Pope St. John Paul II affirms that “praying for the souls in purgatory is the highest act of supernatural charity.” The Church, ever conscious of her vocation to love, has always been animated by this fraternal charity, inviting her children to pray and do penance on behalf of the faithful departed. This is expressly approved by the Bible: “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins” (2 Mac 12:46).
In response to this invitation, the Carmelite Order through the centuries of her existence, has developed a strong sense of communion with the suffering Church (the souls in purgatory). Attentiveness to the welfare – consolation and quick release – of these poor souls has become part of the Carmelite tradition. For an order that became conscious of her eschatological orientation from the first moments of its origin, this is hardly surprising. In giving the Brown Scapular to St. Simon Stock as a pledge of her maternal solicitude, Our Lady is said to have declared: “He who dies clothed with this habit shall be preserved from eternal fire.”
As the Carmelites think of themselves as a pilgrim people, with a temporary sojourn in this world, they turn their attention to what lies beyond this earthly life. Consequently, they could not ignore the reality of purgatory, a place where souls who died in God’s love undergo final purification before their admittance into the beatific vision. These souls are already saved, having died in union with Christ. Therefore, purgatory is not a second chance to right a wrong committed – with death, our choice is definitive and our eternal destination determined. It is divine love perfecting its work in a soul which has already attained salvation.
The idea of purgatory features in two ways in the Carmelite spirituality: escaping it, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, showing solidarity with our brethren who are there. With regards to escaping the sufferings of purgatory, mention ought to be made of the Sabbatine Privilege. According to a contested account, the Virgin Mary appeared to Pope John XXII in 1322 asking him to sanction on earth the indulgences which our Lord had already approved in heaven: a plenary indulgence for the members of the Carmelite Order and a partial indulgence for the remission of the temporal punishment due to their sins. Our Lady, on her part, would descend into purgatory on the Saturday (Sabbath, hence the name Sabbatine Privilege) following the death of the members and lead to heaven those who were still in purgatory. On July 4, 1908, the Congregation of Indulgences validated this tradition in the following words: “It is permitted to the Carmelite Fathers to preach that the Christian people may piously believe in the help which the souls of brothers and members, who have departed this life in charity, have worn in life the scapular, have ever observed chastity, have recited the Little Hours of the Blessed Virgin, or, if they cannot read, have observed the fast days of the Church, and have abstained from flesh meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays (except when Christmas falls on such days), may derive after death – especially on Saturdays, the day consecrated by the Church to the Blessed Virgin – through unceasing intercession of Mary, her pious petitions, her merits, and her special protection.” From this, we deduce that the scapular is not to be seen as a magical object. It is a sacramental, a devotional object, that is worn in faith and piety, requiring chastity according to one’s state of life, a life of prayer and penance. Wearing the scapular and expecting salvation through it without fulfilling these conditions would be presumptuous – a sin against hope.
With regards to being solicitous for the souls in purgatory, the Carmelite Order is deeply conscious of this call to fraternal solidarity. St. Teresa of Avila, the foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Order, notes in the tenth chapter her book of Foundations how she interceded for a young man in purgatory who had offered her a house with a beautiful garden for her foundation in Valladolid. About two months later, this young man was struck with an illness that came with speech impediment and he could not confess his sins well, although he was able to show with signs his remorse before he died. The Lord revealed to Teresa that the young man’s generosity towards his Mother, to whose Order he gave a precious gift, had obtained him mercy. However, he would remain in purgatory until the first Mass was offered on that site. Consequently, Teresa hastened to start the foundation and have a Mass offered there, having been urged by the Lord himself. In the words of Teresa, “When the priest came with the Blessed Sacrament to the place where we were to receive Communion and I approached to receive it, the gentleman I mentioned appeared beside him, his face joyful and resplendent. With hands folded, he thanked me for what I had done so that he could leave purgatory and go to heaven.”
A large altarpiece painted for the Discalced Carmelites in Antwerp by the legendary Peter Paul Rubens depicts the scene with Teresa kneeling in humble intercession before the risen Lord on behalf of the gentleman shown below them among other suffering souls in purgatory.
Another important artwork giving testimony to the Carmelites’ concern for the souls in purgatory is displayed in the Carmelite church in the city of Valletta, Malta. Here, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is seen carried by a cloud above the souls in purgatory, crowned by two angels and flanked on her right by St. Simon Stock in the act of receiving the brown scapular from her, and St Agatha, one of the patron saints of Malta, on her left. This icon has a unique feature as it portrays the child Jesus in the left arm of Our Lady playfully expressing her breast so that her milk could spill and offer consolation to the poor souls in purgatory below them.
As we begin the month of November we join the universal Church in praying for the consolation and quick release of the souls in purgatory. We offer Masses for them and through some acts of penance we share in their sufferings. We must not forget them. This act of charity likens us to Christ who in his love died for the salvation of these souls. In the account narrated by Teresa, he was the one who urged Teresa to pray for that gentleman and in the icon of Malta it is the baby Jesus who makes her mother’s milk fall on the souls in purgatory for consolation. The fire of purgatory is the fire of Christ’s love.
