03-24-2021, 11:54 AM
Blasphemers
Blasphemy, one of the forms of pride, is punished in the infernal depths by many torments.
The miserable man who, during his life, has persistently insulted God and His saints, is handed over to demons armed with sharp fangs, who rip out his tongue and burn it over a blazing fire. Then, in its place, they put burning coals.
Then they grab their victim in their arms and throw him into a tank full of boiling, hot oil, and pour this oil into his throat.
As they do so, they reprimand this soul:
- "Why," they said to him, "did you blaspheme the One Who had created you?"
And this wretched, hearing these reproaches, curses the name of God with even greater rage, with more furious emphases.
These blasphemers, who are placed in the deepest part of hell, who suffer more torments than their neighbors in the same place, are the Christians who, out of fear of being tortured, denied the holy Catholic faith. These numerous torments are added, like the particular punishments of each kind of fault, to the general punishments endured by all the reprobates: darkness, fire, foul odor, etc.
Traitors
Among other equally cruel torments, traitors suffer this particular torment: their infernal executioners introduce into their mouths iron instruments, which are finished with fangs and push them into their bodies right to their hearts. Then, with violence and, trying to make them suffer as much as possible, the torturers tear out their hearts and throat walls and throw the panting flesh onto burning coals, where they drag them along.
This torture is constantly repeated and will never end.
In addition, the devils plunge these wretched traitors into a tank filled with burning pitch and keep them submerged by repeating to them:
- "O traitors, liars and damned, you have reveled in the iniquity in the secret of your thoughts; you have failed in the fidelity you owe to your masters; you have renounced the promises you made at Holy Baptism by renouncing Satan and all his works... Why have you not kept them? You wretched fools, remember the oaths you betrayed! Liars with false hearts, traitors to your God, to the commitments of your baptism and to your neighbor, now receive the punishments you have earned."
These wretched souls shout and curse their baptism and all the other sacraments they have received, and the One who instituted them.
And these curses are never appeased.
In the abyss the damned are punished, not only according to their vices in general, but also according to the faults they committed in the exercise of their professions on earth.
Saint Frances of Rome, guided and comforted by the Angel Raphael, saw the outcasts who on earth had belonged to all sorts of social categories, from the most common to the rarest, from the lowest to the highest.
Falsifying Wine Merchants
Wine merchants who died in the state of mortal sin are placed in the lowest part of hell, in a place where there are three tanks.
The first of these tanks is full of ice. The demons plunge the merchants into it, who put water in their barrels and sold the mixture as pure wine.
The second, filled with boiling wine, contains the merchants who used false measurements and misled their customers about the quantity.
In the third tank, the damned are stirred in a mixture of vinegar and other materials. The devils open their lips by force and introduce molten gold and silver between their teeth. This is the punishment for their greed.
But the souls immersed in ice do not remain there forever. Their executioners remove them with iron fangs which have been reddened in the fire and throw them into the tank filled with vinegar and other materials. They then take them away from the latter, lay them on burning coals and overwhelm them with reproaches.
- "Imbeciles who allowed yourselves to be deceived and lead to your loss by your greed; now you are with the demons and you will stay with them amidst tortures that will last forever."
Fraudulent Butchers
The butchers are, as a particular torment, hung from one end of a scale with the help of many iron hooks stuck in their throats. At the other end is a large weight that keeps them in the air.
This punishment is for sins common to their profession, false weighing and other deceptions familiar to them.
The demons beat them in the face with rotten guts full of garbage and a terrible smell. This torture punishes the sales they made of rotten meat in place of fresh and healthy meat, and wild animals that they passed off as pets in the eyes of their customers, and all similar misconduct related to their trade.
In addition, other devils stretch them out on a log and cut them into small pieces, like cutting sausage meat, and insult them by telling them:
- "Dishonest traders, you have followed the principles of an unscrupulous world and you have allowed yourselves to be guided by greed, without ever repenting of it. You mocked God`s justice, believing that it would not affect you more than that of men. You are reduced to a situation where you can no longer enjoy the fruits of your deceit and enjoy the money you stole. Endure your suffering. There is no more happiness for you."
