"Innumerable different visions appear to them"

"Innumerable different visions appear to them"

Lough Derg--Travelogue--Dublin--Journey

An sixteenth-century letter describing a trip to Lough Derg

Francesco Chiericati, c.1480-1539

Francesco Chiericati's letter to Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, p. 12-13

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

1516

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork. J. P. Mahaffy. Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber, Janet Crawford. Article written by J. P. Mahaffy; the tour by Francesco Chiericati (c.1480-1539), written 1516, has been translated by J. G. Smyly (1516 (original); 1914 (translation).

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Electronic text transcription

English translation

Article containing translated letter

DD_0585

54.608913,-7.870977

https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100081.html

"Two of my companions entered, and there were five other pilgrims who entered with them. However, the greater penance was mine, because I was compelled to wait for about ten days, during which the greater part of our provisions fell short. The first day, immediately on their arrival, they make their wills, that is those who have a will to make. And by special privilege, credit is given to one of the monks of the place. Then all those, who intend to enter, confess: then the ordinary penance of them all is to dine on bread and water for nine days and nine nights in succession; then they have to visit for so many hours a day all the three bells (cells?) of the saints, and repeat a certain number of prayers. Besides these duties they must stand so many hours a day in the lake up to the middle of the leg, to the middle of the body, to the neck; some more and some less. When the nine days have passed by, at dawn mass is said, and they all communicate and receive the blessing, and then, after ablution with holy water, they are conducted, with the cross before them, to the door of the Purgatory. They enter it naked, and then the door is closed, and is not opened again till the next day at the same hour, because they are bound to remain there for twenty-four hours. On one side the rock is pierced, and through a small hole a vessel, to serve for their necessities, is put in and taken out. At this hole one of the monks stands all the time, who preaches to them, that they should be resolute, and not permit themselves to be overcome by the temptations of the devil: because, as they say, innumerable different visions appear to them, and many of them come forth stupefied and raving; and they say that these have yielded to the temptations. Of those who entered, when I was present, two had such visions: one of them, when he came out, had almost lost his senses, and when he had been questioned in various ways said that he had been very severely beaten, and that he did not know by whom: the other said that there had appeared to him several ladies of the most beautiful form, who invited him to eat with them and make good cheer, setting before him fruits and food of various kinds; and he said that he came very near to allowing himself to be overcome, owing to the great weakness of his condition. The others said that they had not seen or felt anything except cold, hunger, and great weakness. The following day they came out half dead, and were restored as well as was possible, and their names were entered in the book which is placed in the church, and in which are inscribed the names of all who come there. The first name inscribed was that of Guarino da Durazzo, which I had believed to be a fable. But now I saw it anciently inscribed there in a parchment book. The merit won by those who enter the Purgatory is, according to what they say, superior to the apostolic indulgences, because God granted as a grace to St. Patrick, that whoever should enter this Purgatory and do penance, would not have to do penance in the Purgatory of the other life."

J. P. Mahaffy, Two Early Tours in Ireland in Hermathena, Ed. Members of Trinity College, Dublin. , Dublin; London, Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd.; Longmans, Green & Co. (1914) volume 40page 1–3; 10–16