Dante's Purgatorio

Purgatorio: A Place for the Purification of All Pilgrims and Poets.

"e canterò di quel secondo regno
dove l'umano spirito si purga
e di salire al ciel diventa degno."*


Dante Alighieri is the poet who composed the Divina Commedia to illustrate vividly the afterlife. He is also the pilgrim within story traversing the bowels of Hell to the heights of Heaven, in search of a place where Christians can rest their heads. He is the Poet and the Pilgrim and is an Everyman, in whom the audience discovers that they are poets and pilgrims as well. Dante demonstrates that Christianity is a call to transformation. This Christian call is to purgation or purification, in order that man may be received in a more perfect communion. In Dante, the audience sees that they too are looking for divine peace and eternal rest and the Purgatorio is the means through which poets and pilgrims can transform their human tragedy into divine comedy and arrive at their proper conclusion.

Man finds himself stranded in creation and sets out in life as a poet and pilgrim. He is given a quill of free will and his life is an allotment of paper in which to craft his story. From here he embarks on his journey, traversing an unfamiliar and even hostile world attempting to reach his destination. He strives to find a place to rest his head and to pen his final chapter. Dante’s journey is oriented according to the Christian destination, which is communion with God.

Inferno demonstrates the fate of those who held a devotion to creatures. Those who lived moved and had their being in vices find themselves bound in an existence entitled with the words “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” (Inferno III: 9). They are tormented by the realization that creation cannot offer the relief, love, or life they seek. This is what the Greeks called αμαρτια or “missing the mark,” and what the Christians called sin. This inability for an object (including man) to reach its end is the overarching tragedy of mankind that many poets and philosophers have articulated throughout history.

Paradiso demonstrates the fate of those who held a devotion to the Creator. By ordering their lives according to the End, or their origin and conclusion, finite creatures find themselves within infinite love. This realm is where the sound of those celebrating never ceases, and this ceaseless jubilation within God punctuates Dante’s epic poem and renders it a divine comedy.

Dante discovers in order to avoid crafting a tragedy and to arrive at a divine comedy the human spirit must be “made clean, and become worthy to ascend to Heaven” (Purgatorio I: 4-6). This purging or purifying is the vocation of all Christians, because it is necessary to be pure in order to be received into divine communion. Sin is an impurity that distracts one from this full communion. The nature of Purgatory is to allow the soul purity, “for is would not be right to go with eyes, obscured by any cloud” (Purgatorio I: 97-99).

“We are pilgrims even as you are” (Purgatorio II: 63).

With these words Virgil reveals that the story of Purgatorio is the story of all men. Because all are called to communion, all must undergo purgation or purifying suffering. Just like the Church Militant on Earth, the Church Suffering in Purgatory are saints in potentia and are completing the perfection of their soul’s purity begun on Earth with the help of God’s grace. This is seen as Dante describes the constant chants and prayers used both on Earth and in Purgatory. Upon entering Purgatory they chant “In exitu Israël de Aegypto” heralding their deliverance from the sinful world (Purgatorio II: 46). They chant Miseres in penance and the Salve Regina for intercession (Purgatorio V: 23, VII: 82-84). They fervently and elaborately recite the Our Father as they continue grow in divine communion through their divine adoption (Purgatorio XI: 1-24). By sharing the chants and prayers of the Church Militant, the Church Suffering is a didactic role model for the living.

“I will have to wait outside while the heavens, revolve around me . . . unless prayer rising from a heart that lives, in grace comes to my help before then” (Purgatorio IV: 130-134).

Dante frequently witnesses souls in Purgatory pleading for prayers of intercession of expediate their journey to Paradise. These pleas increase the audience’s understanding of what is shared between those in Purgatory and those on Earth. They share the same hope of future communion in their κοινωνία, or communion of spirit found within the Christian community. This helps bring Dante’s audience into fuller communion not only with God, but also with each other. Here the Church is edified and strengthened through intercession through a common faith, a common hope of Paradise, and a common love for each other and God. This echoes back to the Greco-Roman poets, whose underworlds were full of generations of souls clambering to have their name remembered in life. Dante’s poem continues this tradition of passed souls requiring aid from above the grave in order to improve their condition in the after life. This prayer for the souls in Purgatory truly unites the Church in communion to be fulfilled in Paradise, and inspires the Church on earth as they continue in their penance and prayers.

Dante’s Divina Commedia is far more than a record of one man’s journey or vision. It is an outline of the parameters of the Mediæval paradigm, astronomically, theologically, but most importantly morally. The Divina Commedia presents its audience with the Mediæval order of the reality and challenges the audience to live within those parameters. Inferno and Paradiso establish the poles of this worldview as vice or divine love. Purgatorio provides models of hope for Dante’s audience. He provides the examples of piety, humility, and love being purged, purified, and perfected. Purgatorio shows poets and pilgrims how to write and walk in accordance with the Author of Life. The transforming nature of purgation helps pilgrims become “pure and disposed to mount unto the stars” arrive at their destination and allows poets to craft the story of their life as a divine comedy . . .

Puro e disposto a salire a le stelle (Purgatorio XXXIII: 145).

* "and I will sing of that second kingdom
in which the human spirit is made clean
and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven." (Purgatorio I: 4-6)