Purgatory (Doctrinal, Historical, and Poetical) | Page 2

inclined who will read

them. Knowing this, and still desirous to promote devotion to the Holy
Souls by making Purgatory more real, more familiar to the general
reader, I thought the very best means I could take for that end would be
to make a book chiefly of legends and of poetry, with enough of
doctrinal and devotional matter to give a substantial character to the
work by placing it on the solid foundations of Catholic dogma, patristic
authority, and that, at the same time, of the latest divines and
theologians of the Church, by selections from their published writings.
I have divided the work into five parts, viz.: Doctrinal and Devotional,
comprising extracts from Suarez, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Augustine,
St. Gertrude, St. Francis de Sales, of the earlier and middle ages; and
from Archbishop Gibbons, Very Rev. Faá di Bruno, Father Faber,
Father Muller, C.S.S.R., Father Binet, S.J., Rev. J. J. Moriarty, and
others.
The Second Part consists of Anecdotes and Incidents relating to
Purgatory, and more or less authentic. The Third Part contains
historical matter bearing on the same subject, including Father
Lambing's valuable article on "The Belief in a Middle State of Souls
after Death amongst Pagan Nations." The Fourth Part is made up of
"Thoughts on Purgatory, from Various Authors, Catholic and non-
Catholic," including Cardinals Newman, Wiseman, and Manning; the
Anglican Bishops Jeremy Taylor and Reginald Heber, Dr. Samuel
Johnson, William Hurrell Mallock, Count de Maistre, Chateaubriand.
The Fifth and last part consists of a numerous collection of legends and
poems connected with Purgatory. Many of these are translated from the
French, especially the _Légendes de l'Autre Monde,_ by the
well-known legendist, J. Colin de Plancy. In selecting the legends and
anecdotes, I have endeavored to give only those that were new to most
English readers, thus leaving out many legends that would well bear
reproducing, but were already too well known to excite any fresh
interest.
In the poetical section I have represented as many as possible of the
best-known poets, from Dante down, and some poems of rare beauty
and merit were translated from French and Canadian poets by my
daughter, who has also contributed some interesting articles for the
historical portion of the work. As may be supposed, this book is the
fruit of much research. The collection of the material has necessarily

been a work of time, the field from which the gleanings were made
being so vast, and the selections requiring so much care.
As regards the legendary portion of the work, whether prose or poetry,
the reader will, of course, understand that I give the legends precisely
for what they are worth; by no means as representing the doctrinal
belief of Purgatory, but merely as some of the wild flowers of poetry
and romance that have grown, in the long lapse of time, from the rich
soil of faith and piety, amongst the Catholic peoples of every
land--intensified, in this instance, by the natural affection of the living
for their dear departed ones, and the solemn and shadowy mystery in
which the dead are shrouded when once they have passed the portals of
eternity and are lost to mortal sight. Some of these legends, though
exceedingly beautiful, will hardly bear close examination in the light of
Catholic dogma. Of this class is "The Faithful Soul," of Adelaide
Procter, which is merely given here as an old French legend, nearly
connected with Purgatory, and having really nothing in it contrary to
faith, though in a high degree improbable, but yet from its intrinsic
beauty and dramatic character, no less than the subtle charm of Miss
Procter's verse, eminently worthy of a place in this collection. The
same remark applies more or less to some of Colin de Plancy's legends,
notably that of "Robert the Devil's Penance," and others of a similar
kind, as also T. D. McGee's "Penance of Don Diego Rias" and
Calderon's "St. Patrick's Purgatory"--the two last named bearing on the
same subject. Nevertheless, they all come within the scope of my
present work and are, therefore, presented to the reader as weird
fragments of the legendary lore of Purgatory.
Taken altogether, I think this work will help to increase devotion to the
Suffering Souls, and excite a more tender and more sensible feeling of
sympathy for them, at least amongst Catholics, showing, as it does, the
awful reality of those purgative pains awaiting all, with few or no
exceptions, in the after life; the help they may and do receive from the
good offices of the living, and the sacred and solemn' duty it is for
Christians in the present life to remember them and endeavor to relieve
their sufferings by every means in their power. To answer this purpose
I have made the dead ages unite