The Roman Catholic Theology of Purgatory and the Eastern Orthodox Theology of Aerial Toll Houses

The Roman Catholic Theology of Purgatory and the Eastern Orthodox Theology of Aerial Toll Houses.
By Bohdan Vasyliv
 

Philadelphia PA
April 2024

Introduction

        The wise king David, in his prayer to God, says that the days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength, they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away (Ps. 90:10). In the Lord’s teaching through the twelve Apostles, we learn that in life, there are only “two Ways: a Way of Life and a Way of Death, and the difference between these two Ways is great.”[1] Every person’s life will come to an end with death, no matter how long they may live. There lived a certain wise man, by the name of Elder Ephraim, who was an abbot of the monastery in Arizona, who taught that “after death, eternity follows. Every person at a certain moment will abandon his body on the earth and proceed with his soul to eternity, to the life that has no end.”[2] The great king, Solomon, in all his wisdom, when commenting on the life of men, says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil (Eccl 12:13–14). A certain bishop recalled a person who fell ill and died. He was given a chance to come back to life after spending only three minutes in hell. After coming back to life, he exclaimed that “he would rather spend thirty years in illness than another three minutes in hell.”[3] But what awaits us at the end of our lives? There is a saying that “Death destroys a man; the idea of Death saves him.”[4] How can we know what trials lie ahead of us for our souls—are the doors to heaven opened to us right away after our death, or is there something before heaven?
 
         We all must realize that our death is inevitable, but what does the knowledge of death do for a person? Well, “the knowledge of death gives you depth, whether you like it or not. It forces you to see the shape of your life, since you have to imagine it finished….There will be a time when no further avoidance of realities, no further postponement of depth, will be possible.”[5] Furthermore, the most important aspect of death is that “death teaches you how to live with depth.”[6] In order to know death, we must know Life; we must know our God. The Church Fathers said that “faith in God engenders desire for spiritual blessings and fear of punishment. Desire for spiritual blessings and fear of punishment induce a strict keeping of the commandments. The strict keeping of the commandments teaches us our own weakness. Awareness of our true weakness generates mindfulness of death. The person who is mindful of death will insistently strive to discover what awaits him after his exit from this present life.”[7] This paper aims to explore, through the teaching of the Scriptures, Holy Fathers, and Holy Councils, what trials lie ahead and await our soul after death. This will focus on the development as well as the similarities and differences between the two main religious doctrines: the Roman Catholic theology of Purgatory and the Eastern Orthodox theology of Aerial Toll Houses. Because of its length, this paper will focus only on what is considered the very main aspects of the two doctrines and what is of importance for every individual.
 
 
ADAM and EVE – the CREATION STORY

        We begin with the story of Genesis, because the creation story plays an important role in mankind’s life. A very well-known Roman Catholic podcaster and speaker, Father Mike Schmitz, teaches us that if we don’t get the story of creation right, we won’t be able to understand everything else that follows.[8] We must understand that God is the creator of everything, and “God created life. Always and everywhere God is Himself called the Life and the giver of life.”[9]“God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, spiritual and corporeal, and by His almighty power from nothing, at the beginning of time, he made both creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, that is, the angels and the world. Then he made the human creature, composed of a spirit and a body combined.”[10] St. Cyril brings to our attention: “Thou hast to know thyself: know that thou art a twofold man consisting of soul and body… know thou hast a soul possessed of freedom, the fairest work of God, made after the image of Him who formed it: immortal because of God who has made it immortal: a living thing, reasonable, undecaying, because of Him who hath bestowed these gifts: having power to do what it willeth.”[11]

            God gives men free will, the ability to do as he chooses himself. But we must remember, as St. Augustine states, that “all things exist, therefore, seeing that the Creator of them all is supremely good, are themselves good. But because they are not, like their Creator, supremely and unchangeably good, their good may be diminished and increased.”[12] God did not create man to be a slave but out of His love for us, He created us with free will. “The only reason or motive was His own infinite goodness, that is the wish to make His creatures partakers of His own superabundant happiness.”[13]God gave to Adam and Eve everything they would ever need. Yet, “in the beginning, the Lord established the way of the commandments by giving but a single mandate to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden so that by offering their free will to God through obedience, they could progress ever further into the perfect likeness of their creator.”[14] Holy Scriptures say that the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ (Gen. 2:16–17). God provided only one, reasonable commandment to be followed. Here it is important to note that “two opposite paths were set for the human race: one rising to eternal union with God in His ineffable love, and one plummeting into the torments of everlasting separation.”[15] Man was created good but always has a free choice as to what to do. Adam freely chooses to disobey God. St. Cyril says that “the soul is immortal; and all souls are alike, both of men and women; only there is a difference of person. There is not one order of souls which by nature sin, and another order of souls which by nature act righteously, but both act from choice, the essence of the soul being one in kind and alike in all.”[16] Everyone is created equally good, but it’s important to remember that we have a choice in how we live our lives. We must take responsibility for our actions and make conscious decisions that reflect our inherent goodness. Here unforgivably we see Adam and Eve fail the commandment of God, and now the consequence must follow. The Holy Scripture teaches us that God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living (Wis 1:13). Paul the Apostle as well concludes that death came through a man (1 Cor. 15:21).

        Some might not regard the sin committed by Adam and Eve as all that significant. St. Augustine explains, “however, even in that one sin, which ‘by one man entered into the world, and so passed upon all men’ (Ex.32:31), and on account of which infants are baptized, a number of distinct sins may be observed, if it be analyzed as it were into its separate elements.”[17] St. Augustine then proceeds to show the graveness of Adam’s sin, explaining that in that one sin there is “pride, because man chose to be under his own dominion, rather than under the dominion of God; and blasphemy, because he did not believe God; and murder, for he brought death upon himself; and spiritual fornication, for the purity of the human soul was corrupted by the seducing blandishments of the serpent; and theft, for man turned to his own use the food he had been forbidden to touch; and avarice, for he had a craving for more than should have been sufficient for him; and whatever other sin can be discovered on careful reflection to be involved in this one admitted sin.”[18] Following the exile of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:24), mankind loses sight of God more and more. Furthermore, “we have lost the ability to discern the spiritual dimensions of the warfare in which we are engaged. To put it another way, we have largely lost the apocalyptic imagination to understand the language of the Spirit—to fix our ‘minds on the things that are above’ (Col. 3:2). The apostle Paul called it ‘discerning the spirits,’ realizing that ‘we are not contending against [mere] flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12).” [19]

       Apart from the created visible world, there exists a full invisible world (Col. 1:16), and “without spiritual discernment, we are unable to comprehend the magnitude and the subtleties of the cosmic struggle being fought out on planet earth. And though we say we are Christians and believe in Christ, without the apocalyptic worldview and cosmic framework, we lose sight of what Christ is for. ‘The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8).”[20]

         Man’s days on earth are numbered, and “after man’s death, his body, separated from the soul, returns to earth, but the soul remains whole and immortal.”[21] Holy Scriptures tell us that there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning (Eccl. 7:20), and if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:10). To focus on the soul, “divine revelation tells us that even after the death of its body, the soul reasons, thinks, and clearly recognizes both its own condition and the condition of others.”[22] A great Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century, Alexander Schmemann taught us that “‘God did not create death.’ It is man who introduced death into the world, freely desiring life only for himself and in himself, cutting himself off from the source, the goal, and content of life—from God.”[23]

         From the time of Adam, we jump to the time after Christ’s death and glorious Resurrection. Christ opens for us the possibility of heaven and warns us of the torments of Hades (Luke 16:19–31). Our Lord explicitly taught about the Final Judgment (Mt. 25:31–46), which will take place after the Second Coming; however, our question for this paper is: What happens to the soul prior to the Great Judgment after our soul separates from our physical body?
 
 
Holy Scripture

       Although my work primarily uses commentaries and references to the Holy Scriptures found in the writings of the Church Fathers (who were all rooted in the Holy Scriptures), one specific passage is particularly noteworthy. I believe this passage deserves a closer examination. The second book of Maccabees has been instrumental in providing a unique perspective on the afterlife, offering a glimpse into a reality beyond our current understanding (2 Macc. 12:38–46). In Second Maccabees, we witness how Judas and his army went to retrieve the bodies of the fallen soldiers that fought in the war, only to find an idol in each of the soldier’s tunics. He collected silver from everyone to send to Jerusalem to provide a sin offering on their behalf. [24] The Scriptures say that in doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection (2 Macc. 12:43). This passage from Maccabees offers two key elements: “that sins can be redeemed after death and that the prayers of the living are an effective way of accomplishing this.”[25] This passage also offers a glimpse into the future by pointing out that “there will be a resurrection of the dead.”[26]
 
