The Fires of Purgatory

In a recent meeting of our weekly Catholic Study Group, the topic of Purgatory was broached, specifically the topic of the fires and pain of Purgatory.  One member suggested that we consult the saints about this.

The Scriptures

The concept of purgatorial fire emerges from scriptural passages like 1 Corinthians 3:11–15 which describes works being tested by fire, with the builder saved “as through fire.” Other texts, such as Matthew 5:25–26 (settling debts to avoid prison) and 2 Maccabees 12:38–46 (prayers for the dead), support purification without specifying fire. Many more scriptural warrants for belief in Purgatory may be found in St. Robert Bellarmine’s “On Purgatory.”

St. Cyprian of Carthage

One early reference to Purgatory can be found in the writings of St. Cyprian of Carthage (210-258 AD) in his Epistle 51.  There he compares a soul going to Purgatory to a soul going straight to heaven:

It is one thing to stand for pardon, another thing to attain to glory: it is one thing, when cast into prison, not to go out thence until one has paid the uttermost farthing; another thing at once to receive the wages of faith and courage. It is one thing, tortured by long suffering for sins, to be cleansed and long purged by fire; another to have purged all sins by suffering. It is one thing, in fine, to be in suspense till the sentence of God at the day of judgment; another to be at once crowned by the Lord.

He is clearly telling believers to avoid Purgatory if they can.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-394 AD) and St. Augustine (354-430 AD) explicitly used fire metaphors to convey the intensity of purification. In his dialogue On the Soul and the Resurrection (c. 382), he explains the afterlife’s “punishment by fire” as a divine process to eradicate evil from the soul. He uses the metaphor of refining gold:

“Just as those who refine gold from the dross which it contains not only get this base alloy to melt in the fire, but are obliged to melt the pure gold along with the alloy, and then while this last is being consumed the gold remains, so, while evil is being consumed in the purgatorial fire, the soul that is welded to this evil must inevitably be in the fire too, until the spurious material alloy is consumed and annihilated by this fire.“

St. Augustine 

Augustine explicitly addressed the idea of a cleansing after death in the 69th chapter of his Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love), where he wrote:

And it is not impossible that something of the same kind may take place even after this life. It is a matter that may be inquired into, and either ascertained or left doubtful, whether some believers shall pass through a kind of purgatorial fire, and in proportion as they have loved with more or less devotion the goods that perish, be less or more quickly delivered from it. 

In his Expositions on the Psalms, St. Augustine said:

 “O Lord, rebuke me not in Your indignation; neither chasten me in Your hot displeasure.” Psalm 37:1. For it will be that some shall be chastened in God’s hot displeasure, and rebuked in His indignation. And haply not all who are rebuked will be chastened; yet are there some that are to be saved in the chastening. So it is to be indeed, because it is called chastening, but yet it shall be so as by fire.

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas composed his great work, the Summa Theologiae, over approximately eight years, beginning around 1265–1266 while in Rome and continuing until 1273.  In the Summa’s Appendix I, Question 2, Article 1, St. Thomas said:

In Purgatory there will be a twofold pain; one will be the pain of loss (poena damni), namely the delay of the divine vision, and the pain of sense (poena sensus), namely punishment by corporeal fire. With regard to both the least pain of Purgatory surpasses the greatest pain of this life. For the more a thing is desired the more painful is its absence. And since after this life the holy souls desire the Sovereign Good with the most intense longing—both because their longing is not held back by the weight of the body, and because, had there been no obstacle, they would already have gained the goal of enjoying the Sovereign Good—it follows that they grieve exceedingly for their delay. …the pain of Purgatory, both of loss and of sense, surpasses all the pains of this life.

St. Catherine of Genoa

St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) was an Italian mystic and is particularly famous for her writings on Purgatory in her Treatise on Purgatory (Brittanica Editors). She wrote about poignantly about poena damni in that work:

A little about poena damni

If “poena damni” or “punishment of loss” seems too mild to you, you might want to reflect on the terrible losses experienced by some here on earth, such as the searing pain that comes with the loss of a child.  Consider that loss, and turn the dial up toward infinity and you’ll approach the sense of loss experienced by the saved in Purgatory.

St. Faustina Kowalska 

St. Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938) wrote extensively about her visions of Purgatory in her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul. She describes it as a misty place full of fire and suffering souls, whose greatest torment is their intense longing for God. She also records seeing her Guardian Angel lead her there and the Blessed Virgin Mary bringing refreshment to the souls.

Here is her most well-known passage regarding Purgatory:

“The next night] I saw my Guardian Angel, who ordered me to follow him. In a moment I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames which were burning them did not touch me at all. My Guardian Angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in Purgatory. The souls call her “The Star of the Sea.” She brings them refreshment. I wanted to talk with them some more, but my Guardian Angel beckoned me to leave. We went out of that prison of suffering. [I heard an interior voice] which said, My mercy does not want this, but justice demands it. Since that time, I am in closer communion with the suffering souls.” (Kowalska 20)

Many more examples of saintly visions of Purgatory may be found in Fr. Francis Schouppe’s book, “Purgatory: Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints,” available from Tan Books.

Conclusion

We are bound to believe in the reality of Purgatory as a place or state where saved souls are purged of their repented sin and cleansed for heaven.  The Magisterial teaching of the councils, along with the writings of the saints, seem to allow us some freedom of belief in the nature of the pains and fires of Purgatory. We can believe that the fire of Purgatory is physical or metaphorical, but in any case, the consensus seems to be that the pain of purgatory is primarily that of a temporary deprivation of the sight of God, the Supreme Good, the Beatific Vision.  This pain is intense and is far greater than any pain that can be experienced on earth and it should be avoided.

Works Cited

St. Augustine of Hippo. “Exposition on Psalm 38.” Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, edited by Philip Schaff, translated by J.E. Tweed, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1801038.htm.

St. Augustine of Hippo. The Handbook on Faith, Hope and Love. Translated by J.F. Shaw. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 3, edited by Philip Schaff, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1302.htm.

Britannica Editors. “Saint Catherine of Genoa”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Sep. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Catherine-of-Genoa. Accessed 18 November 2025.

St. Catherine of Genoa. The Treatise on Purgatory, translated from Italian. London, Burns and Lambert, 1858.  https://ia801705.us.archive.org/19/items/TheTreatiseOnPurgatory/TheTreatiseOnPurgatory.pdf

St. Gregory of Nyssa. “On the Soul and the Resurrection.” Translated by William Moore and Henry Austin Wilson. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, vol. 5, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893. New Advent, www.newadvent.org/fathers/2915.htm.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. “Epistle 51: To Antonianus About Cornelius and Novatian.” Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. New Advent, revised and edited by Kevin Knight, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050651.htm.

St. Maria Faustina Kowalska. Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Stockbridge, MA, Marian Press – Association of Marian Helpers, 2014.

St. Robert Bellarmine S.J. On Purgatory: The Members of the Church Suffering. Translated by Ryan Grant, Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, Mediatrix Press, 2017.

St. Thomas Aquinas. “Appendix I, Question 2, Article 1: Whether the Pains of Purgatory Surpass All the Temporal Pains of This Life?” Summa Theologiae, literally translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 2nd rev. ed., 1920. New Advent, www.newadvent.org/summa/6002.htm#article1.

Schouppe, François Xavier. Purgatory: Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints. TAN Books, 1986.

The Sources of Catholic Dogma. Translated by Roy Joseph Deferrari from the thirtieth edition of Enchiridion Symbolorum by Heinrich Denzinger, revised by Karl Rahner, S.J., published in 1954, by Herder & Co., Freiburg.