Many modern Roman Catholic apologists and theologians are embarrassed by traditional Catholic teachings concerning the pain and suffering of Purgatory; some try to present it as the love of God hugging one’s temporal punishment out of them or some other “sugary” view. Others call into question whether there is "time" in Purgatory. However, if anyone reads traditional Catholic works such as Robert Bellarmine or the descriptions of Purgatory from Catholic mystics and canonized saints, one will realize these are novel interpretations to the dogma.
While reading the Nahuatl Sermonary of Fray Bernardino De Sahagún today, I came across many descriptions of the pains and sufferings of Purgatory. Here are some examples:
But when some friend of our Lord Jesucristo
[and] they have not done acts of meriting here on earth for the deadly sins
they have confessed, it is necessary for them to suffer down there in purgatorioh.
They will do acts of meriting of seven years for every single deadly sin, for
such is the command established by the Justiciah of Dios. Because of all their sins perhaps it will be four hundred years! By Dios's command it is to the Santa Iglesia that indulgenciah belongs. Indulgenciah derives from the Pasion [and] suffering of our Lord. It has become the foundation of the Santa Iglesia [and] because of this one will not go down there to purgatorioh, etc. (“Sermon in
Preparation for the Passion of the Lord,” in The America’s First Sermons:
The Nahuatl Sermonary of Fray Bernardino De Sahagún [trans. Ben Leeming;
Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2026], 283)
Perhaps you do not believe in
what the sufferings of purgatorioh are like. They are very frightening; absolutely
no manner of earthly suffering compares with it, it is absolutely the most
painful thing! The fire down there is unlike the fire here on earth in terms of
the suffering it causes people; it surpasses it utterly. Just a little time down
there is considered a very long time because suffering down there in purgatorioh
completely surpasses all else in how painful it is. (“Fourth Sunday after
Easter,” in The America’s First Sermons: The Nahuatl Sermonary of Fray
Bernardino De Sahagún [trans. Ben Leeming; Salt Lake City: The University
of Utah Press, 2026], 327)
There are a great many who die in
mortal sin in small sins. When their animah comes out [of their
body] it is brought down there to purgatorioh where it is tormented
[and] suffers on account of the small sins. These ones need to be helped, so
that their suffering may quickly be ended. Therefore, when the dead has been
brought out to be buried, you need to count your cuentas on behalf of
their animah so that our Lord will quickly have mercy on them [and] they
will not tarry long down there in purgatorioh. There [at the burial] you
will also take your exemplary model so that while still here on earth you will
do meriting on account of our sins, for the suffering in purgatorioh is
very frightening [and] the way it torments people is unlike anything here on
earth. Therefore, when you hear that someone has died, you need to go there to
take your exemplary model for them so that you will live well and you will live
in a state of preparedness [so that] death does not come upon you when you are
in [a state of] mortal sin. If you do this, our Lord Dios will have mercy on
you [and] because of this you will be able to rescue yourself. May it thus be
done. (“Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost,” in The America’s First Sermons:
The Nahuatl Sermonary of Fray Bernardino De Sahagún [trans. Ben Leeming;
Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2026], 459)
