Saint Patrick's Purgatory is on an island on Lough Derg in County Donegal. Patrick visited the island in 445 to spend time in solitude, fasting and praying. For centuries, pilgrims have referred to Lough Derg as Saint Patrick's Purgatory. Historically Lough Derg held a double identity. Throughout medieval Europe it acquired mythological fame as the place of the most testing trial for the faithful - a descent into a cave to suffer the horrors of purgatory. For the Irish, it continued to be a retreat for intensive prayer and subdued penance. Adventurers from England, France, Italy, Hungary, Holland and Spain travelled to the remote lough in the north west to self-inflict the experience of purgatory. Many pilgrims devoted their lives to a life of fasting, abstinence and penance after their visit to Lough Derg. After the Reformation, English monarchs, Irish and English governments attempted to outlaw pilgrimages to the island, but the suppression was unsuccessful. Even when pilgrims could not physically travel to the island, they travelled to the shore's edge to fast and pray.
The island is open today to pilgrims between 13 June and 15 August and attracts 30 000 people every year for the three day pilgrimage. Pilgrims no longer enter a cave, but the spiritual exercises and physical penance have changed very little since the seventeenth century. The barefoot pilgrims recite 280 prayers at each of the nine stations, say night prayer, benediction, renew their baptismal vows and receive confession. They eat one meal a day, which consists of dry bread or oatcakes and drink black tea or coffee.
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