Excerpt: The Dogma of Hell.. from Profane and Sacred History

OUR LORD'S JUSTICE


THE WIDOW AND HER DAMNED LOVER

This incident comes from an honorable priest and superior of a religious community. This priest had the particulars of the story from a close relation of the lady to whom it had happened. At the time of the writing, Christmas Day, 1859, this person was still living and was roughly forty years old, therefore no name is mentioned in the recording of this event to protect the persons identity. The woman concerned in this story was living in London in the winter of 1847-1848. She was a widow, about twenty nine years old, quite rich and worldly. Among the young men who visited her there was young lord of bad conduct who courted her and of whom she eventually committed a variety of sins with. Late one night she was in bed reading a novel when one o’clock struck on the clock; she blew out her taper and was about to fall asleep when, to her great astonishment, she noticed strange glimmer of light coming from the door of the drawing-room, which spread by degrees into her chamber. Stupefied at first and not knowing what this meant, she began to get alarmed, when she saw the drawing-room door slowly open and the young lord, the partner of her disorders, enter the room. Before she had time to say a single word, he seized her by the left wrist, and with a hissing voice, said to her in English: “There is a Hell!” The pain she suddenly felt in her arm was so great that she immediately passed out. When she came to again about a half an hour after she immediately rang for her chambermaid. The latter, on entering, noticed a strong smell of burning. Approaching her mistress who was frantic and could hardly speak she immediately noticed on her wrist a burn so deep that the bone was laid bare, and the flesh almost consumed. Moreover, she remarked that, from the door of the salon to the bed, and returning from the bed to that same door, the carpet bore the imprint of a man’s steps, which had burned through the fibers. By the directions of her mistress, she opened the drawing-room door and there she found more tracks on the carpet. The following day, the unhappy lady learned, with a terror easily imagined, that on that very night, about one o’clock in the morning, her friend the lord had been found dead-drunk under the table, and that his servants had carried him to his room, and that he had died of alcohol poisoning in their arms. I do not know for certain, added the Priest-Superior, whether that terrible lesson converted the heart of that unfortunate lady, but what I do know is that she is still alive and that, to conceal from sight the traces of her ominous burn, she wears on the left wrist, like a bracelet, a wide gold band, which she does not take off day or night. I repeat it: I have all these details from her near relation, a serious Christian, in whose word I give the fullest belief. She states that this story is never spoken of, even in the family; and that she only confided it to me, suppressing every proper name.
THE COUNT AND THE DAMNED GENERAL

In Russia shortly before the horrible military campaign between Napoleon and Russia in 1812, two high-ranking military men, one a Count and the Military Governor of Moscow and the other a General, were scoffing over drinks about the existence of God, life after death and Hell. They made a mocking “pledge of honor”: if there were a Hell, the first there would come to inform the other of it. A few weeks later, the General departed for the front. One morning, while the Count was lying in bed, the General suddenly appeared before him, pale, with his right hand on his breast, declaring: “What do we do now? There is a Hell and I am there! What do we do now?” He then disappeared. The Count ran to friends, eyes wild, hair on end, and exclaimed what had just happened. Two weeks later, word was received in Moscow that the General had died in battle – on the same day and at the very hour he appeared to the Count. He had kept his word of honor: Hell exists.


THE DAMNED PROSTITUTE

In Rome, in the year 1873 as the well known story goes. At a well known brother a well known prostitute died late one night at the local hospital. At that instant, one of her “co-workers” back at the brothel starts screaming, waking up the entire neighborhood and bringing the police. Why? Because her friend at the hospital had suddenly appeared to her in flames, stating: “I am damned!” At daybreak, the poor girl left. Word followed of the death the night before of her friend at the hospital. Word then spread all over Rome of these events. As always, the wise listened, the foolish laughed.


THE DEVIL IS SO DAMNED UGLY

After Saint Catherine of Siena saw the devil and hell, Jesus tells her how his ugliness is one of the Chief torments in hell and it doubles every other torment the damned feel in hell. At the sight of me the saints are in constant exaltation, joyfully refreshed in reward for the labors they bore for me with such overflowing love and to their own cost. But it is just the opposite for these wretched little souls. Their only refreshment is the torment of seeing the devil, for in seeing them they know themselves better: that is, they recognize that their sinfulness has made them worthy of him. And so the worm gnaws on and the fire of conscience never stops burning.Their suffering is even worse because they see the devil as he really is- more horrible than the human heart can imagine. You will recall that when I once let you see him for a tiny while, hardly a moment, as he really is, you said (after coming to your senses again) that you would rather walk on a road of fire even till the final judgment day than see him again. But even with all you have seen you do not know how horrible he really is. For my divine justice makes him look more horrible than still to those who have lost me, and this is in proportion to the depth of their sinfulness.


THE DAMNED PROSTITUTE WHO RESISTED GRACE

It was juridically proved in the process of the canonization of St. Francis Jerome (1642--1716) and under oath attested to by a large number of eye-witnesses: In the year 1707, St. Francis Jerome was preaching, as was his wont, in the neighborhood of the city of Naples. He was speaking of Hell and the awful chastisements that await obstinate sinners. A brazen courtesan (prostitute) who lived there, troubled by a discourse which aroused her remorse, sought to hinder it by jests and shouts, accompanied by noisy instruments. As she was standing close to the window, the Saint cried out: "Beware, my daughter, of resisting grace, before eight days God will punish you." The unhappy creature grew only more boisterous. Eight days elapsed, and the holy preacher happened to be again before the same house. This time she was silent; the windows were shut. The hearers, with dismay on their faces, told the saint that Catherine (that was the name of the bad woman) had a few hours before died suddenly. "Died!" he repeated. "Well, let her tell us now what she has gained by laughing at Hell. Let us ask her."

