St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The purifying fire"

"IF a man distinguish in himself what is peculiarly human from that which is irrational, and if he be on the watch for a life of greater urbanity for himself, in this present life he will purify himself of any evil contracted, overcoming the irrational by reason. If he have inclined to the irrational pressure of the passions, using for the passions the cooperating hide of things irrational, he may afterward in a quite different manner be very much interested in what is better, when, after his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference between virtue and vice and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying fire."

~St. Gregory of Nyssa: Excerpt from Sermon on the Dead. (A.D. 382)

11th century mosaic of St. Gregory of Nyssa.
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Ukraine.

Early Church Fathers on Purgatory

● “In short, inasmuch as we understand the prison pointed out in the Gospel to be hades, and as we also interpret the uttermost farthing to mean the very smallest offence which has to be recompensed there before the resurrection, no one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in hades some compensatory discipline, without prejudice to the full process of the resurrection, when the recompense will be administered through the flesh besides.”

─Tertullian of Carthage (c. 160 – c. 225 AD): Treatise on the Soul, 58.

● “For if on the foundation of Christ you have built no only gold and silver and precious stones (1 Cor. 3) but also wood and hay and stubble, what do you expect when the soul shall be separated from the body? Would you enter into heaven with your wood and hay and stubble and thus defile the kingdom of God . . .? It remains then that you be committed to the fire which will burn the light materials. . . . But this fire consumes not the creature, but what the creature has himself built. . . . It is manifest that the fire destroys the wood of our transgressions, and then returns to us the reward of our good works.”

─Origen (c. 184 -254): Patrologia Graeca, 46, 524.

● “When he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil.”

─St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 395): PG 46, 524.

● "There is not one baptism only. One is that which the Church administers here by water and the Holy Ghost. Another is the baptism of suffering, whereby each is cleansed by his own blood. There is also a baptism at the entrance of Paradise. This last baptism did not exist in the beginning; but after the sinner was driven out of Paradise, God set there a fiery sword…. But though there be a purgation here, there must be a second purification there, that each of us, burnt but not burnt up by that fiery sword, may enter into the delight of Paradise. But this fire whereby involuntary and casual sins are burnt away… is different from that which the Lord assigned to the devil and his angels, of which he says, Enter into everlasting fire.”

─St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 340 – 397): Explanation of Psalm, 118, 3, 14-17.

St. Augustine

● “The question whether such is the case is justified and may yield to a solution or remain in doubt: the question whether some of the faithful are saved by a sort of purgatorial fire, and this sooner or later according as they have loved more or less the goods that perish.

─St. Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430): Enchiridion, 69. (The Handbook on Faith, Hope and Love)

● “During the time, moreover, which intervenes between a man's death and the final resurrection, the soul dwells in a hidden retreat, where it enjoys rest or suffers affliction just in proportion to the merit it has earned by the life which it led on earth.”

─St. Augustine: Enchiridion, 109. 

● "Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of their living friends, who offer the sacrifice of the Mediator, or give alms in the church on their behalf. But these services are of advantage only to those who during their lives have earned such merit, that services of this kind can help them. For there is a manner of life which is neither so good as not to require these services after death, nor so bad that such services are of no avail after death; there is, on the other hand, a kind of life so good as not to require them; and again, one so bad that when life is over they render no help. Therefore, it is in this life that all the merit or demerit is acquired, which can either relieve or aggravate a man's sufferings after this life. No one, then, need hope that after he is dead he shall obtain merit with God which he has neglected to secure here."

─St. Augustine: Enchiridion, 110. 

● "But temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But of those who suffer temporary punishments after death, all are not doomed to those everlasting pains which are to follow that judgment; for to some, as we have already said, what is not remitted in this world is remitted in the next, that is, they are not punished with the eternal punishment of the world to come."

─St. Augustine: The City of God, Book 21, Chap. 13

● “There is then a certain kind of life, which is neither, on the one hand, so bad that those who adopt it are not helped towards the kingdom of heaven by any bountiful almsgiving by which they may relieve the wants of the saints, and make friends who could receive them into eternal habitations, nor, on the other hand, so good that it of itself suffices to win for them that great blessedness, if they do not obtain mercy through the merits of those whom they have made their friends.”

─St. Augustine: The City of God, Book 21, Chap. 27

● “It is to be believed that before the judgment there is a purgatorial fire for certain minor sins. For the Truth says that if anyone blasphemes against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the next. From which we learn that certain sins may be forgiven in this world and certain in the next… the apostle (1 Cor. 3:12) holds out the possibility of being saved by fire, not to him who builds on the foundation iron, brass, or lead, that is, the greater and harder sins that are no longer remissible in purgatory, but to the builder of wood, hay, and stubble, that is, the least and lightest sins, which the fire easily consumes. We must know, however, that a man will not be cleansed in purgatory of even the least sins, unless during his lifetime he deserved by his good works to receive such a favor.”

─Pope St. Gregory I (c. 540 - 604):  Dialogue, 4, 39

The Madonna of Carmel and the Souls of the Purgatory (detail),
by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Oil on canvas, 1730s; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

Pope St. Gregory I: Whether there be any fire of purgatory in the next world

GREGORY. Our Lord saith in the Gospel: Walk while you have the light: and by his Prophet he saith: In time accepted have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I hope in thee: which the Apostle St. Paul expounding, saith: Behold, now is the time acceptable; behold, now the day of salvation. Solomon, likewise, saith: Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, work it instantly: for neither work, nor reason, nor knowledge, nor wisdom shall be in hell, whither thou dost hasten. David also saith: Because his mercy is for ever. By which sayings it is plain, that in such state as a man departeth out of this life, in the same he is presented in judgment before God.

