On my last visit to Rome, I came across a morbid display of bibles used by tortured souls in purgatory to communicate with us – the living. These poor unfortunates, suspended between heaven and hell, are begging the living to pray for their release into paradise. To make us aware of their presence, they leave scorched fingerprints on the pages of scripture. It’s their cry for help.
These curious items, pictured below, are exhibited at the Museo Delle Anime Del Purgatorio (Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory), located in a small room off the nave of the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio. They are believed to evidence the existence of purgatory – but what exactly is that?
Purgatory is a place where the souls of those who died in God’s grace go because they are still stained by sins that went unconfessed or unatoned for, before death. So, these souls need to go through a process of purification in the washing machine of purgatory before they can be released, clean and pristine, into heaven. The living can assist this process by praying for these compromised souls.
But sometimes, those in purgatory feel they’re being neglected. And so they want to send a distress signal to their loved ones, still living and breathing. Remember me, they shriek from beyond, I still need your help! Their ghostly hands touch a bible, leaving scorched fingerprints behind. Let’s look at some of the images from the museum. Firstly, here I am taking a good look at the miraculous pages from bibles.
Then here we have a scorched bible from Lorraine, France, where the deceased – Giuseppe Schitz – touched the prayer book of his brother Giorgio on December 21, 1838. He was asking for “suffrage prayers to repair his little piety in life” (the museum description):
This one is a bit different – a scorched hand and cross left on a wooden tablet used by Isabella Fornari, Abbess of the Poor Clares at the Monastery of San Francesco in Todi on November 1, 1731. The burn marks were made by a dead abbot on November 1, 1731. He also left marks on a sheet of paper and the sleeve of a cassock.
Purgatory was seen as a last chance for souls to make amends for their sins, offering an alternative to eternal damnation. The living could help through prayer but might also buy “indulgences” from the church. This was an invitation to clerical corruption and was eventually outlawed by the Vatican in the 16th century.
However, in the Middle Ages, popes had no qualms about offering a holy insurance policy to the living to avoid spending time in purgatory after death. During the Crusades, the church gave a full remission of sins (a plenary indulgence) to those who took the cross and went to the Holy Land. Later that was extended to crusaders – including Templars – who fought in the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, and Northern Crusades against the Baltic pagans.
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