The passport to eternal life

Abstract

“Everyone will admit that the art of dying well is the most important of all the arts,” writes St Robert Bellarmine in the preface to his De Arte Bene Moriendi, published in the second decade of the 17th century. Yet, how is a good death ensured? What are the necessary steps and measures that, taken during one’s lifetime, assist the soul’s safe passage to heaven? What are the ways, if any, that ascertain as short a stay as possible in the flames of purgatory? These are a few of the questions explored by Frans Ciappara, from the University of Malta’s International Institute of Baroque Studies, during a well-attended public lecture delivered at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa, which was introduced by the director of the Institute, Denis De Lucca.