But yet we must believe that before the day of judgment there is a Purgatory fire for certain small sins: because our Saviour saith, that he which speaketh blasphemy against the holy Ghost, that it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. Out of which sentence we learn, that some sins are forgiven in this world, and some other may be pardoned in the next: for that which is denied concerning one sin, is consequently understood to be granted touching some other. But yet this, as I said, we have not to believe but only concerning little and very small sins, as, for example, daily idle talk, immoderate laughter, negligence in the care of our family (which kind of offences scarce can they avoid, that know in what sort sin is to be shunned), ignorant errors in matters of no great weight: all which sins be punished after death, if men procured not pardon and remission for them in their lifetime: for when St. Paul saith, that Christ is the foundation: and by and by addeth: And if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: the work of every one, of what kind it is, the fire shall try. If any man's work abide which he built thereupon, he shall receive reward; if any mans work burn, he shall suffer detriment, but himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. For although these words may be understood of the fire of tribulation, which men suffer in this world: yet if any will interpret them of the fire of Purgatory, which shall be in the next life: then must he carefully consider, that the Apostle said not that he may be saved by fire, that buildeth upon this foundation iron, brass, or lead, that is, the greater sort of sins, and therefore more hard, and consequently not remissible in that place: but wood, hay, stubble, that is, little and very light sins, which the fire doth easily consume. Yet we have here further to consider, that none can be there purged, no, not for the least sins that be, unless in his lifetime he deserved by virtuous works to find such favour in that place.

~Pope St. Gregory I (c. 540-604): Dialogues, Book IV, Chap. 39.

Purgatory, by Jacopo (Comin) Tintoretto (1518–1594)

St. Ambrose: "There must be a second purification"

“THERE is not one baptism only. One is that which the Church administers here by water and the Holy Ghost. Another is the baptism of suffering, whereby each is cleansed by his own blood. There is also a baptism at the entrance of Paradise. This last baptism did not exist in the beginning; but after the sinner was driven out of Paradise, God set there a fiery sword. . . . But though there be a purgation here, there must be a second purification there, that each of us, burnt but not burnt up by that fiery sword, may enter into the delight of Paradise. But this fire whereby involuntary and casual sins are burnt away . . . is different from that which the Lord has assigned to the devil and his angels, of which he says, Enter ‘into everlasting fire.’”

~St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 340-397): Explanation of Psalm 118, 3, 14-17.

St. Ambrose (detail), by Giovanni di Piamonte. 

Fresco, 1456-66; San Francesco, Arezzo.

St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The purging fire"

“WHEN he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil.”

~St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 395): PG 46, 524.

St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The purging fire"

“WHEN he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil.”

~St. Gregory of Nyssa. (PG 46, 524)

An Angel Frees the Souls of Purgatory, by Lodovici Carracci.

Oil on canvas, c. 1610; Pinacoteca, Vatican.

St. Gregory: "There is a purgatorial fire"

“IT IS to be believed that before the judgment there is a purgatorial fire for certain minor sins. For the Truth says that if anyone blasphemes against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the next. From which we learn that certain sins may be forgiven in this world and certain in the next… the apostle (1 Cor. 3:12) holds out the possibility of being saved by fire, not to him who builds on the foundation iron, brass, or lead, that is, the greater and harder sins that are no longer remissible in purgatory, but to the builder of wood, hay, and stubble, that is, the least and lightest sins, which the fire easily consumes. We must know, however, that a man will not be cleansed in purgatory of even the least sins, unless during his lifetime he deserved by his good works to receive such a favor.”

~Pope St. Gregory I (c. 540 - 604):  Dialogue, 4, 39.

St. Gregory, by Francisco De Goya y Lucientes.
Oil on canvas, c. 1797; Museo Romántico, Madrid.

St. Ambrose: "There must be a second purification"

"THERE is not one baptism only. One is that which the Church administers here by water and the Holy Ghost. Another is the baptism of suffering, whereby each is cleansed by his own blood. There is also a baptism at the entrance of Paradise. This last baptism did not exist in the beginning; but after the sinner was driven out of Paradise, God set there a fiery sword…. But though there be a purgation here, there must be a second purification there, that each of us, burnt but not burnt up by that fiery sword, may enter into the delight of Paradise. But this fire whereby involuntary and casual sins are burnt away… is different from that which the Lord assigned to the devil and his angels, of which he says, Enter into everlasting fire.”

~St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 340 – 397):  Explanation of Psalm 118, 3, 14-17.

St. Ambrose, by Tiziano Vecellio.
Oil on oak panel; Santa Maria della Salute, Venice.

St. Gregory of Nyssa: "The purging fire"

“WHEN he has quitted his body and the difference between virtue and vice is known he cannot approach God till the purging fire shall have cleansed the stains with which his soul was infested. That same fire in others will cancel the corruption of matter, and the propensity to evil.”

~St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 395): PG 46, 524.
 

Icon of St. Gregory of Nyssa;
14th cent. fresco, Chora Church, Istanbul.