The Purgatory Souls as Interceding Agents Between Earth and Heaven

A number of Catholic prayers and rituals are expressly conceived to keep and strengthen the relationship between the living and the dead. One of the most significant beliefs concerns Purgatory, an otherworldly place located between Earth and Heaven devoted to the purgation of those who are not sufficiently pure to ascend directly to Heaven. As such, the Purgatory souls can be seen as the most similar, or else the most sensitive to the living and their uncertain and painful condition. According to the Catholic doctrine, the Purgatory souls, if duly invoked, can intercede with God in favour of the living. On the other hand, prayers and rituals addressed to the faithful departed can shorten their stay in Purgatory. A mutual benefit can thus ensue when the living and the dead keep their connection. I will focus on two specific practices from southern Italy, two different but equally intense and substantial forms of worship of Purgatory souls and of their connection with the living. Firstly, the Neapolitan cult of anime pezzentelle (“mendicant souls”), a phenomenon of popular piety according to which thousands of skulls piled up in the city underground are regarded as the earthly remains of Purgatory souls. Secondly, based on a fieldwork conducted in my hometown (Castellaneta, Puglia), a ritual prayer known as the Rosary of 100 Requiem; it revolves around the Requiem aeternam, a short prayer invoking an “eternal rest” for the faithful departed, which is recited a total of a hundred times. A significant case, indeed, of revitalization and reassessment of an old-fashioned practice – the Rosary for the dead – into a collective and monthly ritual performed in a cemetery. After all, these are two emblematic examples of the remarkable place the dead still occupy in the lives of so many people, especially if they are regarded as otherworldly agents of those who pray for them.