CHAPTER XVII

Whether the Spirits of the Dead can Appear to Men.
Argument.
LL the faithful of Christ are agreed that, through the power and might of God, the souls of the departed can and do at times appear to the living. For we read that Christ appeared to S. Peter when the Apostle was fleeing from persecution, and said that He was going to Rome to be crucified again. Our Holy Father Ambrose bears witness to the appearance of spirits
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in his Contra Auxentium de basilicis tradendis. Dionysius the Areopagite writes that Jesus appeared with a great company of Angels and blamed him for his harshness in seeking to punish the sins of his brother and seducer.
S. Justin Martyr testifies that the souls of the dead return and at times appear, maintaining that the spirit of Samuel was actually called up. Tertullian supports this view in the following words: ‘‘But if the Divine Power has recalled the souls of some to their bodies to witness to His truth, we must not on that account give credence to the claims of witches, to illusive dreams, or to poetic fables.” Origen speaks as follows in refutation of Celsus: ‘“The wicked spirit, which is bound to the earth by horrid crimes so that it may not aspire to Heaven, goes wandering about the earth haunting graveyards; and in such places shadowy ghosts are most often seen dwelling upon this earth. And it is to be thought that of such sort are the spirits of those in every age who have been snared and bound in witchcraft.” And in the time of Origen, the Blessed Potamiaena ap- peared to the murderer Basilides and converted him to the faith, as we are told by Eusebius, and by Origen himself, contra Celsum, Bk. 1.
S. Gregory of Nyssa, in his most authoritative Life of S. Gregory the Thaumaturge, writes that the Blessed Virgin Mary and S. John the Evange- list appeared to him. See also S. Cyprian, De Utsionibus Nocturnis, Epist. 12 and 69, where he argues against those who despise such visions. S. Ambrose, in Sermon go, says that while her family were watching by the tomb of S. Agnes one night, she appeared to them and said: ‘“‘Do not mourn for me as dead, my kinsmen,”’ etc.
In the year of Our Lord 300 Christ appeared to S. Peter of Alexandria in the form of a boy asking for his robe which had been torn by Arius (Surius,
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tom. 6, 15th Nov.). See also Pope Adrian I, Epist. tom. 2: Decret. et Synod. 7: Concil. Nicene 2, act. 2: S. Gregory of Tours, apud Laurentium, tom. 6, 12th December: S. Gregory of Neocaesarea, In oratione de Nucena Synodo: Nicephorus, VIII, 23: S. Basil, de uera Uirginitate, paulo post medium, and S. Gregory of Nazianzus, Jn oratione in Laudem Caesarit.
In the year 400 the death of S. Martin was made known to S. Severi- ‘nus and S. Ambrose when they were absent from him. This is told also by S. Gregory of Tours in his Book on the Miracles of S. Martin, and in his Book on the Glory of the Confessors. We have the authority of S. Augustine* that SS. Gervasius and Protasius appeared to S. Ambrose and told him where their bodies were lying.
About the year 429 the Blessed Virgin Mary with S. John the Baptist and S. John the Evangelist appeared to Abbot Ciriacus and said that she would not enter his cell because, un- known to him, there were in it two books by the heretic Nestorius written against the Blessed Virgin Mary.
There is the signal authority of S. Jerome which at one blow silences all the heretics who say that the spirits are all held imprisoned until the Day of Judgement. These are S. Jerome’s own words: ““Thou sayest that the souls of the Apostles and Martyrs abide in Abraham’s bosom, or in the outer cold, or under the Altar of God, and that they cannot appear at their tombs or wherever they wish: for they are for- sooth of senatorial dignity, and are shut, notin a foul prison together with murderers, but in free and honourable keeping in the Islands of the Blessed and the Elysian Fields. Wilt thou make laws for God? Wilt thou put chains upon the Apostles? So that they should be held in bondage up to the Day of Judgement, and not be with their Lord, of whom it is written that
* “SS. Augustine.” “De Ciuitate Dei,’ AXII, 8; and “‘Confessiones,” IX, 7.
COMPENDIUM
BK. I. CH. XVII.
they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They therefore who are with the Lamb must be believed to go everywhere, if the Lamb goes every- where: and can the Devil and his demons wander all over the earth and with great speed appear in every place, while the Martyrs, after their blood has been shed, are shut down in a box and cannot come out from it?’ So says S. Jerome (Aduersus Uigilantium.)
But we must understand that such apparitions are not the ordinary rule, but occur in accordance with the special and singular permission of God. S. Augustine (De cura pro mor- tuis agenda, c. 13), wrote about his mother in words which our opponents have scandalously twisted against us, as follows: “‘If the souls of the dead were concerned with the affairs of the living, I am sure that my mother (to say nothing of any others) would not fail to visit me every night.” Else- where he speaks openly about that exceptional permission, saying in