angel. She asked her angel if the man was in Purgatory. “Yes,” the angel replied, “and he suffers much.” The angel then asked her, “Would you be willing to endure some pain in order to diminish his?”
To modern ears, such a request sounds extreme. Lidwina’s sufferings were already intense. Why would the angel ask her to suffer still more? Most people would shrink away from such a request. Most people would ask, “How much pain must I endure?”
However, that is not the response of one who truly trusts God and His love for mankind.
“Certainly,” Lidwina said immediately, “I am ready to suffer anything to assist him.”
A Visit to Purgatory
The angel then took Lidwina to one of the worst corners of Purgatory. The pious woman was horrified and asked her guide, “Is this Hell?” The angel replied, “No, but this part of Purgatory is bordering upon Hell.”
Lidwina looked about her. To her mind, the area resembled an immense prison. The walls were made of massive stones and were unimaginably high. An immense darkness prevailed. Lidwina shook with horror, but her concern for the man was so great that she did not divert her eyes.
The sounds of the chamber were worse than the sights. In the din, Lidwina heard cries of lamentation combined with groans of torment and shrieks of furious anger. She heard the clanging of chains as executioners used implements of torture to inflict unspeakable wounds. She was sure that none of the earth’s torments could produce the intensity of the noises she heard.
In pain and confusion, Lidwina asked her angelic guide, “What is that horrible place?” Her angel asked if Lidwina wanted to show it to her. For once, Lidwina’s courage failed her. “No, I beseech you. The noise which I hear is so frightful that I can no longer bear it. How can I endure the sight of those horrors?”
Overcome With Compassion
Continuing along, Lidwina saw another angel sitting sadly next to a well. The curious sight roused Lidwina’s pity. She turned to her guide. “Who is that angel?” “It is,” Lidwina’s angel guide told her, “the angel-guardian of the sinner in whose lot you are interested. His soul is in this well, where it has a special purgatory.”
Lidwina’s sympathy overcame her horror, and she expressed a desire to see the object of her prayers. The angel removed the cover from the well. Instantly, Lidwina saw a cloud of flame and heard horrible and plaintive cries.
“Do you recognize that voice?” the angel inquired. “Alas! Yes,” Lidwina answered. The angel then asked her, “Do you wish to see that soul?” Somehow, whether by gesture or words is unrecorded, Lidwina responded that she did.
Burning Regrets
The angel called the man. Immediately, Lidwina saw the man’s spirit. It was engulfed in flames so bright that they resembled white-hot metal from a blast oven, yet she could make out his form and barely hear his wretched voice. “Oh Lidwina, servant of God,” he said, “who will give me to contemplate the face of the Most High?”
At the piteous sight and agonized voice of the man, Lidwina felt a shock of horror. Having reached the end of her endurance, she awoke from her mystic ecstasy.
When she roused, there were others in the room. They could easily see the fear that raged throughout Lidwina’s body, despite her paralysis.
“How frightful are the prisons of Purgatory!” Lidwina wearily exclaimed. “It was to assist souls that I consented to descend thither. Without this motive, if the whole world were given to me, I would not undergo the terror which that horrible spectacle inspired.”
The Long Path to Heaven
Lidwina redoubled her efforts in behalf of the man’s soul. A few days later, she saw his guardian angel again. His face reflected a joy that had been absent when they had met by the well. The angel told him that the man had been released from the well and had entered the more ordinary regions of Purgatory.
The news heartened Lidwina, but still she was unsatisfied. She was, no doubt, glad that the intense torments that he alone endured were over. However, she knew all too well that even “ordinary” Purgatory is a place of great suffering. She continued to pray and offer her sufferings for the man. Sometime later, the amount of time is unrecorded, she saw the gates of Heaven open to admit him.
At least two lessons emerge from this narrative. The first is the immense value of the prayers of the living to the poor souls.
Suffering vs. Selfishness
The second concerns the temporary sufferings of those on earth. The modern world treats suffering as a useless misfortune that should be alleviated instantly. No one could argue that Saint Lidwina deserved to suffer as she did. Yet, she embraced her pains and offered them for certain poor souls whose sufferings in Purgatory far exceeded hers on earth.
Contrast her reaction to pain with that of a wildly wealthy industrialist who shall remain nameless. This man, quite famous in his time, was the leading member of his community, had traveled the world and lived in a grand mansion surrounded by abundant gardens. As he reached old age, he contracted a wasting disease which he and his doctors knew would kill him after a few years of pain and debilitation. Not wanting to face such a protracted end, he decided to commit suicide. His spiritual vacuum is illustrated by the short note he left behind. “My work is finished. Why wait?”
It is an immense pity that he didn’t follow Saint Lidwina’s example. Not only would the suffering have benefitted his own soul, but those of many others. Some, like Lidwina’s beneficiary, could have escaped the sufferings of Purgatory. Others, still on earth, could have seen his example and profited from it.
Let us choose the temporary sufferings of earth so that we and our loved ones may attain the eternal joys of Heaven!
Footnotes
- All quotations in this article use the 1905 version of Father F. X. Schouppe’s Purgatory, published in Great Britain by Burns, Oates and Washbourne, Ltd. It is in the public domain and available through the Internet Archive.