03-14-2021, 01:39 PM
Chapter II
Hell
Visions of Saint Frances of Rome. - Entrance to hell. - The divisions of the fallen angels.
Saint Frances of Rome had ninety-three visions. She dictated them herself to her confessor, John Mattiotti, who passed it on to us.
Among these visions and revelations are those relating to the fallen angels, Limbo, the general and particular torments of the damned.
We reproduce them here after having translated them from the Latin text of the Bollandists, giving them a more logical order to help them to be more fully understood, but without changing any of the essence of the facts and judgements described and stated by the saint.
We would point out that these visions and revelations are not articles of faith, but that they do provide a logical explanation of all the diabolical manifestations we are citing in this book, and that they are perfectly in line with our knowledge in these matters.
The authority that attaches itself to the word of a saint whose acts and writings were severely examined and controlled during the canonization process, along with the claim granted to them by many theologians, does not allow them to be treated lightly.
Above the door of the abyss is marked this inscription:
“This place is hell. Here there is no more hope, nor end; here there is no rest!”
As she approached the cursed threshold, Saint Frances of Rome was overcome by an infinite terror. The fear entered her through her eyes, ears, smell and touch. She experienced in her ecstasy a terror so great that she never could have imagined it.
Then, close to her, she felt, although she did not see it, the presence of a companion who exhorted her to courage and determination.
The entrance to the place of abomination was vast, but as the door was opened, it grew larger and larger. There was such a thick darkness that the human language is unable to express it.
Hell, itself is divided into three parts or dwellings tiered one above the other. The second, which is the middle, contains greater penalties than the first, which is the superior one; and the third, the inferior, is the place of much more numerous and infinitely greater torments than the encounters in the other two.
Between these different places lie immense spaces filled with obscure darkness and infinite torments.
A dragon, of colossal size, occupies these three places. His head is placed in the superior level, his body in the middle, and his tail in the deepest part of the abyss, the inferior.
His head, placed at the door of the first dwelling, is immense, but his neck is of medium size. A dark fire, unbearable heat and an intolerable bad smell come out of his eyes and ears. His mouth is always open. His tongue comes out and spreads a burning fire that burns, but it does not shine. From this horrible mouth comes an incredible stench.
Cries of rage and anguish, terrible howls, blasphemies against God, heartbreaking cries and sobs, echoes of superhuman pain, rose from the darkness of the abyss to the ears of St. Frances of Rome.
These laments of the tortured were so appalling, and the contagion that escaped from the infernal prisons, were so intolerable, that the saint felt extreme pain and affliction when she told her spiritual Father about her vision.
When she saw and heard these things, in ecstasy, the blessed woman felt so anxious that she thought she was going to faint. Then the invisible companion standing beside her comforted her and raised her courage.
And the saint said repeatedly, in the course of her story, that without this assistance and encouragement, she would not have been able to see and hear what she saw and heard. She would have died of horror and dread.
Satan, with his terrifying appearance, sits like a beam in the middle of hell. His head reaches the superior part, and his feet the inferior part. He thus occupies a part of these three places.
He holds his feet apart and his hands apart. He extends one above and the other below. However, he does not have the attitude of a crucified person.
His head is crowned with a kind of deer horn tiara. These horns have many horns on them and from each of them a high flame emerges.
His face inspires incredible terror. It projects a blazing and foul-smelling fire through all the pores.
He is bound by burning chains at the neck, hands, feet and center of the body, so that he is surrounded by them. These chains are attached to all the parts of hell, to the superior part, to the middle and to the deepest. However, one of them is an exception. It wraps itself around the dragon at one end, and Lucifer or Satan at the other.
The angels who fell from heaven are divided into three parts. Some are in hell, others are in the air, and the last third are with us in this world and are given to us to test us.
The spirits who followed Lucifer, obeying the inspiration of their own malice and their feelings of revolt in a radically perverted way, are locked in hell. These demons are the meanest and most iniquitous. They never leave the abyss, unless, by Divine Permission, there is some great catastrophe to be wrought in the world which is deserved by the sins of men.
The spirits who dwell in the regions of the air, and those who exist among us on this earth, are those who, during Lucifer's revolt against God, did not choose one or the other, but remained neutral.
