Do Prayers for the Dead Presuppose the Doctrine of Purgatory?
The purpose of this article is twofold: One, to seek to argue that there was a line of thought and practice present in the early church that practiced praying for the dead alongside believing that the Christians for whom they are praying entered immediately into heaven upon their death, and two, to narrow the discussions between Protestants and Roman Catholics regarding what the early church taught about the repose of the dead. If it is true that prayers for the dead are offered alongside the belief of the Christian’s immediate entrance into heaven once they die, then logically, it would no longer be appropriate to see the act of praying for the dead to be an inherently implicit affirmation of the doctrine of purgatory. Making this point will not settle any debates on either side between Protestants and Roman Catholics regarding what is true doctrine, but my hope is that this article could help serve to produce more focused discussions between Protestants and Roman Catholics on the topic of prayers for the dead and purgatory, and more specifically, what the early church’s theology regarding such doctrines was.
The Roman Catholic church asserts that the reason for the Church praying for the dead is directly tied to the doctrine of purgatory, that prayers are offered for the dead for the purpose of them being purified, and then, after having been purified, they are now able to enter heaven. “This teaching (purgatory) is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead... From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God,” i The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia observes, “The idea of purgatory is situated within the context of the communion of saints. The latter term expresses the sense of a human solidarity reaching beyond death and the related idea that the departed can be aided by the prayers and good works of those living on earth.” ii Father Peter Stravinskas, in a debate with Dr. James R. White on the topic of purgatory, made this argument in favor of purgatory from the practice of praying for a dead Christian named Victor, “If Victor is in heaven, he doesn’t need anybody’s prayers. If he is in hell, nobody’s prayers are going to do him any good.” iii Thus, the argument goes, since prayer was offered for Victor, who was a Christian in the early church who had died, then that must mean that Victor is not in heaven or hell; he is somewhere else, in a place where he can be benefited by prayers. Thus, an understanding of a purgatorial state is derived from the early church’s practice of prayers for the dead. Finally, the main argument of Robert Bellarmine in his book On Purgatory, arguing for purgatory’s existence, is that, one, prayers are offered on behalf of the dead, and two, these prayers truly benefit the dead.iv While he gives citations from early church fathers where he believes they affirm the existence of a purgatorial atoning fire in the afterlife towards the end of the chapters on the patristic evidence,v it strikes me that this is not the bulk of his argument; the bulk of his argument for purgatory is based upon the practice of prayers for the dead and the idea that these prayers help the dead in some way.
It seems to me that, if prayers for the dead logically presuppose a distinct place or state from heaven and hell where the dead are undergoing a cleansing fire before they enter into heaven, then we should see prayers being normatively offered on behalf of those whom the church believes did not immediately enter heaven after they die. However, I have observed that in the faith and practice of some ancient catholic theologians, the belief and practice of prayers and sacrifices for the dead exists alongside the belief that Christians enter immediately into heaven after they die. If these two ideas coexist in the theology of some theologians in the early church, then, in my opinion, that takes away much of the force of the argument for purgatory on the basis of prayers for the dead. I believe Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Cyprian of Carthage would be representatives of this perspective in the early church. To the writings of these two fathers, I now turn.
Saint Ambrose of Milan preached various funeral sermons for Christians who had passed away in his lifetime. In these funeral sermons, we get clear indications of what Ambrose’s theology regarding the afterlife for Christians was, and thus possible indications of what Ambrose’s audience may have believed as well. I will look at two funeral orations of Saint Ambrose to make the point: his funeral oration of Emperor Valentinian and his funeral oration of Emperor Theodosius.
Emperor Valentinian died in 392, with the circumstances surrounding his death being uncertain whether it was a murder or a suicide.vi In addition to this, Emperor Valentinian died unbaptized, vii likely due to the common practice in the early church to wait until one is on their deathbed in order to have all of one’s sins committed throughout a lifetime washed away right before death. Yet, although Ambrose himself did not know for certain the circumstances surrounding the death of Emperor Valentinian, and also in light of his not having been baptized, he still preaches of the certainty that Valentinian has entered into heaven. Ambrose preaches:
But I ask whether or not there is any consciousness after death? If there is, he is alive; nay, rather, because there is, he now enjoys eternal life. For how does he not possess consciousness whose soul lives and flourishes and will return to the body, and will make that body live again when it has been reunited with it? The Apostle cries out: ‘We would not, brethren, have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep, lest you should grieve, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so with him God will bring those also who have fallen asleep through Jesus. Life, therefore, awaits them for whom resurrection awaits. viii
Ambrose continues:
But since the life of the saints is not this life on earth, but that in heaven- for to the just ‘to live is Christ, and to die is gain,’ since ‘to depart and be with Christ is a lot by far the better,’ – we should grieve that he was so suddenly snatched from us, but we should be consoled that he has passed on to better things. Thus, David wept for his son who was about to die; he did not grieve for him when dead. He wept that he might not be snatched from him, but he ceased to weep when he was snatched away, for he knew that he was with Christ. And that you may know that what I declare is true, he wept for his incestuous son Amnon when he was killed, and he mourned for the parricide Absalom when he perished, saying: ‘My son Absalom, my son Absalom!’ He did not think the innocent son should be mourned because he believed that the others had perished for their crime, but that the latter would live on account of his innocence. Therefore, you have no reason for grieving excessively over your brother.ix
Ambrose confesses his belief that Emperor Valentinian “now enjoys eternal life,” that he has “passed on to better things,” and that he is now “with Christ.” After these statements from Ambrose that Valentinian has entered into the presence of Christ, Ambrose prays the following for Valentinian:
Grant, therefore, O holy Father, to Thy servant the gift which Moses received, because he saw in spirit; the gift which David merited, because he knew from revelation. Grant, I pray, to Thy servant Valentinian the gift which he longed for, the gift which he requested while in health, vigor, and security. If, stricken with sickness, he had deferred it, he would not be entirely without thy mercy who has been cheated by the swiftness of time, not by his own wish. Grant, therefore, to Thy servant the gift of Thy grace which he never rejected, who on the day before his death refused to restore the privileges of the temples, although he was pressed by those whom he could well have feared. A crowd of pagans was present, the Senate entreated, but he was not afraid to displease men so long as he pleased Thee alone in Christ. He who had Thy Spirit, how has he not received Thy grace?x
Ambrose prays to God the Father that Valentinian may be granted the grace of God while already having confessed that Valentinian is presently enjoying eternal life. This suggests to me that, in the mind of Ambrose and, thus, likely some of his hearers, it is appropriate to pray for those who have already entered into heaven.
Ambrose preaches another funeral sermon for Emperor Theodosius, who made Christianity the religion of the empire in 380 A.D. and died, also unbaptized, in 395. Ambrose is just as clear about where Emperor Theodosius has gone as he was regarding Valentinian:
And he has indeed departed to receive his kingdom, which he did not lay aside, but, admitted by right of piety into the tabernacles of Christ, he has exchanged it for the heavenly Jerusalem. Having taken his place there, he says: “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God,” which God hath founded forever.” xi
Emperor Theodosius now has his residence in the heavenly Jerusalem. Ambrose continues:
Theodosius, then, abides in the light and glories in the assembly of the saints. There, he now embraces Gratian, who no longer grieves for his wounds, for he has found an avenger. Although he was snatched away prematurely by an unworthy death, he possesses rest for his soul. There, those two good and generous exponents of devotion rejoice in the common reward for their mercy. Of them, it is well said: ‘Day to day uttereth speech.’ On the other hand, Maximus and Eugenius are in hell, as ‘night to night sheweth knowledge.’ They teach by their wretched example how wicked it is for men to take up arms against their princes. And of them it is admirably said: ‘I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by and lo, he was not! The pious man passed over from the darkness of the world to eternal day, and the wicked man was no more, for through his wickedness he ceased to be. Now, Theodosius of august memory knows that he reigns, since he is in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and contemplates his temple. xii
In the midst of preaching these passionate and comforting words of Theodosius’ repose, he prays the following on behalf of Theodosius:
“The sorrows of death have compassed me, the perils of hell have found me.” Perils affect many, but remedies are found for few. A bishop participates in the perils of all, and he suffers anguish in all sinners. What others suffer, he himself endures; in turn, he is freed when others who are beset with dangers are freed from them. I am crushed in heart because a man has been taken from us who is almost impossible to replace. Yet, O Lord, Thou alone shouldst be called upon, Thou shouldst be implored to replace him in his sons. Thou, Lord, the keeper also of little ones in this lowliness, save those hoping in Thee. Give perfect rest to Thy servant Theodosius, that rest which Thou hast prepared for Thy saints. Let his soul turn thither, whence it descended, where he cannot feel the sting of death, where he knows that this death is not the end of nature but of guilt. xiii
Before concluding with Ambrose, a word should be given regarding the fact that both of these emperors died unbaptized, and yet Ambrose is still sure that they both entered into heaven. This is because, for Ambrose, the desire for baptism, i.e., the desire for salvation, is able to stand in for one’s lack of baptism. Regarding Emperor Valentinian, Ambrose states:
But I hear that you grieve because he did not receive the sacrament of baptism. Tell me: What else is in your power other than the desire, the request? But he even had this desire for a long time, that, when he should come into Italy, he would be initiated, and recently he signified a desire to be baptized by me, and for this reason above all others, he thought that I ought to be summoned. Has he not, then, the grace which he desired; has he not the grace which he requested? And because he asked, he received, and therefore it is said: “By whatsoever death the just man shall be overtaken, his soul shall be at rest.” xiv
For Ambrose, upon one’s desire for baptism, one has baptism’s effects, which is the gifting of eternal life. If one humbly requests grace, God will most certainly give it to him. This means that Valentinian, although he never received the physical sacrament of baptism, Ambrose can say “no ordinary person but Christ Himself enlightened you with spiritual grace. He baptized you, because the ministry of men was lacking you.” xv Ambrose was on his way to Valentinian when Valentinian died, hence the words “the ministry of men was lacking you.” And yet, this did not keep Valentinian out of heaven; Christ Himself baptized Valentinian, and Christ Himself welcomed Valentinian into heaven once he died. This theology about baptism is why Ambrose is able to confess that both Valentinian and Theodosius entered into heaven once they died. And even still, as has been shown, Ambrose offers prayers to God on behalf of both of these Emperors who are enjoying heavenly bliss at the time of the prayers being offered. I argue that this clearly shows that prayers for the dead, at least in the mind of Ambrose and thus likely in the minds of some of his hearers, do not presuppose the doctrine of purgatory. It is right and appropriate, in their minds, to pray for those who have already entered into heaven.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage, in one of my personal favorite writings of the early church, entitled Mortality, seeks to give Christians comfort and hope during a time of great suffering when a plague was sweeping across the Roman Empire, taking the lives of many. Cyprian’s main word of consolation to those suffering from this plague is that death is the end of sorrowing, and through it, we enter immediately into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Happy, therefore, at the death that was now at hand and untroubled at the approaching summons, he took the child into his hands and blessing God, he cried out and said: “Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace, because my eyes have seen thy salvation,” proving surely and bearing witness that then do the servants of God have peace, then do they have a free, then a tranquil repose, when we on being released from the storms of the world have sought the harbor of our abode and eternal security, when on this death being accomplished we have to come to immortality. For that is our peace, that is our sure tranquility, that our steadfast and firm and everlasting security. xvi
Cyprian continues:
The blessed Apostle Paul sets this down in his Epistle and says: “For to me to live is Christ; and to die is gain,” counting it the greatest gain to be no longer held by the snares of the world, to be no longer subject to any sins and faults of the flesh, but released from the tormenting afflictions and freed from the poisoned jaws of the devil, to set out, at Christ’s summons, for the joy of eternal salvation. xvii
To conclude with Cyprian’s words on the Christian’s immediate translation into heaven upon death:
As to the fact that meanwhile we die, we pass by death to immortality, nor can eternal life succeed unless it has befallen us to depart from here. This is not an end, but a passage and, the journey of time being traversed, a cross over to eternity... He who is to come to the abode of Christ, to the glory of the heavenly kingdom, ought not to grieve and mourn, but rather, in accordance with the promise of the Lord, in accordance with faith in the truth, to rejoice in this his departure and translation. xviii
These words are full of comfort and hope towards Cyprian’s hearers, that the plague which is taking so many lives of both Christians and pagans and causing such immense suffering and death is, for Christians, our passageway and translation to the heavenly abode where Christ is.