He uttered these words in an inspired tone, and everyone expected a miracle. Followed by an immense crowd, he went up to the death chamber and there, after having prayed for an instant, he uncovered the face of the corpse, and said in a loud voice, "Catherine, tell us where art thou now." At this summons, the dead woman lifted her head, while opening her wild eyes, her face borrowed color, her features assumed an expression of horrible despair; and in a mournful voice, she pronounced these words: "In Hell, I am in Hell." And immediately, she fell back again into the condition of a corpse.

"I was present at that event," says one of the witnesses who deposed before the Apostolic tribunal, "but I never could convey the impression it produced on me and the bystanders, nor that which I still feel every time I pass that house and look at that window. At the sight of that ill-fated abode, I still hear the pitiful cry resounding: "In Hell; I am in Hell." (Father Bach: Life of St. Francis Jerome).


The DAMNED QUESTION

A Bishop, by special permission of God, received a visit from a sinner who had died unrepentant shortly before. This condemned soul asked the Bishop if any man was still left on earth. Then he explained: "Since when I came to this sad dwelling, I have seen such a prodigious multitude arrive that I can not conceive that there are still men on earth.


JESUS ENTERS INTO HELL

After Jesus Victory on the Cross Blessed Catherine Emmerich describes Jesus entrance into hell. Finally, I beheld him approach to the centre of the great abyss, that is to say, to Hell itself; and the expression of his countenance was most severe. The exterior of Hell was appalling and frightful; it was an immense, heavy-looking building, and the granite of which it was formed, although black, was of metallic brightness; and the dark and ponderous doors were secured with such terrible bolts that no one could behold them without trembling. Deep groans and cries of despair might be plainly distinguished even while the doors were tightly closed; but, 0, who can describe the dreadful yells and shrieks which burst upon the ear when the bolts were unfastened and the doors flung open; and, 0, who can depict the melancholy appearance of the inhabitants of this wretched place! Hell is shown to me under the same form, but all within it is, on the contrary, close, confused, and crowded; every object tends to fill the mind with sensations of pain and grief; the marks of the wrath and vengeance of God are visible everywhere; despair, like a vulture, gnaws every heart, and discord and misery reign around. In the city of Hell nothing is to be seen but dismal dungeons, dark caverns, frightful deserts, fetid swamps filled with every imaginable species of poisonous and disgusting reptile. in Hell, perpetual scenes of wretched discord, and every species of sin and corruption, either under the most horrible forms imaginable, or represented by different kinds of dreadful torments. All in this dreary abode tends to fill the mind with horror; not a word of comfort is heard or a consoling idea admitted; the one tremendous thought, that the justice of an all-powerful God inflicts on the damned nothing but what they have fully deserved is the absorbing tremendous conviction which weighs down each heart. Vice appears in its own, grim disgusting colours, being stripped of the mask under which it is hidden in this world, and the infernal viper is seen devouring those who have cherished or fostered it here below. In a word, Hell is the temple of anguish and despair. The tremendous explosion of oaths, curses, cries of despair, and frightful exclamations which, like a clap of thunder, burst forth when the gates of Hell were thrown open by the angels, would be difficult even to imagine; our Lord spoke first to the soul of Judas, and the angels then compelled all the demons to acknowledge and adore Jesus. They would have infinitely preferred the most frightful torments to such a humiliation; but all were obliged to submit. Many were chained down in a circle which was placed round other circles. In the centre of Hell I saw a dark and horrible-looking abyss, and into this Lucifer was cast, after being first strongly secured with chains; thick clouds of sulphurous black smoke arose from its fearful depths, and enveloped his frightful form in the dismal folds, thus effectually concealing him from every beholder. God himself had decreed this; and I was likewise told, if I remember rightly that he will be unchained for a time fifty or sixty years before the year of Christ 2000. The dates of many other events were pointed out to me which I do not now remember; but a certain number of demons are to be let loose much earlier than Lucifer, in order to tempt men, and to serve as instruments of the divine vengeance. I should think that some must be loosened even in the present day, and others will be set free in a short time. It would be utterly impossible for me to describe all the things which were shown to me; their number was so great that I could not reduce them sufficiently to order to define and render them intelligible. Besides which my sufferings are very great, and when I speak on the subject of my visions I behold them in my mind's eye portrayed in such vivid colours, that the sight is almost sufficient to cause a weak mortal like myself to expire.


THE DAMNED SWEAT

Vincent of Beauvais, in the 25th book of his history, narrates the following fact, which he says happened in the year 1090: Two young libertines, whether seriously or through mockery, had made a mutual promise: whichever of the two died first would come and tell the other in what state he was. So one died, and God permitted him to appear to his companion. He was in a horrible state, and seemed to be the prey of cruel sufferings, which consumed him like a burning fever and covered him with sweat. He wiped his forehead with his hand and let a drop of his sweat fall onto his friend’s arm, while saying to him: “That is the sweat of Hell; you shall carry the mark of it till death.” That infernal sweat burned the arm of the living man, and penetrated his flesh with unheard-of pains. He profited by this awful information and retired to a monastery.


THE DAMNED HATRED

Sister Josefa Menendez wrote in her diary and repeatedly dwelt on the greatest torment of hell, namely, the soul's inability to love. One of these damned souls cried out: "This is my torture . . . that I want to love and cannot; there is nothing left me but hatred and despair. If one of us could so much as make a single act of love . . this would no longer be hell . But we cannot, we live hatred and malevolence "