Eyewitness Accounts of Encounters With Ghosts From Purgatory

[Michie]

Not only do saints appear to people occasionally — history also records visitations of those in purgatory.

Do Catholics believe in ghosts? Absolutely! Ghosts, defined as disembodied, human spirits (as opposed to angels), are one of the ways we know about purgatory (though it is also revealed by God). Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, coming out of the great thirteenth century, became one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. You can think of it as an earlier version of Butler’s Lives of the Saints. We tend to think of a legend as something fictitious, but legenda simply meant something to be read. Some do accuse Voragine, however, of indulging in things we would consider legendary (which may have contributed to the modern meaning of the word).

In terms of Catholic ghosts, we recognize that we have contact with those in the Communion of Saints. Not only do saints appear to us occasionally, we also have visitations of those in purgatory. I have heard a few friends recount such experiences, especially in dreams. These encounters with souls in purgatory generally entail a request for prayers.

For the entry for All Souls Day in the Golden Legend, we see a long list of such encounters with the ghosts or spirits of purgatory. Below is a selection of them (though click on the link to volume six of the Golden Legend for the complete entry; I altered some of the language to make it more readable).

Overall, these stories should remind us that we are still connected to our friends and family who have died. We really can help them and should remember them every day in prayer and should have Masses said for them.

Continued below.

Eyewitness Accounts of Encounters With Ghosts From Purgatory

Not only do saints appear to people occasionally — history also records visitations of those in purgatory.

www.ncregister.com

 

[RileyG]

I swear my last house was haunted. Offering fervent prayers for the poor souls today

 

[Michie]

Halloween has now been and gone, leaving behind it the usual trail of controversies over how religiously-minded persons should treat the festival: as a harmless piece of spooky fun, or as an unholy feast of Satan merely disguised as an unholy piece of spooky fun. Very much in the latter camp is Fr. Jaromir Smejkal, parish priest for the village of Kurdejov in the Czech Republic, who made headlinesafter stamping on and destroying a number of carved pumpkins placed out on display in a local park by schoolchildren.

According to Fr. Smejkal, “I acted according to my faith and duty to be a father and protector of the children entrusted to me and removed these symbols,” claiming the very idea of Halloween had been created in a “heathen, contemporary world” as a perverted satanic inversion of the adjoining more genuinely Catholic feast of All Souls’ Day.

Continued below.

100% Proof Spirits? G.K. Chesterton and Belief in Ghosts

The fact that seasonal stories of spooks and specters are now spoken of in terms of “proof” and “evidence,” not simple “belief” and “faith,” is symptomatic of a wider spiritual malaise in our society—one first spotted by G.K. Chesterton over a century ago.

crisismagazine.com

 

[Michie]

What Are Ghosts?

For Catholics, ghosts are a bit of a mystery. But the testimony of Scripture and the Church's traditions give us something to go on.

www.catholic.com

 

[JimR-OCDS]

In the book, "Forty Dreams Of St. John Bosco: From St. John Bosco's Biographical Memoirs"
by John Bosco, he describes seeing Purgatory. He described it as being so beautiful, that
he thought it was Heaven. However, he met some souls of young people he knew in their
life and they informed him that it was Purgatory, not Heaven. They pleaded with him to
go back and ask people to pray for them, but also to avoid sin so they could go to Heaven
when they die.

 

[Bob Crowley]

In the book, "Forty Dreams Of St. John Bosco: From St. John Bosco's Biographical Memoirs"
by John Bosco, he describes seeing Purgatory. He described it as being so beautiful, that
he thought it was Heaven. However, he met some souls of young people he knew in their
life and they informed him that it was Purgatory, not Heaven. They pleaded with him to
go back and ask people to pray for them, but also to avoid sin so they could go to Heaven
when they die.

I think Purgatory can range from the near hellish to the near heavenly, depending on the states of the people in it.

I'll go on record as saying my old pastor appeared one night in a vison. I won't go very much into specifics, but amongst the things he said were "Oh, we're not suffering any pain or anything, so you don't have to worry about that." Then he lookeda around as though he was impressed and added "Actually it's pretty good around here!"

I'd say it was near heavenly.

There was more but I'm keeping that to myself for the moment. There was a certain context which I think is a bit early to divulge.

By the time that occurred the pastor had been dead for a number of years.

Earlier on though, only about six or so weeks after he died, my wife and I happened to visit one of his son's homes. On the wall near a door frame was a small photograph of the pastor. It was just a head shot.

But as I stood there looking at it and reflecting on things, I had this strange sense of torrid sweatiness on his part. I was puzzled by it, and I wondered what it signified?

With hindsight I think I was being given a hint that he was in Purgatory, even though I was Protestant. It made more sense later after I became Catholic and learnt a bit more about Purgatory.

Now he was a good and holy man, and I think his shopping list of venial sins and personal faults would have been quite short.

But it seems that even he had to spend some time in being "purged". By the time I had the vision years later (well after I'd become Catholic) I presume he'd moved out of that less pleasant estate onto better things.

I've been doing a short local Catholic course in aspects of Scripture. There is still a couple of weeks to go and then I'll get my Monday nights back. But last week we dealt with whether Catholicism was "Scriptural", and that included whether Purgatory could be justified scripturally, which it can.

I emailed a question as I'm attending an online group rather than the main seminary meeting room. The point I raised was that Protestants sometimes use the repentant thief on the cross as an instance of immediate heavenly reward and I wanted to know how to answer that objection. The brief reply I received a day or so later (the tutors are busy people) was that I needed to get my mind off the concept of Purgatory in terms of time and realise that God judged the thief had been purged.

Possibly the fact he'd been crucified himself right alongside Christ had something to do with it.

No doubt there is a more complete answer somewhere but that was my salutary exchange last week.

 

[WarriorAngel]

Not only do saints appear to people occasionally — history also records visitations of those in purgatory.

Do Catholics believe in ghosts? Absolutely! Ghosts, defined as disembodied, human spirits (as opposed to angels), are one of the ways we know about purgatory (though it is also revealed by God). Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, coming out of the great thirteenth century, became one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. You can think of it as an earlier version of Butler’s Lives of the Saints. We tend to think of a legend as something fictitious, but legenda simply meant something to be read. Some do accuse Voragine, however, of indulging in things we would consider legendary (which may have contributed to the modern meaning of the word).

In terms of Catholic ghosts, we recognize that we have contact with those in the Communion of Saints. Not only do saints appear to us occasionally, we also have visitations of those in purgatory. I have heard a few friends recount such experiences, especially in dreams. These encounters with souls in purgatory generally entail a request for prayers.

For the entry for All Souls Day in the Golden Legend, we see a long list of such encounters with the ghosts or spirits of purgatory. Below is a selection of them (though click on the link to volume six of the Golden Legend for the complete entry; I altered some of the language to make it more readable).

Overall, these stories should remind us that we are still connected to our friends and family who have died. We really can help them and should remember them every day in prayer and should have Masses said for them.

Continued below.

Eyewitness Accounts of Encounters With Ghosts From Purgatory

Not only do saints appear to people occasionally — history also records visitations of those in purgatory.

www.ncregister.com

I have a few friends who see them.

 

[WarriorAngel]

In the book, "Forty Dreams Of St. John Bosco: From St. John Bosco's Biographical Memoirs"
by John Bosco, he describes seeing Purgatory. He described it as being so beautiful, that
he thought it was Heaven. However, he met some souls of young people he knew in their
life and they informed him that it was Purgatory, not Heaven. They pleaded with him to
go back and ask people to pray for them, but also to avoid sin so they could go to Heaven
when they die.

The closest level to Heaven is like a sunny day on earth but it is missing the incredible LOVE of the Lord.
And for anyone who experienced that love feels that loss the rest of their earthly life and perhaps again in purgatory.

 

[WarriorAngel]

I think Purgatory can range from the near hellish to the near heavenly, depending on the states of the people in it.

I'll go on record as saying my old pastor appeared one night in a vison. I won't go very much into specifics, but amongst the things he said were "Oh, we're not suffering any pain or anything, so you don't have to worry about that." Then he lookeda around as though he was impressed and added "Actually it's pretty good around here!"

I'd say it was near heavenly.

There was more but I'm keeping that to myself for the moment. There was a certain context which I think is a bit early to divulge.

By the time that occurred the pastor had been dead for a number of years.

Earlier on though, only about six or so weeks after he died, my wife and I happened to visit one of his son's homes. On the wall near a door frame was a small photograph of the pastor. It was just a head shot.

But as I stood there looking at it and reflecting on things, I had this strange sense of torrid sweatiness on his part. I was puzzled by it, and I wondered what it signified?

With hindsight I think I was being given a hint that he was in Purgatory, even though I was Protestant. It made more sense later after I became Catholic and learnt a bit more about Purgatory.

Now he was a good and holy man, and I think his shopping list of venial sins and personal faults would have been quite short.

But it seems that even he had to spend some time in being "purged". By the time I had the vision years later (well after I'd become Catholic) I presume he'd moved out of that less pleasant estate onto better things.

I've been doing a short local Catholic course in aspects of Scripture. There is still a couple of weeks to go and then I'll get my Monday nights back. But last week we dealt with whether Catholicism was "Scriptural", and that included whether Purgatory could be justified scripturally, which it can.

I emailed a question as I'm attending an online group rather than the main seminary meeting room. The point I raised was that Protestants sometimes use the repentant thief on the cross as an instance of immediate heavenly reward and I wanted to know how to answer that objection. The brief reply I received a day or so later (the tutors are busy people) was that I needed to get my mind off the concept of Purgatory in terms of time and realise that God judged the thief had been purged.

Possibly the fact he'd been crucified himself right alongside Christ had something to do with it.

No doubt there is a more complete answer somewhere but that was my salutary exchange last week.

He may have even prayed for you to become Catholic to pray for souls.

In purgatory I hear from sources, they can pray for us. But not themselves.

 

[Bob Crowley]

He may have even prayed for you to become Catholic to pray for souls.

I know from experience that God used to listen to him when he was still alive, so I'd be surprised if God ignores him now.