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Treatise on Purgatory

XI. The love of God which draws the holy souls to itself, and the impediment they find in sin, generates the pain of Purgatory.

St. Catherine of Genoa

AI-assisted English translation from the Italian; selected passages reviewed. Source, method & review limits

1. I see so great a conformity of God with the soul that when He sees it in that purity in which His Majesty created it, He gives it a certain attractive force of burning love, sufficient to annihilate it, though it be immortal.

2. And He keeps it so transformed in Himself, its God, that it sees itself to be nothing other than God, who continually goes on drawing it and absorbing it, never leaving it, until He has brought it to that being from which it came forth, that is, into that pure cleanness in which it was created.

3. When the soul, by interior sight, sees itself thus drawn by God with so great a divine fire, then, from that heat of the burning love of its sweet Lord and God, which it feels overflowing in its mind, it is wholly melted.

4. Then seeing, in the divine light, how God never ceases to draw it and lovingly lead it to its whole perfection, with such care and continual provision; and that He does this only out of pure love; and that it, having the impediment of sin, cannot follow that drawing made by God, that is, that unitive glance which God has given it to draw it to Himself; seeing, moreover, how much it matters to it to be delayed in not being able to see the divine light; added to this the instinct of the soul, which would wish to be without impediment, so as to be drawn by that unitive glance: I say that the sight of the aforesaid things is that which generates in the souls the pain which they have in Purgatory.

5. Not that they make account of their pain (though it is indeed most great), but they make far more account of the opposition they find themselves to have against the will of God, whom they clearly see burning with an extreme and pure love toward them.

6. This love, with that unitive glance, draws so strongly without ceasing, as if it had nothing else to do. Therefore the soul, seeing this, if it found another Purgatory beyond that one, so as to be able to remove so great an impediment more quickly, would swiftly cast itself into it, through the impetus of that conforming love between God and the soul.

About this translation

This English translation from the Italian was drafted with AI assistance using SWE-2 Max and prepared as a reading edition for this library. Review has included source provenance, section structure, and selected source comparisons and corrections. It has not included a complete independent, sentence-by-sentence translation audit.

Catherine’s teaching was transmitted by her disciples and first printed in 1551. This translation follows the supplied Italian transcription; the introductory note is editorial.

This is a reading copy, not a critical edition. No professional translation certification or ecclesiastical approval is claimed for this modern edition.

No general reuse licence is specified for this modern translation or its source transcription. The age of the original work does not by itself establish their reuse terms.

Remember Eternity · remembereternity.org. AI-assisted English translation drafted with SWE-2 Max from the Italian; selected source comparisons and corrections only. No complete independent translation audit or ecclesiastical approval is claimed. Catherine’s teaching was transmitted by her disciples and first printed in 1551. This translation follows the supplied Italian transcription; the introductory note is editorial. No general reuse licence is specified for this modern translation or its source transcription.