Virtuous Pagans: Salvation Before Christ

Baptism Is Necessary for Salvation

While Baptism was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ at His own Baptism by St. John, it was not yet made necessary for salvation until Our Redeemer’s triumph over death. At that time, it became necessary for salvation as the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches:

“Holy writers are unanimous in saying that after the Resurrection of our Lord, when He gave to His Apostles the command to go and teach all nations: baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the law of Baptism became obligatory on all who were to be saved.”

The Council of Trent further affirmed what the Church had taught since the beginning, namely that Baptism is necessary for salvation: “If anyone says that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary for salvation, let him be anathema." The necessity of Baptism for the salvation of every single human person is also plainly attested to in the Catechism of the Council of Trent:

“…the law of Baptism, as established by our Lord, extends to all, so that unless they are regenerated to God through the grace of Baptism, be their parents Christians or infidels, they are born to eternal misery and destruction. Pastors, therefore, should often explain these words of the Gospel: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

We further know that salvation is possible only in the Catholic Church. Being baptized and dying separated from the Church in heresy or dying as a Catholic in mortal sin would lead to the loss of Heaven and to the pains of Hell.

Were Non-Jews All Eternally Lost Before Christ?

As stated in the Baltimore Catechism #487: "The true religion was not universal before the coming of Christ. It was confined to one people - the descendants of Abraham. All other nations worshipped false gods."

Until our Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross, the Jewish religion was the true religion instituted by God. Upon our Lord’s death, the veil of the temple was rent in two and the Jewish religion ceased to be the true religion. Salvation was then possible for all people of any nation, race, or tribe. And this universal religion, which we call the Catholic religion, has spread since to every corner of the world. 

But does this mean that before Christ’s death on the Cross those who were non-Jews were all condemned to hell through no fault of their own? No, not at all. These otherwise good souls are known in theology as Virtuous Pagans.

Who Are Virtuous Pagans?

Virtuous pagans refer to those who were never evangelized and who were born in a time when they had no chance to recognize Christ. Yet, these people who lived otherwise naturally virtuous lives should not be condemned to an eternity in Hell for simply being born in the wrong time and place. So long as they observed the natural law, these souls, invincibly ignorant of the true religion and the true God, could be saved.

Think of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Cicero, and the other great ancient philosophers and historians, whose ideas were a foundation for Catholic Theologians. St. Justin Martyr, in his First Apology, claimed that all righteous pagans were mysteriously united to the One True God, even the pagans who did not embrace monotheism in their lifetime:

"We have been taught that Christ is the First-born of God, and we have suggested above that He is the logos of whom every race of men and women were partakers. And they who lived with the logos are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and people like them."

God Desires All Men to Be Saved

God does not leave the souls of virtuous pagans who obey the natural law to eternal death. In one example, in the 1600’s Franciscan missionaries arrived in the New World in modern day Mexico and came upon a group of natives. They were intent on teaching them the Faith and to their amazement, they already knew it without having yet met any European. How could this be? The natives revealed that a woman would appear to them every Friday to teach them and that she had done so for the past five years. After describing her, the Franciscans recognized it as Sister Maria of Agreda. 

After returning home and notifying the bishop regarding this astonishing event, Venerable Maria of Agreda was questioned and asked to swear under oath if this was true. It was. God had sent her to instruct these pagans by means of bilocation on account of their obedience to the natural law. As related in the Life of Venerable Mary of Jesus of Agreda:

“This holy virgin burned with a most ardent love for God and for the salvation of souls. One day, she beheld in a vision all the nations of the world. She saw the greater part of men were deprived of God's grace and running headlong to everlasting perdition. She saw how the Indians of Mexico put fewer obstacles to the grace of conversion than any other nation who were out of the Catholic Church, and how God, on this account, was ready to show mercy to them. Hence, she redoubled her prayers and penances to obtain for them the grace of conversion. God heard her prayers. He commanded her to teach the Catholic religion to those Mexican Indians. From that time, she appeared, by way of bilocation, to the savages, not less than five hundred times, instructing them in all the truths of our holy religion, and performing miracles in confirmation of these truths. When all were converted to the faith, she told them that religious priests would be sent by God to receive them into the Church by baptism. As she had told, so it happened. God, in his mercy, sent to these good Indians several Franciscan fathers, who were greatly astonished when they found those savages fully instructed in the Catholic doctrine. When they asked the Indians who had instructed them, they were told that a holy virgin appeared among them many times and taught them the Catholic religion and confirmed it by miracles.”

Pray for Pagan Souls

God desires that all men be saved. He desires for us to pray for the souls of all pagans – those still alive in far away lands and those who have died.

While we cannot refer to Aristotle as St. Aristotle, we can nevertheless entrust him and those good souls in the pagan world from long ago to the merciful heart of our Lord. Remember that God hears our prayers out of time. We can pray for the souls who died over 2,000 years ago now. And God, who is outside of time, will hear our prayers in advance that those souls are not lost. 

We can as well pray for any of these virtuous pagans who may be in purgatory to be cleansed of any temporal punishment that remains on their soul. And in a similar manner, we can pray for all the pagans who still die in far off places who have never heard Christianity and who died separated from the visible Church. We pray that their souls are not lost but are united in a mystical way with the Church before their death.