Museo delle anime del Purgatorio

History

In 1897 a fire burned a chapel of the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio. The priest Victor Jouët saw on the wall behind the altar the image of a human face bearing a sad and melancholy expression, impressed by the flames. He believed that the soul of a deceased man, condemned to Purgatory, had tried to get in contact with living people.

This specific occurrence brought to the foundation of the museum. Victor Jouët decided to find other documents and statements about similar facts. The research proved to be more difficult than expected, nevertheless he searched out many materials, showing the following: the deceased people, compelled to pass a period in the afterlife reign of Purgatory in order to purify from their sins, tried to catch the attention of the people still alive, so as to ask them for prayers and suffrage masses and so facilitating their transition to Paradise.

Collection

The collection of the museum is gathered into a single room of the vestry in the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio.

A single showcase contains about ten documents and photos, including:

the imprint of three fingers left in 1871 on the prayers book of Maria Zaganti by deceased Palmira Rastelli;

the photograph of an imprint impressed by deceased Mrs Leleux on the sleeve of his son Giuseppe during its appearance in 1789 in Wodecq, Belgium;

the fire imprint left by a finger of Sister Maria di San Luigi Gonzaga, which appeared to Sister Maria del Sacro Cuore in 1894;

the imprint on a book of Marguerite Demmerlé, in the Parish of Ellinghen, left by her mother-in-law in 1815, 30 years after her death.