Visions of suffering sinners feature in the spiritual diaries of two nineteenth-century mystics. But, as the translator of one of them discovered, they are also eloquent on the theme of Christ’s redeeming love J ust as i was running along the Tiber on my way to the Museum of Purgatory in Rome, a violent thunderstorm broke out. When I fell, soaking, into the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio, there was almost total darkness apart from the lit Blessed Sacrament at the altar. The museum was a room at the back, about the size of a family bathroom, with one wall of glass-encased exhibits. A young man ushered me in, alone, and shut the door on me – I couldn’t help noticing that the door handle on my side was broken. I surveyed an array of prayer books and nightwear scorche