CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: STIGMATA, MYSTICAL
Mystical Stigmata
To decide merely the facts without deciding whether or not they may be explained by
supernatural causes, history tells us that many ecstatics bear on hands, feet, side, or
brow the marks of the Passion of Christ with corresponding and intense sufferings.
These are called visible stigmata. Others only have the sufferings, without any
outward marks, and these phenomena are called invisible stigmata. Their existence is
so well established historically that, as a general thing, they are no longer disputed by
unbelievers, who now seek only to explain them naturally. Thus a free-thinking
physician, Dr. Dumas, professor of religious psychology at the Sorbonne, clearly admits
the facts (Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 May, 1907), as does also Dr. Pierre Janet (Bulletin
de l'Institut psychologique international, Paris, July, 1901). St. Catherine of Siena at
first had visible stigmata but through humility she asked that they might be made
invisible, and her prayer was heard. This was also the case with St. Catherine de' Ricci,
a Florentine Dominican of the sixteenth century, and with several other stigmatics. The
sufferings may be considered the essential part of visible stigmata; the substance of this
grace consists of pity for Christ, participation in His sufferings, sorrows, and for the
same end--the expiation of the sins unceasingly committed in the world. If the
sufferings were absent, the wounds would be but an empty symbol, theatrical
representation, conducing to pride. If the stigmata really come from God, it would be
unworthy of His wisdom to participate in such futility, and to do so by a miracle. But
this trial is far from being the only one which the saints have to endure: "The life of
stigmatics," says Dr. Imbert, "is but a long series of sorrows which arise from the Divine
malady of the stigmata and end only in death: (op. cit. infra, II, x). It seems historically
certain that ecstatics alone bear the stigmata; moreover, they have visions which
correspond to their role of co-sufferers, beholding from time to time the blood-stained
scenes of the Passion. With many stigmatics these apparitions were periodical, e. g., St
Catherine de' Ricci, whose ecstasies of the Passion began when she was twenty (1542),
and the Bull of her canonization states that for twelve years they recurred with minute
regularity. The ecstasy lasted exactly twenty-eight hours, from Thursday noon till
Friday afternoon at four o'clock, the only interruption being for the saint to receive
Holy Communion. Catherine conversed aloud, as if enacting a drama. This drama was
divided into about seventeen scenes. Oncoming out of the ecstasy the saint's limbs
were covered with wounds produced by whips, cords etc.
Dr. Imbert has attempted to count the number of stigmatics, with the following
results: None are known prior to the thirteenth century. The first mentioned is St.
Francis of Assisi, in whom the stigmata were of a character never seen subsequently; in
the wounds of feet and hands were excrescences of flesh representing nails, those on
one side having round back heads, those on the other having rather long points, which
bent back and grasped the skin. The saint's humility could not prevent a great many of
his brethren beholding with their own eyes the existence of these wonderful wounds
during his lifetime as well as after his death. The fact is attested by a number of
contemporary historians, and the feast of the Stigmata of S. Francis is kept on 17
September. Dr. Imbert counts 321 stigmatics in whom there is every reason to believe
in a Divine action. He believes that others would be found by consulting the libraries
of Germany, Spain, and Italy. In this list there are 41 men. There are 62 saints or
blessed of both sexes of whom the best known (numbering twenty-six) were: St. Francis
of Assisi (1186-1226); St. Lutgarde (1182-1246), a Cistercian; St. Margaret of Cortona
(1247-97); St. Gertrude (1256-1302), a Benedictine; St. Clare of Montefalco (1268-1308),
an Augustinian; Bl. Angela of Foligno (d. 1309), Franciscan tertiary; St. Catherine of
Siena (1347-80), Dominican tertiary; St. Lidwine (1380-1433); St. Frances of Rome (1384-
1440); St. Colette (1380-1447), Franciscan; St. Rita of Cassia (1386-1456), Augustinian;
Bl. Osanna of Mantua (1499-1505), Dominican tertiary; St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-
1510), Franciscan tertiary; Bl. Baptista Varani (1458-1524), Poor Clare; Bl. Lucy of
Narni (1476-1547), Dominican tertiary; Bl. Catherine of Racconigi (1486-1547),
Dominican; St. John of God (1495-1550), founder of the Order of Charity; St. Catherine
de' Ricci (1522-89), Dominican; St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi (1566-1607), Carmelite;
Bl. Marie de l'Incarnation (1566-1607), Carmelite; Bl. Mary Anne of Jesus (1557-1620),
Franciscan tertiary; Bl. Carlo of Sezze (d. 1670), Franciscan; Blessed Margaret Mary
Alacoque (1647-90), Visitandine (who had only the crown of thorns); St. Veronica
Giuliani (1600-1727), Capuchiness; St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (1715-91),
Franciscan tertiary.
There were 20 stigmatics in the nineteenth century. The most famous were: <ul>
Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), Augustinian; Elizabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825),
Trinitarian tertiary; Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837); Maria Dominica Lazzari (1815-48);
Marie de Moerl (1812-68) and Louise Lateau (1850-83), Franciscan tertiaries. Of these,
Marie de Moerl spent her life at Kaltern, Tyrol (1812-68). At the age of twenty she
became an ecstatic, and ecstasy was her habitual condition for the remaining thirty-five
years of her life. She emerged from it only at the command, sometimes only mental, of
the Franciscan who was her director, and to attend to the affairs of her house, which
sheltered a large family. Her ordinary attitude was kneeling on her bed with hands
crossed on her breast, and an expression of countenance which deeply impressed
spectators. At twenty-two she received the stigmata. On Thursday evening and Friday
these stigmata shed very clear blood, drop by drop, becoming dry on the other days.