 
THE CHURCH FATHERS
 
          Even though the “Christian Doctrine of Purgatory was not finally worked out until the sixteenth century by the Councils of Trent,” [27] the early Church Fathers saw that “even the souls of holy men who have pleased God by their righteous life pass through the trials to which all souls are subjected upon their death.”[28] Christ warned us that we should settle our debts here on earth quickly before we will stand in front of the Judge (Matt. 5:24–27). Blessed Theophylactus of Ochrid who wrote great commentaries on the Scriptures, comments on this, saying, “The Lord is thus exhorting us: while you are still in this life, give back to the devil what belongs to him and be done with him, so that later he will not be able to accuse you of some sin, as if you had something that belonged to him. For then you will be handed over for punishment so that you make an accounting for even the smallest transgressions.”[29] Church Fathers diligently taught that sin was “an act that offended God. It was breaking of His laws. It deserved punishment and demanded restitution and repair. Serious sin severed one’s union with God.”[30] Nonetheless, Le Goff who was a great and leading European historian, stated that “belief in Purgatory implies, in the first instance, belief in immortality and resurrection, since something new may happen to a human being between his death and resurrection.”[31] Furthermore, he continues to say that belief in purgatory “offers a second chance to attain eternal life.”[32] Purgatory is a sign of hope amid fear, for we all carry the consequence of both original and personal sin.[33]

         Those who have accepted Christ live in Christ, as St. Paul the Apostle says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Gal 2:20). Many Christians lived in a similar manner, awaiting Christ’s Second Coming while enduring a lot of suffering and even enduring great persecution. The question arises now, what happens to the people who have tried to live a righteous life, who tried to follow the commandments of God, but came short? What happens to the soul prior to the Great Judgment? Therefore, we will see through the Church Fathers that “while the puri?catory fire motif was developing in Christian thought, in the second century, another important idea emerged: that some souls destined for heaven would not enter heaven immediately; rather they would have to wait in some place—the grave or other subterranean location—until they were deemed ready to enter heaven.”[34] Here we will focus on a few Church Fathers who had the biggest impact on what was referred to as a “third place,”[35] which in the West will be referred to as “Purgatory” and in the East as “Aerial Toll Houses.” For it is God who “has revealed a glimpse of eternal glory to some of the saints” and through them, as through the prophets, we learn what awaits us, and we learn about our God.[36] The Apostle Paul wrote, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God…And such were some of you [us] (1 Cor. 6:9–11). Therefore, for us who have accepted Christ and have repented of our evil and selfish ways, we still need to be cleansed before we can enter heaven, for nothing unclean can enter into heaven (Rev. 21:27).[37]
 
 
St. Clement of Alexandria and Origin

         Le Golf when speaking about the Church Fathers and purgatory says that the “real history of Purgatory begins with a paradox, a twofold paradox. Those who have rightly been called the ‘founders’ of the doctrine of Purgatory were Greek theologians. Although their ideas were not without impact on Greek Christianity, the Greek Church never developed the notion of Purgatory as such…. Thus the doctrine of Purgatory commences with one of history’s ironies.”[38] It will be the West who will keep pushing the idea of purgatory onto the East. The term ‘Aerial Toll Houses’ will not come into existence until long after the term ‘Purgatory.’

         Let us begin with these two significant Church Fathers: “Clement (d. circa 215) and Origen (186–254), [who] made infuential contributions to this history of the Christian afterlife.”[39] The two Church fathers took “from the Old Testament…the notion that fire is a divine instrument, and from the New Testament the idea of baptism by fire (from the Gospels) and the idea of a purificatory trial after death (from Paul).”[40] Both St. Clement and Origin prioritized the great mercy of God. Therefore, St. Clement in his writings emphasized that “all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe by the Lord of the universe, both generally and particularly.”[41] For it is God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Yet, St Clement understood, that through our faults we come short to the glory of God.

         It is now seen by many Church Fathers that “Clement of Alexandria, in the third century, argued that the sinful soul would be purged in the afterlife by two types of fires: the educational fire that corrected the corrigible and the punitive fire that devoured the incorrigible.”[42] For Clement wrote of the fires that there are the “instructive and the punitive, which we have called the disciplinary…[and]…that those who fall into sin after baptism are those who are subjected to discipline.”[43] Furthermore, primarily studying The Stromata of Clement, one can see how Clement spoke of the soul going through a fire of punishment after one’s death, and that with “consistent interpretation of all punishment, including punishment after death, as purification rather than retribution, Clement can be considered the first exponent of the doctrine of purgatorial eschatological suffering; he thus paves the way for centuries of speculation and controversy on the subject of ‘purgatory’ among Christian theologians.” [44] “Clement can be said to have accepted some notion of universal salvation.”[45]

         Origen, who was considered a pupil of St. Clement of Alexandria, took the idea of the purgatory even further. It is said that “without a doubt the most controversial figure in the development of early Christian eschatology—and one of the thinkers who most influenced its development as an integral part of Christian theological reflection—was Origen”[46]“Origen went beyond Clement’s teachings to speculate more broadly on the fate of souls after death.”[47] Origin took the idea of purification by fire and the understanding that Christ will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16), and said that our “Lord Jesus Christ will stand in the river of fire near the ‘flaming sword.’ If anyone desires to pass over to paradise after departing this life, and needs cleansing, Christ will baptize him in this river and send him across to the place he longs for. But whoever does not have the sign of earlier baptisms, him Christ will not baptize in the fiery bath.”[48] In Origin we see the emphasis of Christ’s words that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).

         In summary, Origin taught that “all souls would encounter the fire on Judgment Day after the general resurrection of the dead, and souls (possibly all souls) would continue to be purified through correction and divine instruction.”[49]The fire that consumes us, Origen says, is “the fire of God Himself. This truth, that God is ‘consuming fire’…The fire of God is either the mystical, purifying fire in those who commit themselves to Him, or the punishing fire in sinners.”[50]Furthermore, he adds that “all souls would encounter the fire on Judgment Day after the general resurrection of the dead, and souls (possibly all souls) would continue to be purified through correction and divine instruction.”[51] On how the fire would affect each of us, Origen says that “good Christians would pass through the fire of purification painlessly, and less perfect Christians would have a harder time of it, confronting the ‘spirit of combustion’ as their sin had kindled the fire that burned them.”[52] Origin could not emphasize the great love that God has for us enough, believing all could be saved, yet the Church in love for its Children had to condemn Origin “in 400 (Alexandria) and again in 553 (Constantinople) for his writings on universal salvation.”[53] Christ clearly taught about hell when he warned that there will be those who will go away into everlasting punishment (Matt 25:46). Yet there were still many Church Fathers who had to wrestle with the ideas of Origen, for “Origen’s legacy continued to influence debate about the afterlife between the fourth century and the ninth century, at a time that was crucial in purgatory’s formation.”[54]
 
 
St. Augustine

         St. Augustine is known as the “true father of purgatory” due to his numerous insightful works on the topic of the trials that the soul goes through after the death of the body.[55] St. Augustine compiled more books than most people can read in a lifetime. In his handbook Enchiridion alone, St. Augustine explains that “during the time, moreover, which intervenes between a man’s death and the final resurrection, the soul dwells in a hidden retreat, where it enjoys rest or suffers affliction just in proportion to the merit it has earned by the life which it led on earth.”[56] Furthermore when speaking on the question if the soul of the dead can receive any benefits from prayers and almsgiving, “it was Augustine’s firm view that no alteration in the soul’s fate could be accomplished after death….He insisted that all humans owed a debt of pain, and so all, with the possible exception of martyrs, must suffer some punishment after death.”[57] It is only to those who have lived the best Christian life here on earth that St. Augustine says the prayers and works of the living on their behalf can actually help their soul.[58]

          On the topic of punishments, St. Augustine said that every person has to go through some punishments, and those temporal punishments can be “suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but all of them before that last and strictest judgment.” [59] St. Augustine, yet, reassured that for “those who suffer temporary punishments after death, all are not doomed to those everlasting pains which are to follow that judgment; for to some, as we have already said, what is not remitted in this world is remitted in the next, that is, they are not punished with the eternal punishment of the world to come.”[60] Our time of purification can start here on earth, and we ought to remove all evil of our doings and cleanse ourselves from it (Isa 1:16). Not only did St. Augustine warn of the punishments that will take place; furthermore, he “refuted the views of those who viewed salvation as the assured fate of those who went to church, took the sacraments, and petitioned the saints for help. He especially deplored those who believed they might avoid punishment through the merit of others.” [61]

          St. Augustine explicitly warned that “sinners who do not have Christ as the foundation of their lives do not escape. For them the fire is everlasting.” [62] Providing a commentary on St. Paul the Apostle (1 Cor. 3:11–15), St. Augustine says that Christians “who make Christ the center of their lives and observe the precepts, are like people who build with gold, silver, and precious stones. Christians who have Christ in their hearts but are attached to earthly loves and pleasures are like people who build with wood, hay, and straw. Gold, silver, and precious stones, purged of impurities, withstand the fire. Wood, hay, and straw are ‘consumed in the fire of tribulation either here only, or here and hereafter both.’”[63] St. Augustine urged all, that only through life in Christ can we ever be saved.
As the theology of purgatory keeps unfolding with the revelations received by different Church Fathers, during the time of St. Augustine, purgatory’s “earliest descriptive imagery seems to derive from scriptural images of hell. In fact, Augustine and other early Fathers divided hell (Gehenna) into two parts: a lower hell, a place of eternal punishment, and an upper hell, a place of temporary purgatorial suffering after which souls were able to leave and reach heaven.”[64]
 
