Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

There has never been a time in the Church when prayer was not practiced and sacrifices were not offered for the dead. We even see in the second book of Maccabees that this was done under the ancient law: Judas Maccabeus, after a bloody battle, sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem so that sacrifices might be offered there for the relief of those who had been killed in the combat; the author of this book, who lived about two hundred years before Our Lord, makes this reflection: *Sancta ergo et salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur*; "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." All the liturgies of the Apostles, which cannot be denied to be very ancient, even in the additions that have been made to them, prescribe this office of piety. Saint Clement, Pope, in book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions; Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, in the last chapter of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy; Saint Irenaeus, in book I of Against Heresies; Tertullian, in the book On the Soldier's Crown; Saint Cyprian, epistle IX, and almost all the other Fathers who followed them speak of it very clearly; the great Saint Augustine, in a thousand places in his writings, treats very expressly of prayer for the dead. However, several centuries passed in the Church without there being a day destined for the general relief of these suffering souls. They were indeed prayed for in common at every Mass, in order to assist those for whom no particular prayers or obligations were offered, as the same Saint Augustine teaches us in his book *De Cura pro mortuis*; but this was not done on one day rather than another. We have in Amalarius Fortunatus, who wrote so excellently on the offices in the time of Louis the Pious, an entire office for the dead, from which some have inferred that their annual commemoration was established as early as that time. However, this proof is very weak, and it is more likely that this office was still said only for each individual who departed this life. It is to the great Saint Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, that the Church is indebt ed for this institution. It saint Odilon, abbé de Cluny Abbot of Cluny in the 10th century, founder of the commemoration of the faithful departed in his order. is true that he did not and could not establish it except for the monasteries of his Order, over which his jurisdiction alone extended; but the Sovereign Pontiffs so approved of such a just devotion that they deemed it appropriate to extend it to the whole Church, and it is from this that the mournful solemnity of this day has come.

To better penetrate the subject, it is necessary to explain in this discourse three important points of the Church: the first, that there is a purgatory in the other life, where souls who have not yet fully satisfied the justice of God on earth for the offenses they have committed are severely punished and entirely purified before entering the kingdom of heaven; the second, that the pains of this place of purgatory are extremely severe and much harsher and more terrible than any that can be endured in this world; the third, that the Church militant can relieve and deliver these souls, not by way of absolution, which requires authority and subordination, but by way of suffrage and the transfer of the superabundant satisfactions of its head and its members.

As for the existence of purgatory, it is an article of faith defined in three general councils, namely: that of Lateran, under Innocent III; that of Florence, under Eugene IV; and th at of Trent, Innocent III Pope who commissioned Pierre de Castelnau against the Albigensians. in the twenty-fifth sessio n, as wel Eugène IV Pope who sent Nicholas Albergati to the Council of Basel. l as in several particular councils of Italy, France, Africa, Spain, and Germany, reported by Cardinal Bellarmine in the learned treatise he wrote on this subject. We have great indications of it in Holy Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments. It is with a view to purgatory that the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead fasted seven days for Saul and Jonathan after their death; that the holy man Tobit recommends to his son to place his bread and wine upon the grave of the just, that is to say, to give alms to the poor for his relief and deliverance; that Judas Maccabeus had sacrifices offered for those who had died in battle; and the prophet Isaiah says that God will cleanse the stains of Zion: *In spiritu combustionis*; "in a spirit of burning." It is with the same view that in the New Testament Our Lord says that there are sins that will not be forgiven either in the present age or in the age to come, implying thereby that other sins can be forgiven in the age to come, that is to say, in purgatory; that Saint Paul, speaking of one who has built upon the foundation, that is to say, upon faith in Jesus Christ, with wood, hay, and stubble, which are venial sins of malice, ignorance, and surprise, says that he will be saved only through fire; that the same Apostle approves the practice of those who purified themselves and performed acts of mortification and penance for the dead, which he calls *being baptized*; and that finally Saint Peter, in his Acts, chapter II, assures us that Our Lord, when He descended into hell before His resurrection, extinguished its pains. For He did not extinguish those of the damned, since there has never been grace or remission for them. Nor did He extinguish those of the just in limbo, since, although they were deprived of beatitude, they were not, however, in a state of suffering: it was therefore necessary that there should be some souls between the one and the other who were truly in pain and who could be delivered from it: these were the souls of purgatory.

All the Fathers of the Church have also handed down this doctrine to us, as a Christian truth that must be held as indubitable; for, firstly, it is certain that they all teach that one must pray for the faithful who die in the communion of the Church, as we have already noted. Now, there is an inseparable connection between this prayer and the truth of purgatory, since one cannot pray for the Saints who have arrived at the term of eternal happiness, according to this word of Saint Augustine: *Injuriam facit martyri qui orat pro martyre*; "it is an affront to a martyr to pray for him"; nor for the impious who are condemned to the flames of hell, for whom there is no more grace; they must necessarily have recognized the truth of purgatory. Moreover, several of these holy doctors speak of it very expressly and in formal terms, such as Saint Gregory of Nyssa, in an oration *pro mortuis*, where he says that the faithful who have not satisfied for their offenses through prayers and good works will be purified and rendered capable of beatitude, *per expurgantis ignis fornacem*; "by a furnace of fire destined to purify them." Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, in a discourse, *In sancta lumina*, declares that those who have remnants of sins to wash away will be baptized with a baptism much harsher and longer than any other baptism, which consumes the rust of their vice, just as our fire consumes the rust of iron. Saint Augustine, on Psalm XXXVII and in the sixteenth homily of the Fifty, speaking of adults who die with light sins, assures that they will pass through the fire of purgatory and will not be delivered to eternal flames. And Saint Gregory the Great, on the third psalm of penance, says: *Scio futurum esse, ut, post vitae exitum, alii flammis expurgentur purgatorii, alii sententiam æternæ subeant damnationis*; "I know that after this life some will be purified by the flames of purgator y and others will be co saint Grégoire le Grand Pope and Doctor of the Church, cited for his writings on purgatorial punishments and apparitions. ndemned to the perpetual pains of hell."

Theology provides us with further powerful reasons to confirm this truth; for, firstly, it is evident that many die without any mortal sin, but with venial sins for which they have not done penance. Now, these souls do not go to hell, since they are in a state of grace; nor do they enter immediately into the kingdom of heaven, since nothing defiled can enter there. There must therefore be a place between these two, where they are purged of these sins and where they satisfy for them to the justice of God. Furthermore, it is certain that, when the cup of mortal sin is forgiven, there still remain temporal penalties to be paid to this rigorous justice. Thus Miriam, sister of Moses, was punished for seven days for the murmuring she had committed against her brother, even though she had obtained pardon for it; and David, after Nathan had assured him that his adultery and homicide were forgiven, was nonetheless chastised for them by the death of his son and by many other scourges. Now, most of the faithful die without having satisfied these penalties, either through their negligence or weakness, or because the number and enormity of their crimes demand very long and great ones, or because they convert very late and subsequently have no time to do penance. It is therefore necessary that there be a place in the other life where, according to the just judgment of God, they accomplish these penalties, in order to be in a state to reign with Him. We see that among those who die there are many who are entirely good and pure of heart; others who are entirely evil; others who truly have goodness, but who also have many faults. Heaven is for the first, hell is for the second. A place is therefore needed for the third, where, their stains being expiated, they become worthy of the happy society of the first. Finally, an infinity of apparitions, to which Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Gregory of Tours, the Venerable Bede, Saint Bernard, and many other ecclesiastical authors bear witness, and where souls have come to implore the help of the living, are proofs of purgatory. If heretics mock this, they show in this their obstinacy and malice, since they prefer to fight without reason against facts reported by authors so worthy of belief than to abandon their error and enter into a sentiment that they themselves admit has been followed for more than fourteen or fifteen hundred years by the Fathers of the Church.

We must now speak of the pains endured in this place of expiation and torment. The two principal ones, which encompass all others, are the deprivation of God and the torment of fire. Regarding the torment of fire, it is the common sentiment of the holy Fathers and doctors that it is more searing and painful than anything one can endure on earth, and even more than all the torments of the martyrs. *Gravior est ille ignis*, says Saint Augustine on Psalm XXXVII, *quam quidquid potest homo pati in hac vita*; "This fire is more horrible and causes more pain than anything man can suffer in this life." And Saint Gregory, on the third penitential Psalm: *Illum transitorium ignem omni tribulatione præsenti existimo intolerabiliorem*; "I believe this passing fire is more intolerable than all the adversities and miseries of this world." Finally, the Angelic Doctor does not hesitate to admit t hat this torment Docteur angélique Saint cited as an example of resistance to temptation. is even more violent than all the sensible and bodily torments that Our Lord endured during the course of His passion, although these were so great that they would have been sufficient to cause the death of all men, had each received his portion. And the reason for this great rigor is that the fire of purgatory does not afflict these souls by its natural virtue, which of itself can only act upon bodies, but by a supernatural virtue communicated to it as a very severe instrument of God's justice. Now, there is nothing more terrible than this virtue; for, as the Apostle says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: His hand is infinitely heavier than those of all creatures; as He is great in His rewards, He is also great in His punishments; and, if He gives an incomparable and eternal glory for a glass of water and for an act of humiliation, one should not be surprised if He punishes with such severity for an offense, however slight, committed against the respect and obedience due to His divine majesty. Moreover, there are three things that contribute to the greatness of pain: the power, when it is extremely vivid and delicate; the object, when it is very sharp and piercing; and the union of the one and the other, when they approach very closely and are joined immediately. Now, these three things are found in the pain of the souls in purgatory; for, firstly, their powers, which are freed from matter and entirely spiritual, are much more vivid than they were in the dependence of bodily organs. Next, the fire, which is the object that torments them, being, according to Saint Thomas, of the same nature and substance as that which burns the damned, and having been ignited by the severity of divine justice, is much more searing and capable of afflicting them than anything we can conceive of as painful and distressing on earth. Finally, there is no distance between the object and the power, the executioner and the patient, the fire and the soul that is tormented by it. The fire is in the soul, and the soul is in the fire, and even if the soul could move away from the place of its torment, the fire would follow it everywhere and would not cease to torment it. It must therefore be confessed that the pain of the souls in purgatory is above all those that can be endured in this world.

We know that some authors have believed that the fire which punishes them is only a metaphorical fire, that is to say, a spiritual cause, which, in order to afflict them in a very sharp and biting manner, is improperly called *fire*. But even if that were so, their pain would be no less violent, since this cause would not torment them with any less force and rigor than fire. Moreover, although the Church has not yet determined anything as an article of faith on this difficulty, it must nevertheless be held as certain that this fire is a real and true fire. For, besides the fact that it is the common sentiment of theologians, the holy Fathers and Scripture itself speak too clearly of fire to give it only an improper and metaphorical meaning, especially since they make no distinction between that which now torments the souls and that which will eternally burn the bodies after the general resurrection, which will undoubtedly be a corporeal fire. However, as all souls in purgatory are not punished equally and it is highly probable that as one makes satisfaction for them and the term of their deliverance approaches, their pains diminish and become lighter, there is no inconvenience in admitting that there are some whose pain, which is called the pain of sense, does not exceed the greatest torments of this life when they are near to being delivered; and one even learns from some revelations that there have been some who did not suffer from this pain, but were only deprived of the vision of God and delayed in the possession of beatitude.

One may ask if demons serve as ministers to torment and afflict these souls beloved of heaven. The Angelic Doctor holds that they do not, being unable to persuade himself that these illustrious victors, who have so generously fought and vanquished all of hell, are still exposed to its insults. Others hold the contrary, and believe that God uses these instruments to further humble these negligent souls, who often, during their lives, preferred the suggestions of Satan to His heavenly inspirations. The matter is quite uncertain; and, as the sovereign Judge, upon whom it depends, has revealed nothing to us about it, one cannot say anything certain either.

This pain of sense caused by fire and by other instruments that we do not know, and which are hidden in the treasures of divine vengeance, is accompanied by the pain of damnation, which is the delay of the vision of God. Saint Thomas, treating of this pain, says that it is greater, more terrible, and more intolerable than the first; indeed, as a single hour of the vision of God should be purchased by millions of centuries of the most cruel torments, one should not be surprised if the misfortune of being excluded from it for several days, several months, or several years, causes more pain to the souls in purgatory than all the torments they endure from the fire. They know how great is the good of which they are deprived, they have an immense and as if infinite desire to possess it, their love carries them toward it with an ardor and impetuosity that have no equal; judge from that what pain they feel to see themselves repelled and to be unable to reach it. It is a boundless hunger that finds nothing to satisfy it; it is a thirst without measure that has nothing to quench it; it is an impetuous torrent that a dam stops in the middle of its course, without it being able to flow into the countryside and pleasantly spread its waters there. What further increases the pain of our patients is that they see clearly that they are themselves the cause of this delay, and that they have deserved it for not having wanted to wean themselves from a pleasure and a diversion of a moment, for having spared themselves a few hours of mortification and penance, or for having neglected to gain indulgences.

Let us add to these pains an intolerable sorrow for having offended God, which comes from the greatness of the love with which they are penetrated. We read in the Ecclesiastical History that this sorrow was so great and so vehement in some penitents that it suffocated them and took away their life. Indeed, as sin is the greatest of all evils, because it attacks God who is a being of infinite goodness, excellence, and majesty, it is also the subject that must give us the most bitterness and sorrow. If in this life, where our knowledge is so obscure and our love is so weak and languishing, souls have been capable of such great sorrow, what are, I pray you, those of these souls freed from matter, who see clearly the enormity of sin, and who are much more inflamed by the fire of divine love than by the avenging flames that torment them? Certainly, we persuade ourselves that their contrition, their bitterness, and their sorrow are so searing that any other pain they feel is almost nothing in comparison to this one, and that they willingly condemn themselves to all the torments they endure to expiate the sins of which they know they have rendered themselves guilty. The damned plunge themselves into the flames out of rage and despair, or rather out of a useless hatred they have for themselves upon seeing themselves as criminals; but these souls destined for glory plunge themselves into them out of the excess of their love, which gives them an inconceivable regret for having offended the goodness of their Lord, and a desire without measure to satisfy His justice and to annihilate, if it were possible, the sins they have committed against Him. The opposition they see and feel within themselves to the infinite holiness of God, whose greatness they penetrate, fills them with confusion and also with a horror that cannot be understood, and in comparison to which all the interior pains that one feels in this life must pass only for shadows. Spiritual persons who have sometimes received these humiliating and crucifying impressions can say something about it, and it is indeed known that several great saints have spoken of it as a hell. But what one can feel of it in this world is infinitely distant from the pain with which our illustrious sufferers are afflicted and tormented in purgatory.

It remains for us to speak of the help that the Church militant can give them to diminish and shorten their pains. It has been possible to see, through all that we have said until now, that the holy Fathers, in all centuries, were persuaded that they must be assisted and that they received relief through the prayers of the faithful. Thus, as their distance from the surface of the earth does not prevent them from composing with us one and the same mystical body under a single immortal head who is Jesus Christ, it is not to be wondered at that we have together a community of goods and that they can participate in the virtue of our satisfactions and our suffrages, just as we can participate in the strength of their prayers. Now, there are four general ways to assist them: the first is to offer for them the august sacrifice of the Mass, just as, in the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were offered in the temple for the departed. Cardinal Bellarmine reports for this the testimony of Saint Cyprian, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory, Pope, and many other Fathers who say in express term saint Grégoire, pape Pope and Doctor of the Church, cited for his writings on purgatorial punishments and apparitions. s that the souls in purgatory receive great assistance through this holy oblation. The Council of Trent, after Saint Chrysostom, assures that this duty of piety was taught by the Apostles, and Calvin himself could not deny that it has been in force in the Church for more than thirteen hundred years, from which he had the imprudence to say that all the Fathers had been in error on this point. Which shows clearly enough that he himself was possessed only by a spirit of pride and falsehood. It is known that Saint Monica, being on her deathb ed, prayed her sainte Monique Mother of Saint Augustine, cited for her request for prayers on her deathbed. son and the other priests who were with him to remember her at the holy altar; that Saint Ambrose, speaking of the death of his sister, said that it was not a question of weeping for her, but of recommending her to God through oblations, and that, of all the ancient liturgies, there is not a single one where there is not a Memento for the dead.

The second way to assist these souls is to cede and apply to them the satisfactions of our good works; for if, in human justice, there is no difficulty in releasing a prisoner for debt when another presents himself to pay them, why should we not believe that God, whose mercies are infinite and who desires sovereignly that men exercise charity toward one another, would be willing to receive the satisfactions of which we divest ourselves for the relief of these holy souls who can no longer satisfy. He therefore accepts our alms, our fasts, our disciplines, and our other works of piety, and, without our losing the merit of them, which we cannot transfer to anyone, He accepts them as payment, good, valid, and sufficient for their relief and for their deliverance.

