Saints Quotes on the Afterlife

Everyone but atheists wants to know what the afterlife will be like. Athests seem to think that you just cease to exist when you die, like when you are knocked out with anesthesia for an operation. But the afterlife is certainly not like that, no matter how much atheists deny reality. We have eyewitness accounts from saints who have been gifted with trips to see the afterlife and from those of us who have come back from the dead on the operating table (referred to as Near Death Experiences, or NDEs).  

Heaven is usually described as a place of immense light, with beautiful people, gardens, plants, and buildings emitting light rather than reflecting light. The music is so beautiful there that no one can describe it in earthly terms. Everyone is perfectly happy and content with absolutely no worries, and the feeling of being totally alive is so much more than is experienced here on earth. The buildings are like bright, shiny gemstones. Those who have experienced a heavenly NDE (as opposed to a hellish NDE) all say that they didn’t want to come back to earth, and, after they did, they were no longer afraid of dying.

Purgatory is described in varying terms, depending on the level. The lowest level is like hell, with two main differences: In hell, the fire does not purify one from his or her sins but burns forever. Everyone is cursing God in hell, while in purgatory, everyone is praising God for saving them. The middle level has less intense purifying fire plus a sincere longing to see God. The knowledge that each individual put himself there by failing to obey God on earth causes a lot of mental pain as well. The top level consists mainly of an intense longing to see God. In all of the levels, the church suffering are praying for us, since they cannot pray for themselves. One seems to progress from the lower level to the top level over time. Each level has varying degrees as well. According to the saints, most of the people who start out in the lowest level are priests and nuns along with those who died in the state of perfect contrition but had not gone to confession. Why priests and nuns? Those in purgatory were given the most graces in this life and were not godly but were worldly, with a love of money, lust, or pride, for example. The people who start out in the middle level were those who died in the state of grace but had not yet atoned for all of their sins. The ones in the top level were those who died in the state of grace, had mostly atoned for their sins, but were afraid of God and preferred to stay on earth.

Hell is described as an intense lake of fire with a horrible stench and the punishment of having to see the face of the devil all of the time. Additionally, one is totally paralyzed and can’t move any part of his or her spiritual body, forever. He or she is tortured by demons in the part of the body that was used most often to sin while on earth. Mocking continues forever (“Couldn’t make it to Mass while on earth? HA HA. Don’t worry, you won’t be able to make it to Mass down here either…”). Much loud wailing and cursing is going on. One saint said that the most people in hell seemed to be those who didn’t believe in hell while on earth. One of the biggest pains in all of hell is described as ruing the fact that you put yourself there and that you will be there FOREVER. Some saints say that the damned can occasionally see heaven and what they are missing out on due to their love of sin and hatred of God while on earth.

Quotes from the Saints

St. Faustina on Heaven:

“Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its inconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy; and then all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source; and they enter into the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom they will never comprehend or fathom. This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures. Now I understand St. Paul, who said, ‘Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.’

God has given me to understand that there is but one thing that is of infinite value in His eyes, and that is love of God; love, love and once again, love; and nothing can compare with a single act of pure love of God. Oh, with what inconceivable favors God gifts a soul that loves Him sincerely!”

St. John Bosco on Heaven:

“In Heaven all was blue as the calmest sea, though what I saw was not water. ”He described “broad imposing avenues divided the plain into grand gardens of indescribable beauty.” He heard “music most sweet; so delightful and enchanting a melody that” he “could never adequately describe. One could tell from the expressions of those happy faces that the singers not only took the deepest pleasure in singing but also received vast joy in listening to the others and this was their song: Salvation, honor and glory to Almighty God and Father the Creator who was, who is and who will come to judge the living and the dead forever and ever.”

St. Teresa of Avila on Heaven:

“Heaven is a light that does not wane, a candidness full of sweetness, a splendor infused that deliciously enchants the eyes without tire, as does the clarity in which one sees the sublime reality. It is a light so different from ours that shines from the sun, that in comparison the sun seems very dim, this light so bright that after seeing it one cannot even open his eyes. Not yet has sun or light had any resemblance to that light. Besides, our forms of light seem rather artificial and that one only natural: light without sunset, that nothing can disturb it because it is eternal, of such force that nobody could even imagine it, not even a great genius that contemplated it for life.”

The Three Fatima Children on Hell: 

“Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant.”

St. Faustina on Hell: 

“Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it, a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is conditional darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan, the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin.” 

St. Frances of Rome on Hell:

“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. A dark fire, unbearable heat and an intolerable bad smell come out of his eyes and ears. 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.

Satan, with his terrifying appearance, sits like a beam in the middle of hell. 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. “

St. Faustina on Purgatory:

“I was in a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls. They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames, which were burning them, did not touch me at all. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God. “I saw Our Lady visiting the souls in purgatory. She brings them refreshment.”

St. Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory: 

“No tongue can tell nor explain, no mind understand, the grievousness of purgatory. But I, though I see that there is in purgatory as much pain as in hell, yet see the soul which has the least stain of imperfection accepting purgatory, as I have said, as though it were a mercy, and holding its pains of no account as compared with the least stain which hinders a soul in its love.” 

St. Lidwina of Schiedam on Purgatory

“Looking around on all sides, she saw what resembled an immense prison surrounded with walls of a prodigious height, the blackness of which, together with the monstrous stones, inspired her with horror. Approaching this dismal enclosure, she heard a confused noise of lamenting voices, cries of fury, chains, instruments of torture, violent blows which the executioners discharged upon their victims. This noise was such that all the tumult of the world, in tempest or battle, could bear no comparison to it. “