Thousands of persons saw Marie de Moerl, among them Gorres (who describes his visit
in his "Mystik", II, xx), Wiseman, and Lord Shrewsbury, who wrote a defence of the
ecstatic in his letters published by "The Morning Herald" and "The Tablet" (cf. Bore, op.
cit. infra). Louise Lateau spent her life in the village of Bois d'Haine, Belgium (1850-
83). The graces she received were disputed even by some Catholics, who as a general
thing relied on incomplete or erroneous information, as has been established by Canon
Thiery ("Examen de ce qui concerne Bois d'Haine", Louvain, 1907). At sixteen she
devoted herself to nursing the cholera victims of her parish, who were abandoned by
most of the inhabitants. Within a month she nursed ten, buried them, and in more than
one instance bore them to the cemetery. At eighteen she became an ecstatic and
stigmatic, which did not prevent her supporting her family by working as a seamstress.
Numerous physicians witnessed her painful Friday ecstasies and established the fact
that for twelve years she took no nourishment save weekly communion. For drink she
was satisfied with three or four glasses of water a week. She never slept, but passed
her nights in contemplation and prayer, kneeling at the foot of her bed.
II. The facts having been set forth, it remains to state the explanations that have been
offered. Some physiologists, both Catholics and Free-thinkers, have maintained that
the wounds might be produced in a purely natural manner by the sole action of the
imagination coupled with lively emotions. The person being keenly impressed by the
sufferings of the Saviour and penetrated by a great love, this preoccupation acts on her
or him physically, reproducing the wounds of Christ. This would in no wise diminish
his or her merit in accepting the trial, but the immediate cause of the phenomena would
not be supernatural. We shall not attempt to solve this question. Physiological science
does not appear to be far enough advanced to admit a definite solution, and the writer
of this article adopts the intermediate position, which seems to him unassailable, that of
showing that the arguments in favour of natural explanations are illusory. They are
sometimes arbitrary hypotheses, being equivalent to mere assertions, sometimes
arguments based exaggerated or misinterpreted facts. But if the progress of medical
sciences and psycho-physiology should present serious objections, it must be
remembered that neither religion or mysticism is dependent on the solution of these
questions, and that in processes of canonization stigmata do not count as incontestable
miracles.
No one has ever claimed that imagination could produce wounds in a normal
subject; it is true that this faculty can act slightly on the body, as Benedict XIV said, it
may accelerate or retard the nerve-currents, but there is no instance of its action on the
tissues (De canoniz., III, xxxiii, n. 31). But with regard to persons in an abnormal
condition, such as ecstasy or hypnosis, the question is more difficult; and, despite
numerous attempts, hypnotism has not produced very clear results. At most, and in
exceedingly rare cases, it has induced exudations or a sweat more or less coloured, but
this is a very imperfect imitation. Moreover, no explanation has been offered of three
circumstances presented by the stigmata of the saints: Physicians do not succeed in
curing these wounds with remedies. On the other hand, unlike natural wounds of a
certain duration, those of stigmatics do not give forth a fetid odour. To this there is
known but one exception: St. Rita of Cassia had received on her brow a supernatural
wound produced by a thorn detached from the crown of the crucifix. Though this
emitted an unbearable odour, there was never any suppuration or morbid alteration of
the tissues. Sometimes these wounds give forth perfumes, for example those of Juana
of the Cross, Franciscan prioress of Toledo, and Bl. Lucy of Narni. To sum up, there is
only one means of proving scientifically that the imagination, that is auto-suggestion,
may produce stigmata: instead of hypothesis, analogous facts in the natural order must
be produced, namely wounds produced apart from a religious idea. This had not been
done.
With regard to the flow of blood it has been objected that there have been bloody
sweats, but Dr. Lefebvre, professor of medicine at Louvain, has replied that such cases
as have been examined by physicians were not due to a moral cause, but to a specific
malady. Moreover, it has often been proved by the microscope that the red liquid
which oozes forth is not blood; its colour is due to a particular substance, and it does
not proceed from a wound, but is due, like sweat, to a dilatation of the pores of the
skin. But it may be objected that we unduly minimize the power of the imagination,
since, joined to an emotion, it can produce sweat; and as the mere idea of having an
acid bon-bon in the mouth produces abundant saliva, so, too, the nerves acted upon by
the imagination might produce the emission of a liquid and this liquid might be blood.
The answer is that in the instances mentioned there are glands (sudoriparous and
salivary) which in the normal state emit a special liquid, and it is easy to understand
that the imagination may bring about this secretion; but the nerves adjacent to the skin
do not terminate in a gland emitting blood, and without such an organ they are
powerless to produce the effects in question. What has been said of the stigmatic
wounds applies also to the sufferings. There is not a single experimental proof that
imagination could produce them, especially in violent forms.
Another explanation of these phenomena is that the patients produce the wounds
either fraudulently or during attacks of somnambulism, unconsciously. But physicians
have always taken measures to avoid these sources of error, proceeding with great
strictness, particularly in modern times. Sometimes the patient has been watched night
and day, sometimes the limbs have been enveloped in sealed bandages. Mr. Pierre
Janet placed on one foot of a stigmatic a copper shoe with a window in it through
which the development of the wound might be watched, while it was impossible for
anyone to touch it (op. cit. supra).
AUG. POULAIN
Transcribed by William G. Bilton, Ph.D.
<In memory of the Most Rev. Leo T. Maher
Bishop of Santa Rosa and San Diego, California>
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at placing the
entire Catholic Encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this
worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-mail at (
[email protected]). For
more information please download the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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