Hell is Real- Warning- this video contains disturbing images.

Hell is Real- Warning- this video contains disturbing images 10. Visions of Hell and Purgatory
www.archive.org/…/RevelationsOfSt…
Although St Bridget writes of both God's tender mercy for the repentant and his severe judgment
on unrepentant sinners, a greater proportion of the revelations deal with the latter. In this she
echoes the thought of St Augustine, who stated that "although the best kind of men are drawn by
love, the majority need fear to move them." 10 Indeed some very vivid and striking imagery
relating to both hell and purgatory can be found in the Revelations. Bridget hears these words
describing the lecherous Queen Giovanna of Naples, for example "This woman is a monkey that sniffs at its own stinking

posterior. . . ." And the queen is seen in a vision by St Bridget as "wearing a crown of twigs spattered
with human excrement. . . and sitting naked on a tottering beam" perched over the fires of hell
(7.11). Such strong and revolting imagery is used in order to inspire an aversion and disgust for
sin, in this case sins of impurity. In fact, the punishments experienced by sinners after death are
immeasurably worse than anything imaginable in this life (5.8; 6.52).

St Bridget experienced visions in which she sees the punishment meted out to souls in both
purgatory and hell. The purpose of these visions is to inspire good Christians to persevere in grace
and sinners to flee the great danger threatening them (6.35; 4. 102).

The Revelations emphasize both the eternity of hell and the extreme severity of the tortures
experienced therein. The punishments in hell are of many different kinds, depending on the type
of sins one is guilty of. Certain souls in purgatory suffer extremely, in a manner similar to the
damned, and some even experience "despair of forgiveness," not being permitted to know
whether they will be saved or not (6.66).

St Bridget warns that the condemned soul will in great anguish realize too late that Christ's
promises were real and great and that his own name has been forever erased from the book of life in heaven (7.12).
In a vision Christ speaks to St Bridget of a certain bishop: "May rotting waste be put on the
bishop's head instead of a mitre.... Instead of honor, may he receive shame. Instead of many
servants, may he be attended on by a wild mob of demons" (3.4).

St Bridget describes the most fearful punishments in great detail. One soul, not even in hell but
the lower region of purgatory, is described as
...flowing with blazing fire.... The mouth was open and the tongue, drawn out through the
orifices of the nostrils, hung down to the lips.... Both hands seemed to hold and squeeze some
putrid substance, sticky with blazing pitch.... And from it came forth something like the
discharge from an ulcer with the blood rotting and a stench so evil that it could not be
compared to the worst stench in the world (4.7).
In case one might be tempted to dismiss such descriptions as either the product of an
overactive imagination or, worse, "medieval superstition," one should take into account the high
degree of authenticity and authority attached to the Revelations by many high ranking theologians
and ecclesiastics, including several popes and Church councils (see note 3 below). But St Bridget does state that these visions are not to be taken literally. She sees them "by bodily likeness." But
this fact should only evoke an even greater horror in those who hear them - and an even greater
sorrow for their sins - for the reality of hell and purgatory is even worse, immeasurably so, in
fact, and if St Bridget herself were to see the reality as it actually is she would die of fear (6.52).
And she is referring to purgatory, not hell. The latter is seen as a kind of torture chamber where
the damned "will be tortured without end and the torturers [the demons] will live without
end" (1.56).

St Bridget also describes the terrors experienced by the damned on account of the never-ending
companionship of the devil and the other demons. She says that if their horrible appearance were
to be seen as it really is, one would lose one's mind at the mere sight (5.8). One of the most
severe punishments in purgatory is when the demons are allowed to touch the souls (4.8; 6.21).
But in hell the demons can tear them to pieces and devour them, yet they will not be consumed
(1.5).
Since the fear of God's justice is weak or nonexistent in most Christians of her time, St
Bridget's Revelations utilize these and other striking images in order to lead as many as possible
to repentance. The "shock value" has no other end but the salvation of souls which are perilously headed for eternal torments that, like St Paul says of heaven, "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the mind of man to imagine" (1 Cor 2:9).
ebooksgo.org/religion/Revelations.pdf