Souls speaking from the afterlife, dead nuns, and a priest who escaped death after crashing his motorcycle. They've all given riveting firsthand accounts of purgatory. Here's what they saw.
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00:00Souls speaking from the afterlife, dead nuns, and a priest to escape death after crashing
00:05his motorcycle.
00:06They've all given riveting firsthand accounts of purgatory.
00:09Here's what they saw.
00:10If you're thinking purgatory is almost heaven, well, uh, not exactly.
00:15The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is basically the church doctrine, defines
00:19purgatory as a purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of
00:24heaven.
00:25Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes it as an intermediate state after death, pointing
00:29to Roman Catholic writings that claim it is a place or state of punishment.
00:33The dictionary goes on to add,
00:34"...Purgatory is where the souls of those who die in God's grace may make satisfaction
00:38for past sins and so become fit for heaven."
00:41The type of sin committed in one's life also affects accounts of purgatory.
00:45In Roman Catholic doctrine, venial sins are considered less severe than mortal sins, such
00:49as envy or neglecting prayer.
00:52According to accounts, however, both types of sins play a role in how one experiences
00:56purgatory.
00:57So, almost heaven?
00:58Or, like, almost hell?
01:00In November 1873, a nun allegedly spoke to a soul in purgatory.
01:04It was a nun from her covenant, Sister M.G., who had died over two years earlier.
01:09Her account is outlined in December 1967's An Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory.
01:14The soul told the nun,
01:15"...in the Great Purgatory there are several stages.
01:18In the lowest and most painful, it is like a temporary hell.
01:21In here there are the sinners who have committed terrible crimes during life and whose deaths
01:25surprise them in that state."
01:27At this level of apparent mortal sin, she said, there are also souls who were indifferent
01:31to God.
01:32The next stage is for those who, at the time of their death, had venial sins or mortal
01:35sins that were forgiven, but for which they had not made entire satisfaction to the divine
01:40justice, as Sister M.G. noted.
01:43The final stage was the Purgatory of Desire, also known as the Threshold, which Sister
01:47M.G. allegedly said few people escape.
01:50The soul said to the nun,
01:51To avoid it altogether, one must ardently desire heaven and the vision of God.
01:55That is rare, rarer than people think, because even pious people are afraid of God and have
02:00not, therefore, a sufficiently strong desire of going to heaven.
02:04Father Jose Maniangat, a Catholic priest, got into a motorcycle accident back in 1985.
02:09He survived, but claims to have experienced death, and says in this time he was escorted
02:13to heaven, hell, and purgatory.
02:15On his website, his story is prefaced with a disclaimer that says the Diocese of St.
02:19Augustine investigated his claims and couldn't authenticate or endorse them.
02:23Nevertheless, he continues to tell his tale and has appeared on various podcasts doing
02:27just that.
02:28In Hell, the priest claims there are seven levels of suffering, each defined by the number
02:32of mortal sins its inhabitants committed during their lives.
02:35In Purgatory II, he says there are seven stages.
02:38He wrote on his website,
02:39The main suffering of these souls is their separation from God.
02:43Even though these souls are suffering, they enjoy peace and the knowledge that one day
02:46they will see God face to face.
02:48He said he spoke to many souls in purgatory who asked him to pray for them and spread
02:52the word to others to do the same.
02:54The souls were waiting to enter heaven.
02:56No, maybe they were not in hell yet, you know, maybe this is purgatory and we're on our way
03:00to be judged.
03:02In All for Jesus, or The Easy Ways of Divine Love, English theologian Frederick William
03:07Faber covers an account of purgatory that came through Sister Francesca.
03:11Though she herself never went there, she apparently spoke of a 14-year-old girl who did because
03:15she was too young at the time of her death to have conformed to the will of God.
03:19While there, one soul allegedly told her,
03:22Ah, men little think in the world how dearly they are going to pay here for faults they
03:26hardly note there.
03:28Faber pointed to this account as expressive of the nature of purgatory, writing,
03:32"...wrong notions about small faults may thus lead us to neglect the dead, or leave off
03:36our prayers too soon, as well as lose the lesson for ourselves."
03:40Then again, both views agree as to the helplessness of the holy souls.
03:44The term holy souls refers to those in purgatory and those that the faithful offer prayers
03:48to in life.
03:49The life of Saint Gemma Galgani offers yet another account of purgatory.
03:53Galgani, also known as the Daughter of Passion, was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church
03:58in 1940.
04:00She claimed to have spoken with a religious sister who died after suffering for a few
04:03months.
04:04Her soul allegedly appeared to Galgani full of sorrow as she suffered in purgatory.
04:09Galgani spent her next days offering prayers and petitions to God to save his sister.
04:13Even in her diary from this time, she describes being visited by the soul, in the form of
04:16a woman dressed in white.
04:18The soul allegedly said,
04:19"...I thank you so very much for the great concern you have shown me because soon I shall
04:23be able to attain my eternal happiness."
04:26The Daughter of Passion claimed that after 16 days, she saw Mary, the mother of Jesus,
04:30and then the sister with her guardian angel and Jesus in the same doctrine.
04:34The soul thanked her before departing.
04:36Galgani wrote,
04:37"...she made a sign of bidding me goodbye with her hand, several times, and with Jesus
04:41and her guardian angel she flew to heaven."
04:43As for an earthly explanation of what was going on, let's start with this.
04:47Her own sister mocked her, indicating that it wasn't as divine as it appeared.
04:51The guardian later claimed,
04:53"...she was given to displays of flamboyant suffering, to public and extreme fasting and
04:57self-denial, and the exhibition of torn and bleeding flesh."
05:01She also claimed to have experienced stigmata — that's bleeding from the hands, wrists,
05:05feet, or head — things that align with Jesus' crucifixion wounds.
05:09Specifically, Saint Gemma bled from her head.
05:11Gemma is a saint, but even at the time in 1940 of her canonization, she was a controversial
05:16pick for sainthood.
05:18Modern research continues to look into her claims of purgatory and what her life really
05:21was like back then.