"How terribly souls suffer there!" ~ Saint Faustina's vision of Hell

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October 5 is the feast of Saint Faustina Kowalska.

Too many Catholics have bought into the lie that there is no Hell. This position is only a half-step from saying that there is no Heaven. A few particularly high-profile modern Catholics have taken the rather toothless position that there is a Hell, but we can have a reasonable hope that it's empty. This is sunshine and lollipops theology straight out of the 1960s generation. Such reasoning cheapens the Christian message of salvation and repentance to the point of insignificance and makes a mockery out of the ancient teachings of the Church all the way back to Jesus Himself who speaks about Gehenna as a real place, "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not extinguished" [Mark 9:43 -- quoting Isaiah 66:24]

But the most famous saints of the 20th century have taught otherwise. Among these saints one may not find many brilliantly educated academics or prelates with popular YouTube channels. Instead, one finds humble souls, poorly educated in the affairs of this world, but illuminated by the Holy Spirit. The shepherd children of Fatima—St. Lucia, St. Francisco and St. Jacinta—received a vision of Hell that had a tremendous impact on them. Little Jacinta would reportedly cry out: "If Our Lady allows you, tell everybody what Hell is really like so that they will never commit sin again. So many people falling into Hell, so many people."

The blessedly blunt Saint Pio, no great scholar he, when faced with an atheist who said he didn't believe in Hell, retorted: "You'll believe in Hell when you get there!"

St. Faustina Kowalska, the early 20th century Polish visionary nun who would later become known as the apostle of Divine Mercy, also experienced a vision of Hell. The words included with the image at the top of this post were written by Saint Faustina in her Diary in late October 1936, two years prior to her death. Here is the above quote in context: 

"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. 

"I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like. I, sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. I cannot speak about it now; but I have received a command from God to leave it in writing. The devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God. What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell. 

"When I came to, I could hardly recover from the fright. How terribly souls suffer there! Consequently, I pray even more fervently for the conversion of sinners. I incessantly plead God’s mercy upon them. O my Jesus, I would rather be in agony until the end of the world, amidst the greatest sufferings, then offend You by the least sin.” 

This passage may be found in St. Faustina's diary, here on page 193: The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska.