Purgatory - Doctrinal, Historical, and Poetical

By Mrs J Sadlier.

Impr, 1868.500 page book.

Of all the divine truths which the Catholic Church proposes to her children, assuredly none is more acceptable to the pilgrim race of Adam than that of Purgatory. It is, beyond conception, dear and precious as one of the links that connect the living with the vanished dead, and which keeps them fresh in the memory of those who loved them on earth, and whose dearest joy it is to be able to help them in that shadowy border-land through which, in pain and sorrow, they must journey before entering the Land of Promise, which is the City of God, seated on the everlasting hills.

This work is divided into five parts: The first, Doctrinal and Devotional, comprising extracts from Suarez, St. Catherine of Genoa, St. Augustine, St. Gertrude, St. Francis de Sales, 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.

This work will help to increase devotion to the Suffering Souls, and excite a more tender and more sensible feeling of sympathy for them.