Dante's Purgatory, An Intro

Dante and the Three Kingdoms,1465

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

                                                       https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/d/domenico/michelin/dante.html

To read Dante's 'Divine Comedy' has been on my bucket list for quite some years. But argh! The bulk of the text and its sublime language had always posed some mental block within me. But recently I happened to google and to see some illustrations by Gustave Dore which had such astounding effects on my mental realm. Stunning, I must say! Now I feel I am almost prepared to enter the vast Dantesque domain. !!

'Inferno' can wait, I'm afraid, for some future date. But 'Purgatorio' may accede to cooperate with my limited IQ !!

So today let me just begin with a little intro.Since the time of the early church, the faithful had prayed for the souls of the dead. But it was only in the 13th century that the idea of Purgatory was fully institutionalized. St.Thomas Aquinas gave a detailed description of Purgatory. According to Aquinas, Purgatory was a place for those who had been absolved from their state of sin (thus saved from eternal punishment) but still owed a debt to God for that sin. Punishment in the fire of Purgatory was an act of purification and restoration. Those souls were not able to pray for themselves. Hence they are called the Church Suffering. However, those remaining on earth, the Church Militant has the duty to pray for them.

Dante gives a detailed and original version of Purgatory. In his imagination, he sees Purgatory as being divided into seven terraces, each one corresponding to the seven Capital sins. On each terrace, the pattern of suffering is different. The souls thus are in a process of moral change. Rather than repaying a debt, they suffer so that they can become good. They willingly suffer in order to comprehend the reasons why they suffer. They acquire new thought patterns which help them reach Heaven. According to Dante, it is a place where the souls undergo a seachange, a total psychological change that leads them to new, positive inclinations.

. The Dantean Purgatory is also a place of Prayer. Hymns are sung and angels visit them.

              Purgatorio Canto 1, Gustave Doré

Perceive ye not that we are worms, designed
To form the angelic butterfly, that goes
To judgment, leaving all defence behind?
Why doth your mind take such exalted pose,
Since ye, disabled, are as insects, mean
As worm which never transformation knows?”
― 


Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio