A trip to purgatory ireland, sort of

It has been a long time since Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote a Divine Comedy, a monumental epic poem whose crowded, wonderful, and macabre hell has been more attractive to readers over the centuries than the long-awaited paradise. Well, the candidates who will be judged by eternal, polished quarterless sarcasm are legionnaires. While there are a few who reach the gates of Heaven only to be sent to Hell by Saint Peter. Purgatory remains for the obscure, the faint of heart, who are the majority, that is, neither good nor bad, neither meat nor fish.

There are many European places that boast a door giving access to purgatory or hell, one of which is neither more nor less than Canigou Peak. In the summer of 1276, King Peter the Great single-handedly climbed to the top of the Pyrenees to confront the terrifying beast that lived in its dark bowels, just like Saint George against the Dragon. At least this is what the historian Salimbene of Parma (1221-1287) says. Whether it is true or not is not important, the important thing is that his subjects believe in him.

The Galician Benedictine Benito Geronimo Vigo (1676-1764) collects in his book Global Critical Theatre A voyage made in 1328 by an “Aragonese or Catalan knight named Ramon de Berellos, Viscount Berellos, Lord of the Barony of Cerret” to distant Ireland, with the aim of crossing the door which gives access to the Cave of St.

According to the time records that Feijoo consulted, in addition to Journey to Purgatory For Berillos himself, the reason for this arduous journey was nothing more than to discover if the soul of Don Juan I, King of Aragon, was in Purgatory. But these writings have little or no credibility, because they place this king in purgatory sixty-seven years before his death in 1395, not to mention twenty-three years before his birth, since his birth in 1351, so Vigo concludes that this relation was formulated by some Catalans “both ignorant and idle”.

Whatever the case, the story spread far and wide across Europe, to the point of turning St. Patrick’s Purgatory into a place of pilgrimage that Pope Alexander VI tried to stop in 1497 with little success. To this day, it still attracts believers eager to cleanse themselves of their sins. Also, in times closer to our country, it attracts both Irish Catholics and Protestants, which is certainly something really unusual.

Now, Viggo wonders not only if all those who entered the cave share the same vision, but if there are no fakers, hypocrites and pretenders among them, who lie so blatantly about what they saw and experienced in the cave, without ever questioning the sanctity of Patrick, who is after all the one who brought the good news of the Christian faith to the Irish pagans. And since faith moves mountains or the zeal of the faithful gives way to the invention of all kinds of miracles which they ascribe to the saint of their devotion, it is fitting that we take with caution the stories which surround the Cueva de San Patricio, such as those which assert that the saint cast all the poisonous insects out of Ireland with his staff or that if someone on the island had the nerve to introduce any at once.

But the indefatigable reader found Feijoo in Topography of Irelandby Giraldo Cambrenci (1146-1223), who three centuries before the entry of the Anglo-Raman Patricians into Ireland, Caio Julio Solino had already asserted that the island was exempt from all poisonous insects.

Who do you believe? Since the man is the man and the woman is the woman, the source in matters of faith is of little importance, as well as in this secular world that we have invented. There are even flights low cost Which transports us to hell or purgatory of our choosing. You can even access it without leaving home. It is better not to talk about paradise: it has long ceased to be a destination for the masses.