St. Philip Neri had a very tender devotion for the souls in purgatory. His great attraction was to pray for those whose consciences he had directed during life. In his opinion, a father's charity ought to follow them to eternity, because real charity, says St. Paul, never falleth away. He avowed that many of his spiritual children appeared to him after their death, to request his prayers or to thank him for those he had said in their favor.
We are also assured by him that he obtained by the aid of these poor souls very many graces. He himself appeared to a holy Religious, crowned with glory in the midst of a beautiful procession. The Religious, encouraged by the friendly and meek air with which the Saint regarded him, asked who were the happy beings that surrounded him. St. Philip answered they were the souls whom he had helped during his life in this world, and who had been delivered from purgatory by his prayers. He added that they had met him at his death and introduced him into the kingdom of the blessed.
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Forget-Me-Nots