Doctors Without a Conscience
Doctors who have sinned in the exercise of their profession are kept in the lower part of hell where they are tormented by Lucifer enchained, or more precisely by his satellites.
They have their heads placed upside down and their feet in the air and, in this position, are cruelly torn apart by demons armed with fangs and pieces of iron that have been reddened by fire. This is the punishment for their misuse of prohibited books, and for their negligent or malicious homicides. It is also the punishment for the faults they committed by violating the Church's orders and caring for the sick without inciting them to go to confession and be reconciled with God.
Those who have neglected to educate themselves in their art have their eyes gouged out. Those who, having deceived themselves about their science, shared with their clients a misleading hope for a cure, and did not advise them to receive the last rites in time, see their hearts torn out and thrown at demons in the shape of dogs that tear them apart.
As a punishment for the luxury and display they had exhibited in the way they dress, they are covered with a mantle of flame. But this flame, like any hellish fire, does not shine. On the contrary, it is dark and generates darkness.
To those who have shown themselves to be greedy for money, the demons pour into their mouth molten gold and silver.
Continually, these miserable doctors blaspheme the name of God and are subjected to the reproaches of their torturers.
- "O miserable souls, who despite your knowledge, allowed yourselves to be blinded and deceived by your love of the goods of the earth, now that you are plunged into torments, no one will pity you."
Dishonest Pharmacists
The ignorant and greedy pharmacists suffer very severe penalties like the guilty doctors. They are plunged into a tank full of filth that suffocates them in punishment for the medicines they did not compose according to the prescriptions.
The demons lift them out of this tank with fangs and water them with insults.
Other devils in the shape of dogs rip their hearts out, dispute it among themselves with their teeth and tear them apart. Then they insult them and blame them for their lack of foresight in their misdeeds.
Bribable Judges
After those who have harmed their neighbor through their dishonest merchant frauds, and those who have attacked him in his health and existence, come those who have committed evil against their fellow men in even higher social situations.
The judge who sold his sentences for money and made false judgments wears a miter of fire. First thrown into a vast tank filled with liquid gold and silver, is then removed by the demons with the help of inflamed fangs and is then thrown at devils, who are in the shape of lions, to serve as their victim. The latter plow him with their teeth and hit him with their claws and tear him to pieces.
Liars and False Witnesses
Liars, and mainly false witnesses, suffer similar punishments to those of prevaricating judges. Their tongues are ripped out, their hands are cut off. They are tormented in every way by the demons, who lick them with a horrible tongue of fire. After that they are thrown into the same tank as the judges and hear the demons tell them:
- "You are cursed by God because of your lies and you are plunged into the eternal fires because of your deeds.
The love of money deceived you and lions are tearing you to pieces."
And the incessant concert of blasphemies shouted by the damn, responds to the insults of their torturers.
Slanderers
In the middle of a furnace are placed the slanderers. Each of them has as an executioner an evil spirit in the form of a seven-headed snake. With the first, the monster pulls out the patient's tongue; with the second, he eats it; he spits it out into the fire through the mouth of the third; then, with the help of the fourth, he picks up the burning tongue and puts it back in the mouth of the damned. From his fifth head he rips out his eyes, from his sixth he pulls the brain out of his head through the ear holes, and from the last one tears it to pieces throughout his body. Then he throws him into the fire and covers him with a kind of red iron garment.
Other demons also tear the members of the miserable to pieces by telling him at the same time:
- “Desolate soul, who allowed yourself be deceived by your sensuality and lost by lies of which you made truths, who rejoiced in calumnies, you now suffer in eternal fire, you are tormented by the serpent and visited by Lucifer's followers. In eternity you will be punished in the same way.”