Case file · Folklore / legend
St Patrick's Purgatory
On Station Island in Lough Derg, Ireland, medieval Europe believed a cave shown by Christ to Saint Patrick led into Purgatory; pilgrims shut themselves in it to face visions of the afterlife.
1185 CE · 54.61, -7.87 · status: legend
The account
Written accounts date from about 1185, notably the tale of the knight Owein, who passed through torments and the earthly paradise. The site appeared on maps across Europe, including Martin Behaim's globe of 1492. The cave was closed by order of Pope Alexander VI in 1497, but the island remains a major penitential pilgrimage.
The sceptical view
The 'visions' came after fasting, sleeplessness and confinement in darkness, conditions known to produce hallucinations.
Connections in the atlas
- Yomotsu Hirasaka, the slope to the land of the dead
- The Gate to Hell at Hierapolis
- Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats