Purgatory

3. Purgatory

According to the belief of some Christians (mostly Catholics), purgatory is an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. Purgatory, the condition, process, or place of purification or temporary punishment in which, according to medieval Christian and Roman Catholic belief, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven. Purgatory has come to refer as well to a wide range of historical and modern conceptions of postmortem suffering short of everlasting damnation.