It is obvious to see that the Holy Souls in Purgatory suffer a lot. That makes time go very, very slow for them. Several true stories, revealed to us from the Poor Souls themselves (like the one told later), show how long the time in Purgatory feels like to them.

Now it doesn’t feel the same way for every soul. For each one, time passes a little differently, be it shorter or longer, depending on how much they are suffering. And each souls suffers differently because of the individual debts they have to pay. Not all the debts are equal. So while we can’t say for sure how time passes for each Poor Soul, we can certainly get a very good and general idea of the difference between their awareness of time and ours.

Let’s take then, for our example and comparison, an account taken from a Poor Soul in Purgatory, whose suffering for 15 minutes had seemed like a year. This roughly means that 1 second feels like 8 hours, making 1/2 a minute feel like a week; Two minutes = a month, 1 day = a century, and 1 week = 7 centuries!

It’s hard to imagine that time can go so slow, but think about it. If you had hurt yourself, say you broke your arm very badly and had to be rushed to the hospital. You’re being taken as fast as possible, but still the hospital isn’t next door. So it takes about five - ten minutes to get there. The whole time you keep looking at your deformed arm, wondering how long it will take. When you finally arrive, it seemed like an eternity to get there, but to the person driving, and in reality, it only took minutes. The Souls in Purgatory are suffering infinitely more than one would with a broken arm. Not only that, they know that when their sufferings are over, they will be able to go to Heaven, where they will be with God and the infinite suffering will turn into infinite joy.

Think again of some event you might look forward to. Your birthday perhaps, or a visit from someone you love. Like before, this is less than a fraction of what the expectation is for awaiting Heaven. What makes it worse is that they’ve had a glimpse of God and Heaven and they know what’s waiting for them. That is why time is crawling to them. So if you were to be in Purgatory for 10 years, it would feel like 364,000 years. That is a very long time. The earth hasn’t been around that long and neither has Purgatory. But the reality is only 10 years, which may be younger than you are. Some souls have to be in Purgatory for 200 years. How long would that feel to them? Figure it out.

Ten years in Purgatory may sound like that person was a very evil person, but actually 10 years in Purgatory is really good if you can get it. To explain. For one mortal sin, a soul is sentenced to Purgatory for 7 years. If a person got into the habit of getting drunk every weekend, that would be a mortal sin every week. In a month, that would be 28 years in Purgatory. (Remember that that those 4 mortal sins merited 28 years of Purgatory which would feel like 873,600 years!) However, if one gets into the habit of drinking, they will most likely sin more than just once a week. And the terrible thing about sin is that it doesn’t limit itself, but instead, each time the temptations win, it is a deeper and greater type of mortal sin. This drunkard, in a short period of time, will have more than 100 years to stay in Purgatory, and that is only if, through God’s mercy and grace, they repent of their sins and die in the state of sanctifying grace. And that is just your average worldly person who did not commit really “horrible” sins. So you see, 10 years is really good for Purgatory.

This is a true story told by St. Antoninus of the Franciscans in his book Summa. This story will illustrate the time frame and the suffering of Purgatory. There was once a monk who had been suffering a terrible sickness for a long time, causing him much pain. Suffering for so long the religious became filled with discouragement and begged God to let him die so that he could be rid of his terrible sickness. It had never occurred to him that the sickness was the mercy of God to spare him from even more pain. At any rate, his Guardian Angel appeared to him and offered him two choices, he could suffer his sickness for another year and go straight to Heaven when he died or die now and suffer in Purgatory for three days. Having been sick for a long time he immediately chose to suffer in Purgatory. After being in Purgatory for an hour the man’s Guardian Angel came and visited him. Upon seeing his Angel the brother complained to him and said, “Why do you leave me here in these torments? You promised me that I should only suffer here for three days?” “ How long do you think you have been here?” his Guardian angel asked him. “For several years at least,” was the reply. “You have only been here for one hour,” said his Guardian angel, “the pains are so intense that it deceives you, and an instant goes by as would a day and an hour feels like years.” “Alas,” the man cried out, “ I have been so blind and inconsiderate in my decision. My good angel, pray to God to have pity on me and allow me to return to earth. I would rather suffer the most terrible sicknesses for two years, or as long as God would wish. Rather would I suffer six whole years of the most frightful torments on earth than for one hour suffer the pains of Purgatory.” It is quite safe to assume, then, that the Poor Souls would certainly be grateful if their time could be lessened even by a few minutes.