 
St. Cyril of Alexandria

           St. Cyril of Alexandria who compiled the great The Catechetical Lectures for early Christian, when instructing them on the Divine Liturgy, said that “we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep before us, first, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that at their prayers and intervention God would receive our petition. Afterwards also on behalf of the holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all who in past years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great advantage to the souls, for whom the supplication is put up, while that Holy and most Awful Sacrifice is presented.”[65] The Orthodox Church continues to recite this prayer in the Divine Liturgy till this day. For our God, is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him (Luke 20:38).
Pope St. Gregory the Great

           When speaking of Pope St. Gregory the Great, we can say that he, being “moved by an ardent pastoral zeal in a dramatic earthly context, fanned the purgatorial flame back to life.”[66] Furthermore, Le Goff says that “after Clement of Alexandria and Origen, after Augustine, the last ‘founder’ of Purgatory was Gregory the Great.”[67] In his book The Fourth Book of Dialogues, St. Gregory the Great wrote that we “must believe that before the day of judgment there is a Purgatory fire.”[68] He quotes the Bible saying, anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matt 12:32). Using this verse, he points out that we ought to “learn, that some sins are forgiven in this world, and some others may be pardoned in the next,” pointing to time in Purgatory.[69] From that verse he understood that Purgatory time is that chance for cleansing. Furthermore, he quoted Paul the Apostle saying that each man’s works would be tested as through fire (1 Cor. 3:11–15). Furthermore, St. Gregory the Great explained that in later times, men will understand the things concerning the soul much clearer. For he has said that “for the nearer that this present world draweth towards an end, so much the more the world to come is at hand, and sheweth itself by more plain and evident tokens.”[70] Yet we can only achieve salvation later if through our lives now we work earnestly toward our salvation.[71]
 
 
St. Thomas Aquinas 

          One of the most known theologians of the Latin Church is no other than St. Thomas Aquinas. During the time of St. Thomas Aquinas, “the elaboration of a theology of purgatory had been so rapid and thorough that the early St. Thomas could say with ease that to deny purgatory is to speak against divine justice and to resist the authority of the Church, which teaches us to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.”[72] St. Thomas Aquinas dealt with the topic of purgatory in many of his different works, among them are: Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard; Against the Errors of Greeks; On the Reasons of the Faith against the Saracens, Greeks and Armenians, to the Cantor of Antioch; etc. Yet his most famous work is the Summa Theologica; in it, in Question 69, Aquinas deals with the specific question of where the soul goes after the death of its body.[73] Within that question, he dealt with more specific questions regarding the state of the soul after separation from the body; those topics include: 1) whether certain places receive souls after death, 2) whether souls go to heaven or hell immediately upon death, 3) whether souls in heaven or hell are able to leave those places, and 4) whether limbo is the same as “Abraham’s bosom.” [74] Following that, in question 70, he covers the topic of the “quality of the soul after leaving the body, and of the punishment inflicted on it by material fire.”[75] Most of the Church Fathers up to this time kept the association of the purgatory fires related to Hell. Yet, in his theology, St. Thomas Aquinas was able to “distance purgatory from Hell to a degree not always found in the West.”[76] It is clear to see how by the thirteenth century the West had advanced on the concept of Purgatory compared to the Eastern Fathers who preferred the concept to remain a mystery.

          In the end regarding the article on purgatory in Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas concludes by saying, “It is sufficiently clear that there is a purgatory after this life. For if the debt of punishment is not paid in full after the stain of sin has been washed away by contrition, nor again are venial sins always removed when mortal sins are remitted, and if justice demands that sin be set in order by due punishment, it follows that one who after contrition for his fault and after being absolved, dies before making due satisfaction, is punished after this life.”[77] St. Thomas Aquinas described the fire that cleanses the good and condemns the wicked this way:

          The Day of the Lord, therefore, when He will come for the universal judgment will be revealed by fire which will precede the face of the Judge, by which the reprobate will be drawn into eternal torment, and by which the just who shall be found living will be cleansed. But the Day of the Lord when He judges each at his death will be revealed in the fire which cleanses the good and condemns the wicked.[78]
St. Thomas Aquinas died in 1274 on his way to the Second Council of Lyons where this topic would be debated between the East and the West.[79]
 
 
THE COUNCILS
 
            The first Council of Constantinople in 381, established the universal Creed which was an addition to the First Nicene Creed of 325, in which one confessed that: Jesus “is coming back again with glory to judge the living and the dead; His kingdom will have no end.”[80] This creed remains valid to and acting to all “great Churches of both East and West to this day”.[81] The Church taught that there would be a Last Judgment, which were the words of Christ Himself. Following the Last Judgment people will either enjoy their eternity in Heaven or Hell. Nevertheless, the status of the soul before the Last Judgment remained unclear according to the Church, except for the writings of many of the Church Fathers. The Church Fathers through the studies of the Holy Scriptures and being enlightened by the Holy Spirit provided valuable insights into the challenges that the soul faces after separating from the body. However, the Church as a whole did not possess any concrete documents on the state of the soul up until the thirteenth century. By the time of St. Aquinas, the doctrine of Purgatory was “sufficiently established” and now only required elaboration of the Church as a whole.[82]There were many private beliefs and devotions that people were following, and now the Church required Councils to make corrections where they were needed and in the end to make it official.[83] In the year 1054 a Great Schism occurred, where the Church split ways between the East and the West, but even prior to this, there were already tensions happening between the two sides. Following the great split, the “East and West grew apart increasingly and this was reflected in theology.”[84] “Although attempts at reconciliation were subsequently taken, it soon became clear that the division was much deeper and more tragic than expected.”[85] This relates to the topic of trials of the soul after separation from its body, for “the Orthodox showed far less interest in purification after death and, if anything, emphasized the Last Judgment rather than the fate of the dead before that.”[86] Furthermore in the councils that will be covered next, although having a significant role in establishing the Doctrine of Purgatory in the West, the Purgatory itself was only a small part of the topics covered in those Councils.
 
 
 
Second Council of Lyons (1274)
 
           This Council took place when East and West were at schism. It was Pope Gregory X who sought to unite with Byzantine emperor Michael VIII since both East and West were suffering for many reasons, the major reason was that the Holy Land was being conquered by the Muslims, and it was the time of the Crusades.[87] The topics that were covered during this Council were mainly focused on the West altering the Universal Creed by adding the Filioque (and the Son); the role of the papacy; the use of leavened bread or unleavened bread (azymes) for the Eucharist; clerical beards; and the topic of Purgatory.[88] Second Council of Lyons is the first council that “gave Purgatory official status among the doctrines of the Latin Church.”[89] The Greeks at this time again tried to reject any idea of purgatory that the Latin Church implied on the state of the soul prior to the Last Judgment.[90]  Nonetheless, this Council opened a doorway to the topic of after life. It is with this Council that the “East was slowly moving toward consensus in its thinking about after life…”[91]

         In the documents from the Council, we find that “the eschatological doctrine is treated in the second part of the ‘Profession of Faith of Michael Palaeologus’.” [92] Here we find “the context of a complete doctrine of individual eschatology, … it lays stress on the immediate retribution and on purgatory, the two main points on which Latins and Greeks were at variance in current controversies; it also affirms the efficacy of prayer for the dead.” [93] In the document we also find “a clause on the general judgment is added to mark the agreement between Greeks and Latins on this point.”[94] It is with this Council that the “East was slowly moving toward consensus in its thinking about after life…”[95] In the Letter of Emperor Michael to Pope Gregory in relation to the fate of the soul after separation from the body, we see these four statements have been laid out:

         If, being truly repentant, they die in charity before having satisfied by worthy fruits of penance for their sins of commission and omission, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorial and purifying penalties, as Brother John [Parastron, O.F.M.] has explained to us; and to alleviate such penalties the acts of intercession of the living faithful benefit them, namely, the sacrifices of the Mass, prayers, alms, and other works of piety that the faithful are wont to do for the other faithful according to the Church's institutions.

         As for the souls of those who, after having received holy baptism, have incurred no stain of sin whatever and those souls who, after having contracted the stain of sin, have been cleansed, either while remaining still in their bodies or after having been divested of them as stated above, they are received immediately into heaven.
         As for the souls of those who die in mortal sin or with original sin only, they go down immediately to hell, to be punished, however, with different punishments.
         The same most Holy Roman Church firmly believes and firmly asserts that nevertheless on the Day of Judgment all human persons will appear with their bodies before the judgment seat of Christ to render an account of their own deeds.[96]

By the end of the council, “the Latins were convinced that the Greeks shared their faith, even if – and this was a constant source of frustration – they stubbornly refused to admit it.”[97] The Greeks themselves constantly sought to have a clear explicit Bible teaching, which could not be founded from their point of view. Even though the topic on Purgatory has not reached any agreement the door had been opened for a wide discussion.
 
