“But God will ransom my soul from the grasp of Sheol; indeed, he will receive me.“
Psalm 49: 16
“He was put to death in the body; he was raised to life in the spirit, in which he also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison.“
1 Peter 3: 18-19
“Christ suffered on Friday, rested in the tomb on Saturday, and rose from death on Sunday. For us the present life is Friday, the time when we suffer distress and pain, but on Saturday we are, as it were, at rest in the grave because after death we find rest for our soul, and on Sunday, the eighth day, we rise from that condition with the body and rejoice in the glory of body and soul. So pain is ours on the sixth day, rest on the seventh, and glory on the eighth.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 217
This was said by Saint Gregory the Great about the meaning of the Triduum Paschale, the three holy Paschal days, a quote given by Jacobus de Voragine in his Golden Legend.
It points us to the Sabbath day of rest that lies between Christ‘s death on the cross and His resurrection, and to the connection of the seventh day with eternal rest after this present life.
The descent of Christ‘s soul to Sheol after His death brought freedom and rest – a true eternal Shabbat – to the prisoners of the grave. Christ descended to Sheol to set the captives free, namely all the righteous souls beginning with Adam, including all the holy patriarchs and prophets of Israel, whose souls were still bound in Sheol (Hebrew), Hades (Greek), the underworld – who were, though friends of God, still barred from entering heaven, paradise, full communion with God in all His glory due to Adam‘s sin, his disobedience. Through Christ‘s obedience, obedience even unto death on a cross, the iron bars of Sheol were broken and the shut gates of paradise re-opened.
During this long Shabbat between Christ‘s death on the cross and Christ‘s bodily resurrection, Adam and all deceased friends of God, who like the living had been anxiously waiting for the Messiah to come and redeem them, were released from the chains of Sheol by the author of life and their souls were led to paradise, eternal life with God, henceforth waiting – yet now without anxiety, in the full peace of God – to be raised up in the body on the day of the general resurrection in the world to come.
“Saint Augustine writes as follows: ‘As soon as Christ yielded up his spirit, his soul, united to his deity, went down to the depths of hell. (…) at the Lord‘s command all the iron bars were shattered and innumerable peoples of the saints, throwing themselves at his feet, called out with tearful voice: ‘You have come, Redeemer of the world, you have come, you whom we longed for and waited for day by day! You have come down to hell for us! Leave us not when you ascend again to the upper world! Go up, Lord Jesus, leave hell stripped of its prey and the author of death bound again in his chains! Restore joy to the world, help us, put an end now to our fierce pains and in mercy set the captives free! While you are here, absolve the guilty! While you ascend, defend your own!‘“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 222
The Golden Legend continues by quoting passages on Christ’s descent into Sheol which are found in the apocryphal so-called Gospel of Nicodemus, also known as the Acts of Pilate.
The following are some excerpts of how this apocryphal text relates the liberation – the exodus from Sheol – of Adam and his righteous children, till then prisoners in the realm of death, through the power of the mighty arm of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Messiah descended to the lower parts of the earth to claim His booty, and He ascended to the gates of paradise with all these holy souls – including King David and every friend of God since the creation of man – united in Him. And on the Sabbath of the paschal feast when the Messiah had completed the mission for which the Father had sent Him, all these souls found true peace and entered into the glory and bliss of heaven.
“(…) the mighty Lord appeared in the form of a man, and enlightened those places which had ever before been in darkness. And broke asunder the fetters which before could not be broken; and with his invincible power visited those who sate in the deep darkness by iniquity, and the shadow of death by sin. (…) Then Jesus stretched forth his hand, and said, ‘Come to me, all ye my saints, who were created in my image, who were condemned by the tree of the forbidden fruit, and by the devil and death; live now by the wood of my cross; the devil, the prince of this world, is overcome, and death is conquered.‘ Then presently all the saints were joined together under the hand of the most high God; and the Lord Jesus laid hold on Adam‘s hand, and said to him, ‘Peace be to thee, and all thy righteous posterity, which is mine.‘ (…) Then the Lord stretching forth his hand, made the sign of the cross upon Adam, and upon all his saints. And taking hold of Adam by his right hand, he ascended from hell, and all the saints of God followed him. (…) And all the saints said, ‘Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord; for the Lord hath enlightened us. This is our God for ever and ever; he shall reign over us to everlasting ages. Amen.‘ (…) Then the Lord, holding Adam by the hand, delivered him to Michael the archangel; and he led them into Paradise, filled with mercy and glory (…).“
apocryphal “Gospel of Nicodemus“, ch. 16-20
By the way, it is a promise associated with faithfully wearing the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of God, will descend on the first Saturday – on the Sabbath day, the day that is dedicated to her in the liturgy of the Church – after one‘s death to liberate one from the pangs of purgatory and lead one “to the holy mountain of life everlasting“.