Cyprian, just as Ambrose, also affirms that actions taken on behalf of the dead are appropriate for the church to do. In Epistle 33, Cyprian speaks concerning martyrs, specifically the relatives of a reader named Celerinus, who “were once warring in the camps of the world, but were true and spiritual soldiers of God, casting down the devil by the confession of Christ, merited palms and crowns from the Lord by their illustrious passion.” xix For these martyrs who according to Cyprian have already merited their crowns from the Lord, Cyprian asserts “We always offer sacrifices for them, as you remember, as often as we celebrate the passions and days of the martyrs in the annual commemoration.” xx Sacrifices are offered in the church for those who the church believes and confesses already possess their crowns in heaven. Just like Ambrose, Cyprian also finds it appropriate to do things, such as sacrifice, for Christians who have already entered into heaven. Prayers and sacrifices for the dead do not seem to presuppose the idea that the dead are not yet in heaven in the minds of at least these two early church fathers.
Philip Schaff recognizes that this same belief and practice regarding prayers for the dead is present in the early church. Schaff writes regarding prayers for the dead in the ante-Nicene church, which is prior to Ambrose’s time and is the period in which Cyprian lived, “The sepulchral inscriptions in the catacombs have a cheerful tone, and represent the departed souls as being ‘in peace’ and ‘living in Christ,’ or ‘in God.’ The same view is substantially preserved in the Oriental church, which holds that the souls of the departed believers may be aided by the prayers of the living, but are nevertheless ‘in light and rest, with a foretaste of eternal happiness.’”xxi The similarities between Schaff’s references and the words of Ambrose and Cyprian are noteworthy at this point. Both Ambrose and Cyprian, in my estimation, are in the same line of belief regarding prayers and sacrifices for the dead and the repose of the dead.
Roman Catholic and Protestant together can observe and appreciate that the theology of our ancient catholic theologians from the distant past often does not fit squarely into any existing Christian tradition in the modern day, and the perspective of Ambrose and Cyprian does not seem to fit neatly into either a classical Protestant perspective or a Roman Catholic perspective. The benefit of making this observation, however, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, is to hopefully assist Roman Catholic and Protestant conversations surrounding what the beliefs and practices of the ancient catholic church were concerning prayers for the dead and purgatory.
So, if a Roman Catholic were to seek to argue that a particular ancient catholic theologian accepted the doctrine of purgatory, he would have to do more than appeal to the theologian’s acceptance and practice of praying for the dead. The Roman Catholic would have to show where the theologian specifically affirmed that there is a distinct place other than heaven where dead Christians undergo a cleansing fire in order to be purified of their impurities that still remain within them before they enter into heaven. xxii Prayers for the dead do not presuppose this doctrine; the doctrine must be affirmed in substance as the Roman Catholic church has defined it.
Bibliography
i Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997). CCC 1032.
ii The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, ed. Michael Glazier, Monika K. Hellwig (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1994) s.v. Purgatory
iii Alpha & Omega Ministries, The Great Debate VI – Purgatory – Stravinskas, YouTube. Oct. 24th, 2013, 3:18:41. https://youtu.be/PtAkuMs54qM?si=cESHW2ktQdAVmAQO
iv St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J. De Controversiis, On Purgatory, trans. Ryan Grant (Post Falls, ID: Mediatrix Press, 2017) 77-89
v Ibid. 90-94
vi Saint Ambrose, The Fathers of the Church, A New Translation, Vol. 22. trans. Leo. P. McCauley, S. J., John J. Sullivan, C. S. Sp. Martin R. P. McGuire, Roy J. Deferrari (Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1953) 264
vii Ibid. 287.
viii Ibid. 284-285.
ix Ibid. 285-286
x Ibid. 288
xi Ibid. 307
xii Ibid. 324-325
xiii Ibid. 322-323
xiv Ibid. 287-288
xv Ibid. 296.
xvi Saint Cyprian, The Fathers of the Church, a New Translation, Vol. 36, trans. Roy J. Deferrari, Mary Hannan Mahoney, ed. Roy J. Deferrari (New York City, NY: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1958) 201-202
xvii Ibid. 204
xviii Ibid. 217
xix Rev. Alexander Roberts, D. D., James Donaldson, LL. D., ed.. The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Vol. 5, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1956) 313
xx Ibid.
xxi Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church Vol. 2, Ante-Nicene Christianity (New York, United States: Hendrickson Publishers, 1858) 605.
xxii Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997). CCC 1030-1032, 1472
Author: Jordon Staudenheimer is a pre-seminary student at Concordia Saint Paul University and is studying to become a pastor in the LCMS. He is married to Naomi Staudenheimer.