Dante: The Divine Comedy

         During the time between the Second Council of Lyons and the Council of Florence, something major happened. While the Latins and the Greeks had their disputes about Purgatory, “it was an Italian poet who would usher in the next stage of the doctrine’s development.”[98] In 1319, a man by the name of  Dante Alighieri composed the Divina Commedia, of which the first two books are Inferno and Purgatorio.[99] This work sheds light on the struggles of the soul after death, showing what the soul endures after its separation from the body. Dante vividly described the unimagined reality of tournaments that the soul endures in hell and purgatory, for all the sins it has committed during its life. According to Dante, the “souls in purgatory have to endure forms of suffering as extreme as any inflicted on the unrepentant in hell.”[100] Yet, in Purgatory there is hope for salvation, for Dante says: “I will sing about that second realm given the human soul to purge its sin and grow worthy to climb to Paradise”[101] From Purgatory one can climb to heaven once his time of suffering and purification is completed, unlike from hell where it clearly states: “abandon all hope you who enter here.”[102]
 
         In the evaluation of Dante’s work, we see that Dante, unlike many of the Church Fathers has “allowed for the purgation of both venial and mortal sins during this process, since it was the seven capital sins (Envy, Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Gluttony, and Lust) that were cleansed in Purgatory, not simply the ‘slight’ sins mentioned by the scholastics.”[103] He showed that many could be saved, but he vividly showed the price of torture that they had to endure for that. Furthermore, in Dante’s Purgatorio, “souls have to recognize their own powerlessness and yet, at the same time, this is not a passive place, like some spiritual operating room where you go under and the surgeon repairs you while you sleep.”[104] I believe that Dante did not want for anyone to feel lukewarm towards the kind state their soul was in, for Christ emphasized that “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt 16:26). In fear for the soul, Dante “has made a purgatory that demands absolute activity, tremendous expenditures of sweat and energy, and the realization that the very power to be reformed lies outside your soul.”[105] Christ has warned all of His disciples, for He knew that they would suffer persecutions in His name, he warned them saying: do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt 10:28).

         Dante in many poetic and vivid examples portrayed both Hell and Purgatory, showing how souls from purgatory asked for help, by bringing an example of one soul that they saw, that screamed to them: “Plead my case, that my countryman may pray and help me purge away my heavy sins.”[106] Dante focused also on all those who blamed and cursed everyone around them for all that they did not like, for in purgatory they, for themselves have to take responsibility for their sins and see the faults that they have made on their own.[107] This has become the image of purgatory up to the Council of Florence.  This image will become the problem of the debate with the Church of the East. In comparison to the East and the West, the West had a theology that the “punishment comes from God, whereas release comes by itself. For the Greeks, punishment comes by itself, being a consequence of sin, whereas forgiveness and release from punishment come only from God. The two approaches are clearly different.” [108] In Dante’s work we see that “the Latin emphasis is on God’s justice and punishment…[while]…the Greek emphasis is on God’s love and forgiveness.”[109]
 
 
Council of Florence (1438)

The Council of Florence can be described as “the last and the greatest endeavor to unite the separated Churches of the East and the West, an attempt conceived on a grandiose scale.”[110] Any attempts that later occurred cannot be compared to this Council. By the time of the Council of Florence, the Great Western Schism of 1378-1417 had come to an end.[111] The West had suffered as to who was the real Pope, for at that time there were three Popes, two of them being antipopes. The Council of Florence as stated above aimed to heal the Great Schism between the East and the West. The primary points of dispute between the Greeks and Latins in this Council were the topics “on the procession of the Holy Ghost; on azymes [unleavened bread] in the Eucharist; on purgatory, and on the Papal supremacy.”[112] It is by this time that we see that “the Greeks had only begun to formulate a positive response to Latin queries about the after life…”, as well as having a formulated their theology.[113]

        When the debates began, the Greeks were much better equipped to hold their ground instead of rejecting the topic altogether keeping it a mystery. The Greeks were led by St. Mark of Ephesus. Although the Greeks were very open to discussions and were able to achieve some common ground on the topic of Purgatory, the reunion was unsuccessful altogether. It was primarily Mark of Ephesus who “refused to sign the Florentine decree, believing it a betrayal of the Orthodox faith.”[114] St. Mark and the Greeks did believe in the ‘third state’, but did not accept Purgatory as the Latins have implied it to be.[115] St. Mark agreed that the liturgies, prayers, as well as the alms of the Church are beneficial for the departed soul, however, he disagreed with the claim that these benefits only affect the souls allegedly in Purgatory.[116] For St. Mark, “all souls, even those of saints or of great sinners, receive some benefit, although the latter cannot thereby escape hell and attain salvation.”[117] St. Mark decreed that “we [Orthodox] say that neither do the Saints receive the kingdom and the unutterable blessings already prepared for them, nor are sinners already sent to hell, but both await their fate which will be received in the future age after the resurrection and judgement; while they, together with the Latins, desire immediately after death to receive according to their merits.”[118]

         The Greeks understood the Latins in this manner, that the “departed souls are purified by fire, and are thus liberated from their sins; so that, he who has sinned the most will be a longer time undergoing purification, whereas he whose sins are less will be absolved the sooner, with the aid of the Church; but in the future life they allow the eternal; and not the purgatorial fire. Thus the Latins receive both the temporal and the eternal fire, and call the first the purgatorial fire.” St. Mark of Ephesus and the Greek Fathers tried to find a common ground, for the Greeks believed in a very similar manner, with some key differences. The first key difference was the physical fire, for “the Greeks teach of one eternal fire alone” which is Hell itself.[119] To the answer of the purification by fire, the Greeks explained that “the temporal punishment of sinful souls consists in that they for a time depart into a place of darkness and sorrow, are punished by being deprived of the Divine light, and are purified — that is, liberated from this place of darkness and woe — by means of prayers, the Holy Eucharist, and deeds of charity, and not by fire.”[120] The Greeks “rejected the fire and the noun ‘Purgatory’ (it seems that they didn’t want it to be understood as a place).”[121] Furthermore, on the topic of fire, the Greeks have “accused the Latin’s doctrine of Purgatory of Origenism”.[122] The other key difference between the Greeks and the Latins was that the Greeks believed “that until the union of the souls to the bodies, as the souls of sinners do not suffer full punishment, so also those of the saints do not enjoy entire bliss” which the Latins did not support.[123] Although the Latins could agree with the first point, to the second point they answered “the souls of saints have already received their full heavenly reward”[124] Nonetheless, The Council was able to bring a lot of common ground, for the Greeks “admitted its existence as well as the efficacy of prayers offered for the dead. But, while the Latin Church explained its nature with the help of the juridical concept of satisfaction, the East conceived it in a more mystical manner, as a process of maturation and spiritual growth.”[125]

         In the official documents of the Council, “the section on purgatory strikes a careful balance between the Western conception of satisfaction-expiation and the Oriental insistence on purification.” [126] What becomes very significant is that the Latins “out of consideration for the Oriental position, the Council deliberately omits all allusion to fire and carefully avoids whatever could lead to the concept of purgatory as a place.”[127] The decrees to the Greeks, although very similar to the decrees from the Second Council of Lyons, have been somewhat altered with minor additions and omissions by Pope Benedict XIV.[128] The decrees are:
 
         [The destiny of the dead.] Likewise, (we define) that if those who are truly penitent die in the love of God before having satisfied by worthy fruits of penance for their sins of commission and omission, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments. In order that they be relieved from such punishments, the acts of intercession of the living faithful benefit them, namely, the sacrifices of the Mass, prayers, alms, and other works of piety that the faithful are wont to do for the other faithful according to the Church's practice. The souls of those who, after having received baptism, have incurred no stain of sin whatever and those souls who, after having contracted the stain of sin, have been cleansed, either while in their bodies or after having been divested of them as stated above, are received immediately into heaven and see clearly God himself, one and three, as he is, though some more perfectly than others, according to the diversity of merits.As for the souls of those who die in actual mortal sin or with original sin only, they go down immediately to hell, to be punished, however, with different punishments.”[129]
 
Through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we understand that “the Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.”[130] Although Purgatory was officially recognized during the Second Council of Lyons, the doctrine itself was formulated through the Councils of Florence and Trent.[131]
 
 
Council of Trent (1563)
 
            The Council of Trent addressed was faced with another schism, now involving the Protestants. In response to the Protestant breakaway, the Council issued explicit decrees to prevent people from falling into schism and heresy, which could lead to the loss of salvation. Trent, in dealing with decrees of Original Sin, emphasized the devastating significance of the sin of Adam, and the consequences that it has on humanity.[132]  The Council of Trent had made an official decree on Purgatory by stating that: “The Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit and in accordance with Sacred Scripture and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, has taught in the holy councils and most recently in this ecumenical council that there is a purgatory and that the souls detained there are helped by the acts of intercession of the faithful, and especially by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar. Therefore, this holy council commands the bishops to strive diligently that the sound doctrine of purgatory, handed down by the holy Fathers and the sacred councils, be believed by the faithful and that it be adhered to, taught, and preached everywhere.”[133] Although The Council of Trent made Purgatory a dogma, yet in the official documents there is absence of the “dogmatically binding teachings as regards fire, a place of purification, or the duration, kind, and intrinsic nature of punishment.”[134]
 
