Twelfth Day
Tradition excludes every doubt, even the least shadow of doubt, as to the existence of purgatory. We have testimony from a whole army of renowned writers of the Church: Sts. Augustine, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Jerome, Cyril, Gregory, up to Tertullian who lived in the second century. The tradition is contained not only in the writings of the Holy Fathers, but also in the practice of the Church reaching down to the apostolic age, according to which prayers and sacrifices were at all times offered up to God for the souls of the departed. Tertullian speaks of the sacrifices for the dead as of an apostolic tradition, and St. John Damascene says, in his sermon on the dead: “The apostles and disciples of our divine Saviour, who had seen the eternal Word with their own eyes, and had converted the multitudes of the living world, taught that in the awful, immaculate and life-giving mysteries of the Eucharist, remembrance should be made of those who died in the Lord.” In confirmation of it he alleges the testimony of St. John Chrysostom in these words: “That John, who on account of his eloquence was called the golden-mouthed, teaches that not inconsiderately or accidentally was it ordained by those wise disciples of God and transmitted to the Church, that the priest should offer prayers for the dead in the celebration of the awful divine mysteries.”
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.