the other world, he esteemed himself happy to suffer in the present life, and throughout the massacre he spoke no other words than those of the Psalmist, Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy judgment is right (Ps. cxviii.).
CHAPTER XVIII.
Pains of Purgatory — St. Perpetua — St. Gertrude — St. Catherine of Genoa — Brother John de Via.
As we have already said, the pain of sense has different degrees of intensity. It is less terrible for those souls that have no grievous sins to atone for, or who, having already completed the most rigorous part of their expiation, approach the moment of their deliverance. Many of those souls suffer then no more than the pain of loss, and even begin to perceive the first rays of heavenly glory, and to have a foretaste of beatitude.
When St. Perpetua [1] saw her young brother Dinocrates in Purgatory, the child did not seem to be subjected to any cruel torture. The illustrious martyr herself writes the account of this vision in her prison at Carthage, where she was confined for the faith of Christ during the persecution under Septimus Severus in the year 205. Purgatory appeared to her under the figure of an arid desert, where she saw her brother Dinocrates who had died at the age of seven years. The child had an ulcer on his face, and, tormented by thirst, he tried in vain to drink from the waters of a fountain which was before him, but the brim of which was too high for him to reach. The holy martyr understood that her brother was in the place of expiation, and that he besought the assistance of her prayers. She
- ↑ Cf. Mar., ch. 7.