 The Second Vatican General Council

         The Second Vatican General Council did not speak of Purgatory directly. Yet when referring to the condition of the soul after death, the Council does not draw any fiery imagery anymore.  In the Dogmatic Constitution document, Lumen Gentium, we hear that, “Until the Lord shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him and death being destroyed, all things are subject to Him… some having died are purified, and others are in glory beholding ‘clearly God Himself triune and one, as He is’ but all in various ways and degrees are in communion in the same charity of God and neighbor and all sing the same hymn of glory to our God.”[135] We hear of more mysterious ways of the Lord working. In another Dogmatic Constitution document, Gaudium et Spes, we read the following:
 
         “Although the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the Church has been taught by divine revelation and firmly teaches that man has been created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery. In addition, that bodily death from which man would have been immune had he not sinned will be vanquished, according to the Christian faith, when man who was ruined by his own doing is restored to wholeness by an almighty and merciful Saviour. For God has called man and still calls him so that with his entire being he might be joined to Him in an endless sharing of a divine life beyond all corruption. Christ won this victory when He rose to life, for by His death He freed man from death. Hence to every thoughtful man a solidly established faith provides the answer to his anxiety about what the future holds for him. At the same time faith gives him the power to be united in Christ with his loved ones who have already been snatched away by death; faith arouses the hope that they have found true life with God.”[136]
 
 
         In an almost surprising manner, here we read not the explicitly detailed accounts of what happens to the soul after death, but we read the language of mystery and faith, that the East has always called for. It will be much later that Pope Benedict XVI, will speak of the Fire by saying that we have to see the Fire in Christological concept, meaning that the Lord Himself is the Judging Fire.[137] Furthermore, Pope Benedict drew an even greater distinction of Purgatory, by saying that it is not “some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where man is forced to undergo punishment in a more or less arbitrary fashion.”[138] Pope Benedict explained that Purgatory is “the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints.”[139] Therefore, it is not a physical fire, but the presence of our Lord that cleanses us.
  

ORTHODOXY
 

         Due to the debates the Orthodox had with the West over the topic of purgatory, the “Orthodox theology continues to wrestle with the teaching, keeping the fate of souls after death very much alive as an ecumenical issue.”[140] Ironically, “it was not the dialogue with Rome that reignited discussion about the afterlife in Orthodox circles, but rather intra-Orthodox debates over the tollhouse tradition and rehabilitation of Origen.”[141] This debate would be brought to light by Hieromonk Seraphim Rose. Since his youth, Fr. Seraphim “had been driven to penetrate into the meaning and ultimate designation of man’s existence, and this was why he sought so intensely to know the beginning and end of all things.”[142] Fr. Seraphim’s writings would become incredibly influential especially in America. In his lectures and books, he cited numerous “patristic writings, Church services, and lives of saints which contained references to the ‘toll-houses’ and ‘tax-collectors.’”[143] He brought back the teaching of Aerial Toll Houses to the faithful. Yet before continuing with Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, we should speak of St. Basil the New, a monk who “died in about the year 944 at the age of 110. The Church calls him Basil the New to distinguish him from other ascetics of the same name.”[144] His holy life lets us witness the vivid story of The Journey Beyond Death as Revealed to Gregory, a Disciple of St Basil the New.[145]

        Through The Journey Beyond Death, we learn about the journey of the soul of Blessed Theodora who passed through the particular judgment and was able to share her journey with Gregory. He wrote it down. First, we must understand that according to some of the Orthodox Church, “the particular judgment of souls by God is preceded by their torments, or rather a series of tests; these take place in the regions of the air, where the evil spirits have their domain (Eph 6:12).”[146] Blessed Theodora speaks about all the demons that met her as soon as the soul left the body. Of the demons, she said that “their faces were dark like soot and pitch, their eyes were like glowing coals, their entire appearance was as frightening and evil as fiery hell itself.”[147] She said that right away the demons rushed to condemn her soul and bring attention to all the sins she had committed since her birth. Blessed Theodora was guided on her journey by the holy angels and by intercession of St. Basil the New. She had to pass through what can be described as twenty aerial Toll Booths/Houses, where at each tollhouse, demons would condemn her with different kinds of sin she had committed in her life, willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly. Blessed Theodora would have to be found worthy to pass all the tollhouses in order not to be sent to the bottom of hell.[148] The twenty tollhouses/torments are summarized in the following list (each torment contains much more detail, because each is one kind of sin containing the many sins under that category):
 
1st Torment is for idle speech and speaking without thinking.
2nd Torment is for lying, using God’s name in vain, and false confession of sins.
3rd Torment is speaking evil of others and spreading rumors about them.
4th Torment is for gluttony.
5th Torment is for sloth and idleness.
6th Torment is for stealing.
7th Torment is for avarice and love of money.
8th Torment is for evil-intentioned bribes.
9th Torment is for the injustice we have committed.
10th Torment is for envy.
11th Torment is for pride.
12th Torment is for being unjustly angry and ruthless.
13th Torment is for grudges we held.
14th Torment is for murder and for the lack of compassion.
15th Torment is for practicing magic, sorcery, poisoning, and incantations.
16th Torment is for fornication.
17th Torment is for adultery.
18th Torment is for sodomic sins.
19th Torment is for heresies.
20th Torment tests lack of compassion and cruelty of heart.[149]
 
          The journey of Blessed Theodora highlights the importance of living a righteous life. We realize the significance of what repentance, humility, and in general living a good life mean for us at the end of our earthly journey. Our journey is not easy, for our Lord taught us that “wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt 7:13–14). King David, therefore, prayed, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am” (Ps 39:4). We ought to live a righteous life, for God Himself said to us, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev 19:2). Our God is a merciful God, who gives us plenty of chances to be saved, but it is like what was said of ancient days, “The Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 1:5). God should be our priority. For our Lord Jesus Christ taught us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matt 22:37–38). Furthermore, we should  glorify and worship God as much as we are able, for it is said, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Rev 4:11).

          Fr. Seraphim taught on that account, that as soon as we die, the soul enters into the aerial realm where it is tested to determine if it is worthy of heaven.[150] He referred to the Apostle Paul, who said, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). Fr. Seraphim also quoted the Apostle Paul to describe the aerial tollhouses, saying the “prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others” (Eph 2:2-3).[151] In a similar manner, St. Augustine in his Confession prayed for the departure of the soul of his mother by imploring the Lord, “Let no one tear her from your protection. Let not the lion and dragon (Ps. 90:13) intrude themselves either by force or by subtle tricks.”[152] If one thinks this unbiblical, in the Book of the Apostle Jude, we hear about the Archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 1:9). Fr. Seraphim, therefore, emphasized the importance of prayer and repentance in one’s life, as they prepare the soul for its journey into the afterlife. He also discusses the role of the Church and the saints in helping the souls of the departed through their prayer and intercession.

         Due to the significant influence of Fr. Seraphim Rose, a scandal arose in the Orthodox Church regarding aerial tollhouses. A deacon by name of Lev Puhalo, publicly challenged Fr. Seraphim about tollhouses and accused him of heresy and creating a controversy in the Church. Due to this intense debate, in 1980 a synod of bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) was conducted on the topic of the controversy of aerial tollhouses.[153]Deacon Lev Puhalo feared that the Orthodox theology of aerial tollhouses was too similar to the Latin theology of purgatory. He, therefore, completely contradicted it, denouncing it to the point where he became a heretic. He contradicted the Orthodox teaching about ‘particular judgment’ and claimed the soul is meaningless without the body.[154] In the end, Deacon Lev Puhalo was silenced by the synod. The synod responded by saying that “life after death is not portrayable with sufficient fullness in earthly understandings and expressions.”[155] The synod added “in the deliberations on life after death one must in general keep in mind that it has not pleased the Lord to reveal to us very much aside from the fact that the degree of a soul’s blessedness depends on how much a man’s life on the earth has been truly Christian, and the degree of a man’s posthumous suffering depends upon the degree of sinfulness.”[156] In speaking of tollhouses, Bishop Theophan declared, “These images represent the reality, but are not the reality itself. It is spiritual, noetic, devoid of anything fleshly.”[157] Similarly, the Apostle Paul spoke of someone who “was caught up to the third heaven….[He] was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:3–4). Therefore, we cannot say that the vivid images from St. Basil the New are exactly how each soul suffers after death and which torment is encountered in the first tollhouse, but it is a general representation of the trials the departed soul encounters. The Orthodox Church does not condemn thinking about death, but, on the contrary, it encourages us to meditate on it. Orthodox monasticism is rooted in thinking about death and dying to oneself, for it says that “a monk should remember every day, and several times a day, that he is faced with inevitable death, and eventually he should even attain to the unceasing remembrance of death.”[158] St. John Climacus emphasized this when he wrote, “Let us rest assured that the remembrance of death, like all other blessings, is a gift of God.”[159] In the end, the ROCOR synod chose to confirm the mystery of this journey in the afterlife, similar to the Second Vatican General Council.

           Furthermore, Fr. Seraphim showed how in the Orthodox faith, the belief in tollhouses, remembrance of death, and the commemoration of the dead are linked. For example, every Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom contains the following petition led by a priest or a deacon: “That we may live out the rest of our days in peace and repentance, let us ask of the Lord,” [160] and followed by another petition, “a Christian end to our life, painless, unashamed and peaceful, and a good defense before the dread judgement seat of Christ, let us ask.”[161] These petitions are ever present at the heart of the Church. These petitions emphasize the importance of living our lives piously, so that we do not encounter God in shame, so that we might not be likened to the foolish virgins who had no good works in them and to whom Christ replied, “I do not know you” (Matt 25:12). Fr. Seraphim also noted the Byzantine liturgical practice of commemorating and praying for forty days for someone who has fallen asleep in the Lord, and why the Church emphasizes certain days of those forty days. For example, in the Orthodox tradition, “The third, ninth, and fortieth days are days of special prayers for the dead.”[162] Fr. Seraphim explained that “some souls find themselves (after the forty days) in a condition of foretasting eternal joy and blessedness, and others, in fear of the eternal tortures which will come in full after the Last Judgment. Until then, changes are still possible in the condition of souls, especially through offering for them the Bloodless Sacrifice (commemoration at the Liturgy), and likewise by other prayers.”[163] He also emphasized that during this time “some [souls] are cleansed by fear, while others are devoured by the gnawings of conscience with more torment than any fire, and still others are cleansed only by the very terror before the Divine Glory and the uncertainty as to what the future will be.”[164] The works of Fr. Seraphim have been defended against heresy. To summarize the teaching of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose further and the belief of Orthodox faith, the Elder Ephraim of Arizona explained,
[The soul] passes through various toll-houses, which represent each one of the deadly sins. It will be examined for every passion and weakness….According to the Orthodox tradition of our Church, it [the soul] will travel with its guardian angel to the holy abodes of God’s Kingdom. Then, it will visit Hades, and, in turn, all the places it lived throughout the years of its earthly life. Finally, on the fortieth day it will conclude its journey and return before Christ to hear the decision. Imagine how the soul fears and trembles. It rejoices when it beholds the Kingdom of God, but it also wonders: ‘Will I achieve it? Will I actually come to dwell here? I don’t know for sure.’ When it passes through Hell and witnesses the tortures it wonders, ‘What if I am sent here? Woe unto me! It’s not going to last a few years. No! It will be forever.’ As it proceeds to visit all the places it lived, then it will see many things. The soul will be ashamed to look at the places where it sinned; conversely, it will rejoice wherever it accomplished virtue. By the end of this whole time, the soul will realize and understand to some extent whether God’s decision will be positive or negative. All these constitute the great truth of our Orthodox Church.”[165]
 
 
           To speak more on the prayer life of the Church, the most common Orthodox service for the departed (Parastas), concludes with the following prayer and dismissal: “May He who has authority over the living and the dead, as immortal King, and who rose from the dead, Christ, our true God, through the intercessions of his most pure and blameless Mother, of the holy, glorious and all-praised Apostles, of our venerable and God-bearing fathers, of the holy and glorious forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the holy and righteous Lazarus, for four days dead, the friend of Christ, and of all the Saints, establish in the tents of the righteous the soul(s) of his servant(s) who has (have) gone from us, give him/her (them) rest in the bosom of Abraham, and number him/her (them) with the righteous; and have mercy on us and save us, for He is good and loves mankind.”[166] In a similar manner, the Roman Catholic Church, in the Funeral Mass, prays the Song of Farewell as the coffin is being incensed before leaving the church: “Saints of God, come to his/her aid! Hasten to meet him/her, angels of the Lord! Receive his/her soul and present him/her to God the Most High. May Christ, who called you, take you to himself; may angels lead you to the bosom of Abraham. Eternal rest grant unto him/her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him/her.”[167] Both the East and the West pray that the soul of the departed may rest at the bosom of Abraham. This emphasizes the time awaited before the great and final judgment (Mat. 25:31–46). For those who are found worthy will enjoy the new heaven and the new earth; Christ says, “Behold, I am making all things new”(Rev 21:5). With Christ, if we surrender our life to Him and live for Him, “we will know a love, joy, and peace that will be unlike anything we have ever experienced.”[168]

         Through this journey of the development of the Roman Catholic theology of Purgatory and the Eastern Orthodox theology of Aerial Toll Houses, we understand that our human intellect is limited, and “God knows it is impossible for our natural faculties to grasp any supernatural truth in its totality, since it greatly exceeds our natural powers.”[169] As humans and “as finite creatures, we can never experience the full freedom of God—we will always be finite and hence limited. This is true even of the angels.”[170] Yet God in His great mercy and love for us, “has, thus, adapted himself to our real situation and revealed to us only those truths and those aspects of them which our reason would be able to assimilate with the help of faith”[171] We have more than enough evidence through the teaching of the Scriptures, Holy Fathers, and Holy Councils that great trials lie ahead and await our soul after death. The implication of studying this topic is to emphasize the significance of living a righteous life. In conclusion, we see now that the Roman Catholic theology of Purgatory and the Eastern Orthodox theology of Aerial Toll Houses are more similar than different. We see that both the East and the West affirm that the topic of “death is an extremely important subject for human beings to ponder and attempt to understand.”[172] For when we know that our time is limited, we tend to focus on what is most important. That is God. Elder Ephraim warned, “We waste our time instead of using it to pray. Our precious time, this currency that God has given us, disappears. We do not use it to purchase valuable items that will be useful for the kingdom of heaven. The devil tricks and outwits us. We buy negligence, slothfulness, idle talk, criticism, scattering of the mind, and harmful thoughts.”[173] God forbid that “we will find ourselves in the position that our brothers were in just a while ago, and we will ask ourselves, ‘What have I done! How was I fooled? How was I deceived? I didn’t expect to die so suddenly!’”[174]Therefore let us not waste time on vain things, instead, let “us humble ourselves before our Crucified Christ and beseech Him for forgiveness.”[175] Let us sincerely “thank God from the depth of our heart for keeping us alive until now and granting us time to correct ourselves.”[176] Furthermore, since our brothers and sisters “who have departed from this life can no longer do anything for themselves” let us pray for them because they await our prayers and bring their names to Church that the Church might pray for them.[177] In the end, we conclude with the prayer of Elder Ephraim: “May God, through His infinite mercy, permit all of us to be found together in the joy and bliss of His eternal Kingdom.”[178] Amen.
 
  
Bibliography
 
Alfeyev, Hilarion. Orthodox Christianity: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church, vol. 1, trans. Basil Bush. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011.
 
St. Augustine. The City of God. Translated by Marcus Dods. New York: Modern Library, 1950.
 
——————. Confessions. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
 
——————. The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love. Edited by Henry Paolacci. South Bend, IN: Regnery/Gateway, 1961.
 
Bathrellos, Demetrios. Love, Purification, and Forgiveness Versus Justice, Punishment, and Satisfaction: The Debates on Purgatory and the Forgiveness of Sins at the Council of Ferrara-Florence. The Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 1, Apr. 2014, pp. 78–121. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.scs.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/jts/flu030.
 
Baxter, Jason M. A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018.
 
Braaten, Carl E. “The Recovery of Apocalyptic Imagination.” In The Last Things: Biblical and Theological Perspectives on Eschatology, edited by Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, 14-32. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2002.
 
Brianchaninov, St. Ignatius. The Arena: Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life. Translated by Archimandrite Lazarus, 2nd edition. Jordanville, N.Y.: Holy Trinity Publications, 2012.
 
Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2019.
 
——————. Order of Christian Funerals: Vigil, Funeral Liturgy, and Rite of Committal = Ritual De Exequias Cristianas: Vigilia, Liturgia Funeral, Y Rito De Sepelio. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.
 
Chrysostom, St. John. The Divine Liturgy of Our Father Among The Saints John Chrysostom. translated under the guidance of Archimandrite Ephrem Lash. Oxfordshire: Nigel Lynn, 2011.
 
St. Clement of Alexandria. Stromata. Translated by William Wilson. Logos Library (website). https://www.logoslibrary.org/clement/stromata/index.html
 
Climacus, St. John. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Translated by Lazarus Moore. New York: Missionary Society of St. Paul, 1982.
  
St. Cyril of Alexandria. The Catechetical Lectures. Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church. Oxford: J.H. Parker, 1838.
 
Daley, Brian E. The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
 
Pope Gregory the Great. The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great. Edited by Edmund G. Gardner. Translated by Philip Woodward. London: P.L. Warner, 1911.
 
Hieromonk Damascene. Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works. Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2005.
 
Dante Alighieri. Inferno. Translated and edited by Anthony Esolen. New York: Modern Library, 2002.
 
——————. Purgatory. Translated and edited by Anthony Esolen. New York: Modern Library, 2004.
 
Davis, Stephen T. “Eschatology and Resurrection.” In The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology, edited by Jerry L. Walls, 384-398. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
 
Denzinger, Heinrich, ed. Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals. Edited by Peter Hunermann, Helmut Hoping, Robert L Fastiggi, and Anne Englund Nash. 43rd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012.
 
Dupuis, Jacques, and Josef Neuner, editors. The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church. 7th rev. and enlarged ed. New York: Alba House, 2001.
 
