High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Purgatory is the condition or process of purification in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven. This is an idea that has ancient roots and is well-attested in early Christian literature, while the conception of purgatory as a geographically situated place is largely the creation of medieval Christian piety and imagination. The notion of purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church; Anglo-Catholic Anglicans generally also hold to the belief.