Book reviews
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Saints Who Saw Hell: A Good
Reminder to Prepare for Death
Review of Saints Who Saw Hell and Other Witnesses to the Fate of the Damned by Paul Thigpen © 2019 B Tan Books: 2019
Once again, I must give my “Novus Ordo disclaimer.” Quotes are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Holy Spirit vs. Holy Ghost is employed, non-capitalization of pronouns representing God, and other such progressivist things that raise my hackles. Author Paul Thigpen also uses many quotes from C.S. Lewis, and I wonder why he could not find Catholic authors or Saints to cite instead. Another point of contention: One of the short chapters presents “Saint” Faustina Kowalska’s visions.
Thigpen, who has a Ph.D. in Historical Theology, is a best-selling author with over 53 published books. A member of the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, he is also an ex-Pentecostal minister. One of the chapters in which he provides testimonies of persons who have seen Hell is taken from his novel, My Visit to Hell. But he does not clarify in this book if that work was the result of a dream, vision, meditation or just his imagination. A small credibility issue arises when he includes this in his real accounts of visions of Hell.
As Catholics, we are supported in our belief of Hell by Scripture, Tradition, the perennial Magisterium of the Church and reason. Our Lord speaks of Hell and damnation many times, The Baltimore Catechism teaches clearly: “Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments.” Even the faulty Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of Hell, but describes it much more weakly as the “state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed in communion with God.” [n. 1033]
Catholic dogma teaches that Hell is where the wicked suffer dreadful torments for eternity
The work points out that since ancient times, most cultures around the world relate visions of Hell. Dreams are another source of such visions, as well as occurrences that are deemed “near-death experiences.” Among the numerous visions that have received Church approval, details may range dramatically and often are very different. Already in the 6th century, St. Gregory the Great in his Dialogues reports several visions of Hell by contemporaries, instructing that they demonstrate God’s mercy in sending warnings but we should not presume on His mercy.
Some revelations of Hell were for the benefit of the person receiving the message; others were to warn others of the impending damning judgment. I believe the author insists too much that many of these visions must be interpreted symbolically rather than literally; this is the type of progressivist thinking that can ultimately introduce doubts about the existence of Hell.
Peter is shown a vision of Hell & its horrors
Chapter 2 and those that follow expound on various descriptions of Hell as told by the various Saints. The first comes from St. John Bosco, well known for his dreams, most of which concerned the boys he had under his charge. Once his guide told him to “see how our good, almighty God lovingly provides a thousand means for guiding your boys to penance and saving them from everlasting death.” (p. 29) Sadly, the boys did not always pay heed to his warning and he saw many of them on the road to Hell – or in Hell itself.
St. Teresa saw her place in Hell in a fiery oven
The numerous lost souls she saw, especially those who had left the Church after Baptism, filled her with a vehement desire for their salvation and a desire to suffer “even one of those overwhelming torments” to save one of those condemned. (p. 36)
Today rock groups celebrate the unchaining of Satan foreseen by Anne Catherine Emmerich
Both the Heavenly Jerusalem and Hell were presented to her as cities, Hell being “closed, confused, and crowded. Every object tends to fill the mind with sensations of pain and grief ... Despair, like a vulture, gnaws every heart, and discord and misery reign everywhere.” The Heavenly Jerusalem she saw was all “peace and eternal harmony, because the beginning, fulfillment and the end of everything is pure and perfect happiness.” (pp. 47-48)
St. Catherine of Sienna describes four principal pains or torments of Hell, out of which proceed all the other torments The first is the deprivation of seeing God. This first pain revives in them the second, the worm of conscience, which gnaws unceasingly, both pains remind them continuously that the soul is deprived of Jesus and conversation with the Angels, and worthy only of the horrible company of the devils.
The vision of the Devil is the third pain and intensifies every other agony. Fire is the final torment, which burns yet does not consume because the substance of the soul is immortal and not material.
A monk is tortured by a dragon in Hell
for breaking the rules of fasting
After dying in consequence of a serious illness, he appeared to his brothers and confessed his great secret and bemoaned that he had been “turned over to a dragon to be devoured, who with his tail has tied up my hands and feet. His head he has thrust into my mouth, and in that position he lies sucking and drawing out my breath.” (p. 88) He lacked ample time to make penance and died unshriven. Reading such an episode reminds one how serious life is. We may fool the world by hiding our bad actions, but we do not fool God.
Descriptions of physical torments abound in the book, such as: “murderers and their accomplices were cast into a narrow place full of snakes.” In another narrow place was “all the gore and filth of those in torment, pooling like a lake. And there sat women up to their necks in that liquid. ... These were the accursed ones who had conceived children but obtained abortions.” (p. 111) Another horrifying meditation, especially in view of the many abortions committed in our times.
Thurkill saw different cualdrons with burning pitch
In this book are many accounts by Saints and visionaries that show how all the senses are tormented in Hell: e.g. The sense of taste: St. Ignatius describes “a maddening hunger, the violence of which will force the damned to devour his own flesh; a devouring thirst, and for refreshment, wormwood and gall.” (p. 183)
The sense of hearing: Anne Catherine Emmerich tells of “the dreadful explosion of oaths, curses, cries of despair, and frightful cries that burst forth like a clap of thunder...”(p. 48)
The sense of smell: “A stench, foul beyond compare, burst fort with the vapors and filled all those dark places” is told by St. Bede. (p. 92)
Further, a Christian’s pain is much more intense because he is not ignorant of God's law and yet failed to obey it.
St. Patrick's Purgatory inspired Dante's Inferno
It is as a result of God’s gift to man of free will that we become masters of our ultimate fate. By our choices, we demonstrate to God that we either love and obey Him or deny Him, thus choosing Heaven or eternal damnation.
The children of Fatima saw souls falling into hellfire
Prayers, alms, fasting and having Masses said are means by which many are given the grace of deathbed confessions and conversions. We must not neglect our power to aid ourselves and others in the quest to achieve the heavenly crown.
This book served as a good reminder of what we might face if we are not free from mortal sin when we die. Reading it, I was encouraged to practice the Faith with renewed vigor.
St. Nicholas of Tolentino, patron of Holy Souls in Purgatory, pray for them and us!
Posted March 5, 2025
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