I Saw Hell’s Gates… St. John Bosco’s Terrifying Vision

What did St. John Bosco see when God granted him a vision of hell? This supernatural dream from 1868 is one of the most chilling private revelations ever recorded.  In it, St. John Bosco was led by a mysterious guide to a horrifying place—the very gates of hell itself. What he witnessed shook him to the core: souls, including his own students, tumbling uncontrollably into the infernal abyss.

🔥 What caused their damnation?
🔥 What terrifying lesson did St. John Bosco learn?
🔥 What did he experience when he was forced to touch the wall of hell?

In this Lenten meditation, we reflect on the reality of hell and the urgency of remaining faithful to God. The saints remind us that we already have everything we need—obedience, the sacraments, and God's grace—to stay on the path to salvation.

🙏 St. John Bosco, pray for us!

Transcript

Welcome back to lent daily thank you for being here today we continue examining the mystical experiences of the Saints regarding Heaven hell and Purgatory today we look at the private Revelations of St John Bosco now if you're new here and you'd like to get the future Lenton meditations in your inbox by email head over to lent daily.com if we look at the Saints and their private Revelations God speaks to them in a variety of different ways and in St John Bosco's case this one is unique God speaks to him through dreams not natural dreams but Supernatural dreams a natural dream would be something like you or I would have I remember when I was little My Favorite Dream was when I would dream I could fly just by thinking I could take off and fly in my dreams what's your favorite dream when you were little St John Bosco not so these are Supernatural dreams where he would converse with a saint or in this case a guide and this particular Revelation regarding hell it happened in 1868 and his guide takes him on a a steep descent into a deep valley that's terrifying and as he gets into this deep valley he sees this enormous structure that has a portal and then Gates that are closed shut and he turns to his guide and says what is this where are we and his guide responds and says read the inscription upon the gate I looked up and read these words the place of no reprieve I realized that we were at the gates of hell the guide led me around this horrible place now the first horrible thing that St John sees is a boy that he knows that is in his care that is tumbling into hell suddenly the guide turned to me upset and startled he motioned me to step aside look he said I looked up in Terror and I saw in the distance someone racing down the path at an uncontrollable speed I kept my eyes on him trying to identify him and as he got closer I recognized him as one of my boys his disheveled hair was partly standing up right on his head and partly tossed back by the wind his arms were outstretched as though he was thrashing in the water in attempt to stay afloat he wanted to stop but could not tripping on the ruding Stones he kept falling even faster Let's help him let's stop him I shouted holding out my hands in a vain effort to restrain him leave him alone the guide replied why don't you know how terrible God's vengeance is do you think you can restrain one who is fleeing from his just wrath as the boy crashed into the portal it sprang open with a Roar and an instant a thousand inner portals opened with a deaf ing clamor as if struck by a body that had been propelled by an invisible most violent irresistible Gale as these bronze doors one behind the other though at a considerable distance from each other remained momentarily open I saw far down into the distance something like furnace Jaws sprouting fiery balls the moment the youth hurled into it St John BOS then tries to write the name of this boy down I suppose he doesn't want to forget the name but his guide says to stop and orders him to keep watching three other boys of ours screaming in Terror and with arms outstretched were rolling down one behind the other like massive rocks I recognized them as they too crashed against the portal in that Split Second it sprang open and so did the other thousand the three Lads were sucked into that endless Corridor am made a long drawn fading infernal Echo and then the portals clanked shut again at intervals many other Lads came tumbling down after them I saw one unlucky boy being pushed down the slope by an evil companion others fell singing or with others arm in arm or side by side each of them bore the name of his sin on his forehead I kept calling to them as they hurdled down but they did not hear me again the portals would open the thunderously and slam shut with a rumble then Dead Silence now what caused these boys to lose their salvation what caused their great sins bad companions bad books and bad habits my guide exclaimed are mainly responsible for so many Eternal lost seeing so many go to damnation I cried out disconsolately so many boys of ours end up this way we are working in vain how can we prevent such tragedies this is the present State my gu replied and that is where they will go if they were to die now then let me jot down their names so that I may warn them and put them back on the path to Heaven do you really believe that some of them would reform if you were to warn them then and there your warning might impress them but soon they will forget it saying it was just a dream and they will do worse than before or others realizing they have been unmasked receive the sacraments but this will be neither spontaneous nor meritorious others will go to confession because of a momentary fear of hell but will still be attached to sin then is there no way to save these unfortunate Lads please tell me what I can do for them they have superiors let them obey they have rules let them observe them they have the sacraments let them receive receive them what was impressed upon me regarding this response was the boys have everything they need and other words God is not short changing anybody and if this causes a great fear within us to realize if if we're here and we're seeking God like this he's calling us to himself and what do we need to do we just in other words just need to go to the sacraments and receive the sacraments we have our rules what are the rules just to be obedient to our state of life and what we have to do and our superiors what is our superiors what has the church given us for our belief we just need to remain faithful we need nothing else basically we just need to live the Catholic life the guide tells St John BOS that now that he has seen the sufferings of hell he must experience some of the sufferings of hell and St John BOS just reacts strongly uh in horror and he's like I I don't want to experience anything but his guide insists that he touched the wall of hell and there's this great this dialogue between him and his guide and he just shows such resistance to touching anything and then his guide says there are a thousand walls between this and the real fire of Hell My Guy continued a thousand walls Encompass it each a thousand measures thick and equally distant from the next one each measure is a th000 miles this wall therefore is millions and millions of miles from hell's real fire it is just a remote rim of Hell itself when he said this I instinctively pulled back but he seized my hand forced it open and pressed it against the first of the Thousand walls the sensation was so utterly excruciating that I leapt back with a scream and found myself sitting up in bed my hand was stinging and I kept rubbing it to ease the pain when I got up in the morning I know noticed that it was swollen having my hand pressed against the wall though only in a dream felt so real later the skin of my palm peeled off St John BOS concludes that what he's described regarding hell is not a full accurate description of what he really experienced and he is also aware that the Lord has revealed to him these things in symbols because if he had been communicated in any other way he would have not understood and so with that friends thanks for watching share with me below what's it out to and why St John BOS pray for us let's end with a [Music] prayer Oh my Jesus forgive us our sins save us from the fires of Hell lead All Souls to Heaven especially those in most need of thy mercy beneath your compassion we take refuge oh Mother of God do not despise our petitions in time of trouble but rescue us from dangers amen [Music]