The third way is prayer, we mean to pray earnestly for them and to importune the divine goodness so much in their favor that one finally obtains their grace. Saint Ephrem asked for this help for himself in his testament, and Saint Augustine strongly recommends not to omit it: Non sunt prætermittendæ supplicationes pro spiritibus mortuorum. And it is in this way that the angels and the blessed contribute to the relief of these souls; for they do not satisfy and do not offer sacrifices for them, but they become their intercessors and their mediators before God and do not cease to press His mercy to forgive them, until they have drawn them by this means into their blessed society. On which it must be noted that our prayers profit the souls in purgatory, as impetratory and as satisfactory, but that those of the blessed profit them only as impetratory.

Finally, the fourth way to assist them is to gain for them the indulgences that the Popes or other Prelates have granted in their favor; which is done by applying to them, not our own satisfactions, but those of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the other Saints, which are contained in the precious treasures of the Church. It is especially very important, for their relief, to pay the debts they left behind upon dying, to satisfy the damages they caused during their life, and to execute promptly the pious legacies marked in their contracts, their testaments, and their declarations of last will.

If we have the power to assist them, would it not be extreme cowardice on our part not to do so? Certainly, the poorer and more needy a person is, the more we are obliged to open our hearts and hands to help them; now, who is poorer and more in need than these souls? They owe much, they have nothing, they are unable to work and earn anything whatsoever; they are dealing with a severe and rigorous creditor who protests that he will not let them go, *donec reddant novissimum quadrantem*; "until they have paid the last farthing." We hear their complaints and prayers every day through the mouths of preachers and holy books which tell us on their behalf and in their name: "Have pity on us and look upon us with an eye of compassion and mercy, you who are our friends, because at last the hand of God has struck us." Moreover, the assistance they expect from us will cost us almost nothing, since it consists only of a few masses, a few prayers, and a few alms, and yet we can hope to be rewarded a hundredfold, because, besides the merit of this act of charity, which will make us true redeemers, no less than those who work for the ransom of captives, we must not doubt that, when these souls are in heaven, they will recognize our kindness and employ all their credit to procure our eternal salvation. Our Lord also, in reward for this office of piety, will anticipate us with His graces in this life, will show us mercy at the hour of death, and, if we are ever in the flames of purgatory, He will solicit charitable persons to assist us with their suffrages, just as we will have assisted those who were on the terrible anvil of His justice.

It is to oblige us to this duty that the Church today makes all her bells ring in a mournful manner, that she covers all her altars in black, that she sings so many masses and offices for the dead, and that she opens the mouths of her preachers to express the quality, duration, and inconceivable rigor of their pains; but she also intends that, by considering these pains, we enter into a holy fear of falling into them, that we watch more over ourselves, that we strive to avoid not only mortal sin but also venial sins, and that we do not put off until the next life the satisfaction of God's justice for our crimes. Indeed, what folly to defer this satisfaction to a time when it will be so severe and so terrible, being able to do it now through light penances that are incomparably gentler and easier: "Take great care, my dear brothers," says Saint Augustine, "not to answer: What does it matter to me if I go to purgatory, provided I arrive at eternal life? No, do not speak in that way; for this fire of purgatory will be harsher than anything one can see, feel, or think on earth, and, as it is written of the time of judgment, that a day is as a thousand ye ars and a thou saint Augustin Cited for his definition of fraternal charity. sand years as a day, who knows if one will not burn in this fire for days, months, or even years? Can it be that he who, now, would not want to put the tip of his finger in the fire for a moment, does not fear being plunged into it for such a long space of time?" If we listen to this instruction, and if we wish to put it faithfully into practice, we will be able to live with such innocence and satisfy so fully the just requirements of God's severity that we will not pass through these flames or we will remain there only for a very short time. This is what one must work at in this life, so that the moment of our death is not far from our blessed eternity.

We have preserved the discourse of Fr. Giry. — Cf. 1° Among the holy Fathers: Saint Augustine, *De cura pro mortuis*; Saint Gregory, Pope, *in Psalm. Domine, ne in furore*; Saint Bernard, *De quinque regionalibus*; 2° among the Ascetics: Denis the Carthusian, *De novissimis*; Kopplevas, *De subsidia animorum*; Koprou, *Réflexions chrétiennes*; 3° among the Theologians: Collet, *De Purgatorio*; Fr. Perrin, *Traité dogmatique et moral sur le Purgatoire*; Fr. Simon, *Le Culte des Morts*; 4° among the Preachers: Saint Bonaventure, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Saint Thomas of Villanova, Bourdaloue, the Reverend Father Venture, the Reverend Father Félix.