Elder Ephraim. The Art of Salvation. Translated by St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Monastery. Roscoe, NY: Saint Nektarios Greek Orthodox Monastery, 2014.
 
Forster, E. M. Howards End. Vintage Books, NY: Vintage Books, 1921.
 
Gill, Joseph. The Council of Florence. Cambridge: University Press, 1959.
 
Griffiths, Paul J. “Purgatory.” In The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology, edited by Jerry L. Walls, 427-445. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
 
Hatzinikolaou, Nikolaos S. editor. The Departure of the Soul According to the Teaching of the Orthodox Church: A Patristic Anthology. Master reference ed. Florence, AZ: St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery, 2017.
 
Le Goff, Jacques. The Birth of Purgatory. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
 
St. Mark of Ephesus. Encyclical Letter. Orthodoix Ethos (website). accessed Mrach 9. https://www.orthodoxethos.com/post/the-encyclical-letter-of-saint-mark-of-ephesus.
 
Marthaler, Berard L. The Creed: The Apostolic Faith in Contemporary. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1993.
 
Minnich, Nelson H. “Historical Survey of the Council of Trent,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Trent. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
 
Moreira, Isabel. Heaven’s Purge: Purgatory in Late Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
 
Nicodemus, and Makarios. The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Edited by G. E. H Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber and Faber 1979.
 
Nichols, Terence L. Death and Afterlife: A Theological Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010.
 
Niederwimmer, Kurt, and Harold W Attridge, eds. The Didache: A Commentary. Hermeneia--A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,1998.
 
O’Shea, Donagh. Remember Your Name in the Night: Thinking About Death. Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1997.
 
Origen. Homilies on Luke; Fragments on Luke. Translated by Joseph T. Lienhard. The Fathers of the Church 94. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1996.
 
——————. Spirit and Fire: A Thematic Anthology of His Writings. Edited by Hans Urs von Balthasar. Translated by Robert J. Daly. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1984.
 
Ombres, Robert. Theology of Purgatory, Theology Today 24 (Butler, WI: Theology Book Service, 1978.
 
Orthodox Church in America, “Venerable Basil the New, Anchorite, near Constantinople.” Orthodox Church in America (website), accessed April 4. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2015/03/26/100910-venerable-basil-the-new-anchorite-near-constantinople.
 
Ostroumov, Ivan N. The History of the Council of Florence. Translated by Basil Popoff. Boston, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1971.
 
Elder Panteleimon. Eternal Mysteries Beyond the Grave: Orthodox Teachings on the Existence of God, the Immortality of the Soul, and Life Beyond the Grave. Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Monastery 2012.
 
Phan, Peter C. Eternity in Time: A Study of Karl Rahner’s Eschatology. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1988.
 
Potapov, Archpriest Victor. Commemoration of the Dead. Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (website). Accessed April 9, 2024. https://stjohndc.org/en/orthodoxy-foundation/commemoration-dead.
 
Pozo, Ca´ndido, Theology of the Beyond. Translated by Mark A. Pilon. Staten Island, NY: St. Pauls, 2009.
 
Ratzinger, Joseph. Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life. Translated by Michael Waldstein, edited by Aidan Nichols. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1988.
 
Rose, Fr. Seraphim. The Soul after Death: Contemporary “After-Death” Experiences in the Light of the Orthodox Teaching on the Afterlife, Platina, CA: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995.
 
Sasia, Joseph C. The Future Life: According to the Authority of Divine Revelation, the Dictates of Sound Reason, the General Consent of Mankind. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1919.
 
Schmemann, Fr. Alexander, O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003.
 
——————. Sermons. 3 vols. Translated by John A. Jillions. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1994.
 
Schmitz, Fr. Mike. “Day 1: In the Beginning,” The Bible in a Year (podcast), January 1, 2024, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bible-in-a-year-with-fr-mike-schmitz/id1539568321?i=1000640217593.
 
Second Vatican Council. Dogmatic Constitiution on the Church Lumen Gentium (November 21, 1964) The Holy See (website). https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html.
 
——————. Pastoral Constitution on the Church ion the Modern World Gaudium et Spes (December 7, 1965), §18, The Holy See (website), https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.
 
Siecienski, A. Edward. Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory: The Other Issues That Divided East and West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023.
 
Sua´rez, Federico. The Afterlife: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Manila: Sinag-Tala, 1986.
 
Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia. Extract from the minutes of the session from November 19-December 2, 1980. Orthodox Life 31, no. 1 (Jan-Feb 1981), 23-27.
 
Tanner, Norman P., editor. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 1. London: Sheed & Ward and Georgetown University Press, 1990.
 
Taylor, Michael J. Purgatory. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1998.
 
Blessed Theophylact. The Explanation of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Translated by Christopher Stade. Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2020.
 
St. Thomas Aquinas.  On Reasons for Our Faith against the Muslims, and a Reply to the Denial of Purgatory by Certain Greeks and Armenians to the Cantor of Antioch. Translated by Peter Damian M. Fehlner. Edited by James Likoudis. New Bedford, MA: Franciscans of the Immaculate, 2002.
 
——————. Summa Theologica. 3 vols. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1948.
 
