Saints and Purgatory

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Omyo12

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This question should be rather simple but I’m a little mixed up. Where are the Saints as compared to non-saints after purgatory?
Catechism 1023: Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face.
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We know Saints are in Heaven as are saints (lower case ‘s’) who were more obscure and did not go through the canonization process.

But what about the average faithful? After purgatory, would they be in Heaven with the Saints? Wouldn’t that makes them saints as well? Or are they lower than the saints in the hierarchy of Heaven?
 
Omyo12 said:
But what about the average faithful? After purgatory, would they be in Heaven with the Saints? Wouldn’t that makes them saints as well? Or are they lower than the saints in the hierarchy of Heaven?
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After purgatory one goes to heaven. Very probably most of the saints (even the capital “S” Saints) have spent some time in Purgatory.

The Church teaches (Council of Florence, 1439) that the souls in heaven “clearly behold the Triune and One God as He is but corresponding to the difference of their merits, the one more perfectly than the other.” This dogma reflects the teaching of Jesus and the apostles:

Mt 16:27 For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.
(The Douay translates: “…He will render to every one according to his works.”)

*1 Cor 3:8 He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor.

2 Cor 9:6 The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. *
 
Nita said:
After purgatory one goes to heaven. Very probably most of the saints (even the capital “S” Saints) have spent some time in Purgatory.
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I was told, by someone who is ordained, that “If someone is a recognized Saint, they will never have gone to Purgatory; if one does any Purgatory, they will never be canonized.” I have no idea how canonical this statement is.

IMNAAHO, we should also be careful in assigning “time” to Purgatory, since in the state of death there is no time to be experienced.
 
GEddie said:
I was told, by someone who is ordained, that “If someone is a recognized Saint, they will never have gone to Purgatory; if one does any Purgatory, they will never be canonized.” I have no idea how canonical this statement is.

IMNAAHO, we should also be careful in assigning “time” to Purgatory, since in the state of death there is no time to be experienced.
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I think it means they are in heaven at the time they are canonized – which does not occur until some time after they have died.
(I know “time” is not linear in the hereafter, but it is for us - and I would have no idea how to make the above statement without using the word “time”.)

To my knowledge there is no doctrine on whether saints enter heaven immediately or perhaps later. ** Mary, of course, is an exception; she was assumed directly into heaven**. Checked the CCC and Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma and could find nothing that indicated a teaching as to when those eventually canonized as saints would have entered heaven.

BTW, I know what IMHO means, but what does IMNAAHO mean? :confused:🙂
 
Nita said:
. .

To my knowledge there is no doctrine on whether saints enter heaven immediately or perhaps later. ** Mary, of course, is an exception; she was assumed directly into heaven**. Checked the CCC and Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma and could find nothing that indicated a teaching as to when those eventually canonized as saints would have entered heaven. . . .🙂
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That is what I have gleaned from various readings, but I have no authoritative source to cite.
 
Nita said:
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[nkbeth added brackets]
To my knowledge there is no doctrine on whether saints enter heaven immediately [after death] or perhaps later [after some purgatory]. ** Mary, of course, is an exception; she was assumed directly into heaven**. Checked the CCC and Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma and could find nothing that indicated a teaching as to when those eventually canonized as saints would have entered heaven.
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This is now my understanding too - that, as far as we know from Catholic teaching, some Saints might have gone to purgatory before they were canonized. All we know for sure is that a Saint is in heaven when he is canonized.

But I used to think “well of course Saints went straight to heaven when they died”. I thought that a Saint loved God so much and was so blessed by God that he would suffer on earth to make up for any purgatory that he was otherwise due. I thought that was part of what made a “capital S” Saint - martyrs but also Saints from St. Therese to St. Augustine.

“Maybe all Saints did go straight to heaven but we don’t know for certain”. Is that a Catholic thing to say?
 
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