The prince and ruler of all the devils is Lucifer, the captive, the chained one. Now, in execution of the Divine Sentence, he is appointed in hell to the vice of pride, and is the master, the executioner and the tyrant of the demons and the damned. Just as he was the noblest of all angels, he became the most perverse of all the fallen spirits.
Just as, in the glory of Heaven, three blessed spirits, of the three supreme choirs, super eminent in nobility, fidelity and beauty, are placed at the head of the three orders of the Heavenly Hierarchy, and communicate to them the wishes of the Most High, likewise, in the darkness of hell, three fallen spirits, more guilty than their companions in rebellion, are, by the decision of God's justice, committed to the leadership of the other demons, under the domination of Lucifer, and transmit to them the harsh commandments of the chained tyrant.
The first, of these three infernal princes, is called Asmodeus. He was a member of the Choir of Cherubim. He is in charge of the vice of the flesh.
The second, named Mammon, was from the Choir of Thrones. He is in charge of the vice of avarice.
The third, Beelzebub, formerly of the Choir of Dominions, is the prince of idolatry and master of magical science and those who practice spells and incantations. He is the source of the night, the steward of the dark places of the abyss. His role, his function is to spread darkness on reasonable creatures.
These three lieutenants of Lucifer, as well as their supreme leader, never leave hell; but when, by God's permission, some very great evil must be done in the world, they delegate this purpose to other demons who are subject to them and who usually reside with them in the darkness of the abyss.
They send them especially when the devils who exist in the air, or those who are mixed with men, have neither the science nor the power to execute this extraordinary evil. It is only for this pernicious purpose that these messengers of misfortune, more learned and wicked than their colleagues in the superior regions, leave their prison for a time. However, they do not do so of their own free will, nor even by the authority of their leaders, but only by the express permission of God.
The fallen spirits who, during the revolt of Lucifer, embraced his cause, driven by their own malice, part of them inhabit the third and deepest abode of hell; others, the second, the intermediary; the rest reside in the first, the superior.
Those who are in the lowest abode are the demons who were part of the Highest Order of the Heavenly Hierarchy, the Choirs of the Cherubim, Seraphim and Thrones. They endure the greatest torments, as they are the guiltiest, and are responsible for torturing the damned souls who have committed the greatest sins. They are submitted directly to Lucifer, the prince and principle of the vice of pride, who fell from the Choir of Seraphim. These demons, when they come out of hell, to come to the earth to commit some evil, come out mainly because of the crime of pride.
The devils who belonged in Heaven to the Second Order of the Hierarchy, to the Choirs of the Dominions, the Principalities and the Powers, reside in the middle part of hell. They are tortured and they also torment the souls of the condemned who are there. They are subject to the supreme authority of Lucifer, but they obey directly to his lieutenant Asmodeus who fell from the Cherubim Choir and is the prince and principle of the vice of the flesh.
Finally, the fallen spirits of the third Angelic Order, who were once Virtues, Archangels and Angels, inhabit the superior abode of the infernal kingdom. They suffer there themselves and are the executioners of the souls of the condemned who are there. Subjected, like their companions in pain, to the yoke of Lucifer in general, they are more especially so to that of Mammon, who was once a Thrones, and is mainly the prince of avarice. These demons, when they come out of hell, tempt men in so many ways that it is impossible to imagine it.
Lucifer's third lieutenant, called Beelzebub, who fell from the Choir of Dominions, was constituted by Divine Justice as the prince and head of the darkness and of obscure places.
These demons, which are innumerable, are thus hierarchical among themselves.
Beelzebub is condemned to be tortured by the same darkness and to torment the souls who are in darkness and who adhere to the incantations, curses and spells of demons. These practices spread darkness in the minds of men and divert them from the light of the truth, knowledge and integrity of Catholic doctrine in so many ways that it is difficult to believe and imagine.
Just as the fallen angels who sinned by their own malice are distributed among the various parts of hell, so are those who, during Lucifer's revolt against God, remained mute and inactive and kept neutrality between the Creator and His creature, also remain divided in the execution of the sentence of God's justice.
The demons who reside in the regions of the air and who were part of the supreme order of the Celestial Militia remain together. The same is true for those who fell from the second order and for those who fell from the third. But they have no hierarchy among themselves.
Finally, the evil spirits who dwell on earth among men, like those who reside in the air, retain the distinctions that divided them in Heaven into three orders, but they are not hierarchical among themselves either.