Edited by:
Rev. David Fisher
Rev. Martin Nagy

[1] Kurt Niederwimmer and Harold W. Attridge, The Didache: A Commentary, Hermeneia––A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 59.
[2] Elder Ephraim, The Art of Salvation, trans. St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Monastery (New York: St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Monastery, 2014), 359.
[3] Bishop Mitrophan, hierarchical endorsement to Hatzinikolaou, ed., The Departure of the Soul, 17.
[4] E. M. Forster, Howards End (New York: Vintage Books, 1910), 239.
[5] Donagh O’Shea, I Remember Your Name in the Night: Thinking About Death (Dublin: Dominican Publications., 1997), 21.
[6] Ibid., 22.
[7] The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4, comp. St. Nikodimos and St. Makarios, ed. G. E. H Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1995), 25.
[8] Fr. Mike Schmitz, “Day 1: In the Beginning,” The Bible in a Year (podcast), January 1, 2024, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the–bible–in–a–year–with–fr–mike–schmitz/id1539568321?i=1000640217593.
2 Alexander Schmemann, O Death, Where Is Thy Sting? (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003), 31.
[10] Fourth Lateran Council, Chapter 1: The Catholic Faith, in Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Heinrich Denzinger, 43rd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), §800.
[11] Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures (Oxford: J.H. Parker, 1838), 42.
[12] St. Augustine, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love, trans. J. F. Shaw, ed. Henry Paolucci (South Bend, IN: Regnery/Gateway, 1961), 12.
[13] Joseph C. Sasia, The Future Life: According to the Authority of Divine Revelation, the Dictates of Sound Reason, the General Consent of Mankind (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1918), 45.
14 Nikolaos S. Hatzinikolaou, introduction to The Departure of the Soul, 30.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 42.
[17] Augustine, Enchiridion, 54–55
[18] Ibid., 55.
[19] Carl E. Braaten, “The Recovery of Apocalyptic Imagination,” in Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, eds., The Last Things: Biblical and Theological Perspectives on Eschatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 15.
[20] Braaten, “The Recovery of Apocalyptic Imagination,” 15.
[21] Panteleimon, comp., Eternal Mysteries Beyond the Grave: Orthodox Teachings on the Existence of God, the Immortality of the Soul, and Life Beyond the Grave (Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 2012), 15.
[22] Ibid., 16.
[23] Schmemann, O Death, 35.
[24] Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 41.
[25] Ibid., 42.
[26] Jerry L. Walls, The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology, Oxford Handbooks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 430
[27] Le Goff, 41.
[28] Panteleimon, comp., Eternal Mysteries Beyond the Grave: Orthodox Teachings on the Existence of God, the Immortality of the Soul, and Life Beyond the Grave (Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery), 74.
[29] Blessed Theophylact, The Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to Matthew, trans. Fr. Christopher Stade, Blessed Theophylact’s Explanation of the New Testament, v.1 (Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2020), 51.
[30] Michael J. Taylor, Purgatory (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1998), 12.
[31] Le Goff, 5.
[32] Le Goff, 5.
[33] Peter C. Phan, Eternity in Time: A Study of Karl Rahner’s Eschatology (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1988), 81.
[34] Isabel Moreira, Heaven’s Purge: Purgatory in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 24-25.
[35] Le Goff, 2.
[36] Federico Sua´rez, The Afterlife: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell (Manila: Sinag-Tala, 1986), 74
[37] Taylor, Purgatory, 7.
[38] Le Goff, 52.
[39] Moreira, 27.
[40] Le Goff, 53.
[41] Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, book 7, chapter 2, trans. William Wilson, Logos Library (website), https://www.logoslibrary.org/clement/stromata/702.html.
[42] Moreira, 24.
[43] Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, book 4, chapter 24, https://www.logoslibrary.org/clement/stromata/424.html.
[44] Brian E. Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 47.
[45] Moreira, 28.
[46] Daley, 47.
[47] Moreira, 28.
[48] Origen, Homilies on Luke: Fragments on Luke, trans. Joseph T. Lienhard, The Fathers of the Church 94 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 103.
[49] Moreira, 29.
[50] Origen, Spirit and Fire: A Thematic Anthology of His Writings, ed. Hans Urs von Balthasar, trans. Robert J Daly (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1984), 324.
[51] Moreira, 29.
[52] Ibid.
[53] Moreira, 30.
[54] Moreira, 210.
[55] Le Goff, 61.
[56] Augustine, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love, ed. Henry Paolucci (South Bend, IN: Regnery/Gateway, 1961), 127.
[57] Moreira, 32.
[58] Augustine, Enchiridion, ed. Paolacci, 129.
[59] Augustine, The City of God, trans. Marcus Dods (New York: Modern Library, 1950), 784.
[60] Ibid.
[61] Moreira, 34.
[62] Berard Marthaler, The Creed: The Apostolic Faith in Contemporary Theology (Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1993), 312.
[63] Marthaler, The Creed, 312.
[64] Taylor, Michael J., 90.
[65] Cyril of Jerusalem, 275.
[66] Le Goff, 88.
[67] Ibid.
[68] Gregory, The Dialogues of Saint Gregory, edited Edmund G Gardner, trans. Philip Woodward (London: P.L. Warner, 1911), 233.
[69] Ibid.
[70] Ibid., 235.
[71] Ibid., 234.
[72] Robert Ombres, Theology of Purgatory, Theology Today 24 (Butler, WI; Theology Book Service, 1978), 41.
[73] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, vol. III, Supplement, q. 69, a. 1-4, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (New York: Benziger Brothers,1948), 2829.
[74] Ibid.
[75] Aquinas, ST, Suppl., q. 70., 2836.
[76] Ombres, 41.
[77] Aquinas, ST, vol. III, Suppl., Appendix II, a. 1, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 3022.
[78] Thomas Aquinas, On Reasons for Our Faith against the Muslims, and a Reply to the Denial of Purgatory by Certain Greeks and Armenians to the Cantor of Antioch , trans. Peter Damian M. Fehlner, ed., James Likoudis (New Bedford, MA: Franciscans of the Immaculate, 2002), 66.
[79] Le Goff, 267.
[80] Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 1 (London: Sheed & Ward and Georgetown University Press, 1990), 24.
[81] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2019), §195.
[82] Ombres, Theology of Purgatory, 39.
[83] Ibid.
[84] Ibid., 44.
[85] Hilarion Alfeyev, Orthodox Christianity: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church, vol. 1, trans. Basil Bush (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011), 115.
[86] Ombres, 44.
[87] Tanner. Decrees, 303.
[88] A. Edward Siecienski, Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory: The Other Issues That Divided East and West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023), 2-4.
[89] Le Goff, 237.
[90]Siecienski, 271.
[91] Ibid., 274.
[92] Jacques Dupuis and Josef Neuner eds., The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church, 7th rev. and enlarged ed. (New York: Alba House, 2001), 942.
[93] Ibid.
[94] Ibid.
[95] Siecienski, 274.
[96] Emperor Michael Paleologus, The Profession of Faith: Letter to Pope Gregory (July 6, 1274), quoted in Denzinger, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Hu¨nermann, Hoping, Fastiggi, and Nash, 43rd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2012), §§856-859.
[97] Siecienski, 269.
[98] Ibid.
[99] Le Goff, 334.
[100] Jason M. Baxter, A Beginner’s Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018), 73.
[101] Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, trans. & ed. Anthony Esolen (New York: Modern Library, 2004), 3.
[102] Dante Alighieri, Inferno, trans. & ed. Esolen (New York: Modern Library, 2002), 23.
[103] Siecienski, 269.
[104] Baxter, 89.
[105] Ibid.
[106] Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, trans. Esolen, 53.
[107] Baxter, 82.
[108] Demetrios Bathrellos, “Love, Purification, and Forgiveness Versus Justice, Punishment, and Satisfaction: The Debates on Purgatory and the Forgiveness of Sins at the Council of Ferrara-Florence,” The Journal of Theological Studies 1 (Apr. 2014), 117-118, EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.scs.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/jts/flu030.
[109] Ibid., 118.
[110]Joseph Gill, The Council of Florence (Cambridge: University Press, 1959), vii.
[111] Nelson H. Minnich, “Historical Survey of the Council of Trent,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Trent (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 1.
[112] Ivan N. Ostroumov, The History of the Council of Florence, trans. Basil Popoff, (Boston, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1971), 47.
[113] Siecienski, 275.
[114] Siecienski, 291.
[115]Bathrellos, 89.
[116] Ibid., 88.
[117] Ibid.
[118] St. Mark of Ephesus, Encyclical Letter, Orthodoix Ethos (website), https://www.orthodoxethos.com/post/the-encyclical-letter-of-saint-mark-of-ephesus.
[119] Ostroumov, 48.
[120] Ibid., 48-49.
[121] Ca´ndido Pozo, Theology of the Beyond, trans. Mark A. Pilon, (Staten Island, NY: St. Pauls, 2009), 470.
[122] Ibid.
[123] Ostroumov, 49.
[124] Ibid., reference to Denziger, §1305.
[125] Dupuis and Neuner, eds., 944.
[126] The General Council of Florence Decree for the Greeks (1439), ed. Dupuis and Neuner, 944.
[127] Ibid.
[128] Council of Florence, Bull of Union with the Greeks Laetentur caeli (July 6, 1439), in Denzinger, ed., 335.
[129] Council of Florence, Laetentur caeli, in Denzinger, ed., §§1304-1306.
[130] Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1031
[131] Ibid.
[132] Council of Trent, Decree on Original Sin, Session 5, July 17, 1546, in Denzinger, ed., §§1511-1513.
[133] Ibid., Decree on Purgatory, December 3, 1563, in Denziger, ed., §1820.
[134] Phan, 124.
[135] Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitiution on the Church Lumen Gentium (November 21, 1964), §49, The Holy See (website), https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html.
[136] Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church ion the Modern World Gaudium et Spes (December 7, 1965), §18, The Holy See (website), https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html.
[137]Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, trans. Michael Waldstein, ed. Aidan Nichols (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1988), 229.
[138] Ibid., 230.
[139] Ibid.
[140] Siecienski, Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory, 276.
[141] Siecienski, Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory, 276.
[142] Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works (Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2005), 885.
[143] Ibid., 891.
[144] Orthodox Church in America, “Venerable Basil the New, Anchorite, near Constantinople,” Orthodox Church in America (website), accessed April 4, https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2015/03/26/100910-venerable-basil-the-new-anchorite-near-constantinople.
[145] Panteleimon, comp., Eternal Mysteries Beyond the Grave, 93-110.
[146] Panteleimon, 93.
[147] Panteleimon, 93.
[148] Ibid., 95.
[149] Panteleimon, 96-105 (summarized in my own words).
[150] Fr. Seraphim Rose, The Soul after Death: Contemporary “After-Death” Experiences in the Light of the Orthodox Teaching on the Afterlife(Platina, CA: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1995), 128.
[151] Rose, The Soul after Death, 128.
[152] Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 178.
[153] Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia, extract from the minutes of the session from November 19-December 2, 1980, Orthodox Life 31, no. 1 (Jan-Feb 1981), 23-27.
[154] Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR, Orthodox Life, 23.
[155] Ibid., 26.
[156] Ibid.
[157] Ibid.
[158] Ignatius Brianchaninov, The Arena: Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life, 2nd ed., trans. Archimandrite Lazarus, (Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Publications, 2012), 83.
[159] Saint John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Lazarus Moore (New York: Missionary Society of St. Paul, 1982), 64.
[160] John Chrysostom, The Divine Liturgy of Our Father Among the Saints John Chrysostom, trans. under the guidance of Ephrem Lash (Oxfordshire: Nigel Lynn, 2011), 50.
[161] Ibid.
[162] Archpriest Victor Potapov, Commemoration of the Dead, Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (website), accessed April 9, 2024, https://stjohndc.org/en/orthodoxy-foundation/commemoration-dead.
[163] Fr. Seraphim Rose, The Soul after Death, 187.
[164] Ibid., 202.
[165] Elder Ephraim, The Art of Salvation, 364.
[166] John Chrysostom, The Divine Liturgy, 101.  
[167] Catholic Church, Order of Christian Funerals: Vigil, Funeral Liturgy, and Rite of Committal = Ritual De Exequias Cristianas: Vigilia, Liturgia Funeral, Y Rito De Sepelio (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002), 172.
[168] Stephen T. Davis, “Eschatology and Ressurection,” in The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology, ed. Jerry L. Walls (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 396.
[169] Federico Sua´rez, The Afterlife, 71.
[170] Terence L Nichols, Death and Afterlife: A Theological Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010), 172.
[171] Sua´rez, The Afterlife, 71.
[172] Alexander Shmemann, Sermons, vol. 2: The Church Year: Celebration of Faith, trans. John A. Jillions (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1994), 114.
[173] Elder Ephraim, The Art of Salvation, 366.
[174] Ibid.
[175] Elder Ephraim, The Art of Salvation, 366.
[176] Ibid., 367.
[177] Ibid.
[178] Ibid., 369.

 Edited by:
Rev. David Fisher
Rev. Martin Nagy