Who goes directly to Heaven? I had a cousin who was brain damaged from birth, lived in a care facility from about age 10 until she just recently passed away at 72 years old. She was not able to walk or talk. She was baptized, but most likely not confirmed. Does she enter Purgatory for a short cleansing or go directly to Heaven? Is she considered a saint? Can we ask for intercession? What is “white martyrdom”?

Maxine in Collinsville

To begin, every person in heaven is a “saint” (a word which, from the Latin sanctus, simply means “holy”). The Church honors every saint in heaven, even those we do not know by name, on All Saints Day. With that said, the only particular deceased persons whom the Church regards with certainty as being in heaven are canonized saints, since they are known to be in heaven by virtue of their miraculous intercession. Since beatification (being declared “blessed”) requires one such miracle, it already strongly implies that the person is in heaven.

Concerning the need for purification after death, the Church does not explicitly teach that every canonized saint went directly to heaven at the moment of death without need of any purification whatsoever in purgatory. Instead, the Church declares that, at the time of canonization, the saint is certainly in heaven and no longer in need of purification. It is possible that a canonized saint required some purification (minor, we may assume) prior to entering heaven. Related to this, however, we do not know how souls experience time apart from the body after death; it may be radically different from our experience now. Relative to time here on earth, the purification of purgatory could be instantaneous. When teaching the Corinthians about the resurrection of the dead at the end of time, St. Paul said that those who are alive on that day “shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor 15:51-52). Our Lord himself, in response to the repentance and prayer of the “good thief” solemnly promised him: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). Surely the good thief, whom the Church venerates as Saint Dismas, required some purification! We simply do not know how this purification happens.

Regarding your cousin, may she rest in peace! Because she is not a canonized saint (at least not yet!), we would not refer to her as a “Saint.” However, based on your description of her life as a baptized Christian with severe disabilities, we can have great confidence and hope in her salvation. As Catholics, when it comes to public or liturgical prayer, we should only invoke the intercession of those who are canonized (Saint) or at least in the process of canonization—i.e., someone who has been declared a servant of God, venerable, or blessed by the Church. However, in private prayer, it is permissible to invoke the intercession of deceased Christians whom we knew, including our family members and relatives, and especially those who lived holy lives. We invoke their intercession because of their personal connection to us and because, if they are in heaven, their prayers are especially powerful: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power” (Jas 5:16). 

Now, the question of whether the souls in purgatory are able to pray for us here on Earth is a matter of theological debate and has not been officially clarified by the Church. However, there is a strong theological tradition, as well as evidence from the approved writings of mystics who had visions of purgatory, that the souls in purgatory canindeed pray for us—and they do! It certainly does not hurt to ask, and God always hears our sincere prayers.

Finally, “white martyrdom,” while not an official term, refers to the witness of Christians who, while they were not killed outright for their faith in Christ, did witness to Him by their holiness of life. The term was originally applied to monks and others who “died to self” to grow in holiness and in union with Christ. In fact, the word “martyr” is a Greek word that simply means “witness” (verb or noun). Christ himself told Pontius Pilate that he came into the world “to bear witness [martyrēsō] to the truth” (Jn 18:37). Later, he commissioned the apostles (and, by extension, all Christians), saying: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses [martyres] in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This universal call to Christian martyrdom (witness) takes different forms. According to Tradition, all of the apostles were killed, except for John, who did, however, suffer torture and exile (obviously, Judas Iscariot was not a martyr). Because so many Christians in the early Church witnessed to Christ by preferring torture and death to renouncing their faith, the word “martyr” came to refer primarily to someone who is killed because of his or her faith in Christ. Thus, the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls martyrdom “the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith” (n. 2473).

In conclusion, while of course we are not all called to shed our blood for Christ, we are all called to be martyrs—witnesses—in our words and deeds. We are all called to be saints—holy! It sounds as though your cousin witnessed powerfully, yet quietly to Christ by the example of her patient suffering and simple life. We pray that she is among the saints in heaven and that she is praying for all of us right now!

• Father Christopher Trummer, S.T.L, is parochial vicar at St. Boniface Parish in Edwardsville, associate delegate for Health Care Professionals, associate chaplain of the Springfield Chapter of the Catholic Physicians Guild/Catholic Medical Association and has a license in Sacred Theology in Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy.