Does Anyone Know About Stigmata?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rabbi
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Saint Padre Pio, and Saint Francis of Assisi come to mind immediately. I have seen Padre Pio’s blood-stained glove up close at the shrine in his honor at Barto, PA.
 
Is there science behind it? I’ve heard that it happens because the brain demands it because they wish it, and someday, we’ll be able to regulate almost all our bio-chemicals. What do you think?
 
I don’t know about that. I suspect if it were easy there would have been a lot more documented cases of it over the centuries. Some are able to control their heart rate, respiration and tolerance to pain, but that is a lot different than having physical wounds that constantly bleed. In the case of Padre Pio these wounds were found to completely healed without evidence of scarring shortly after his death.
 
We hear many things! That view is secular, worldly and does not (or cannot) consider the transcendent; the supernatural.
 
@Rabbi I do believe all the miracles in the OT, and the Stigmata being special in their own way don’t differ in being miraculous.

The miracles that currently are attributed to the intercession of a saint and latter confirmed by the Vatican leading towards the canonization of that saint have one characteristic: they aren’t merely inexplicable, they are outright impossible according to the laws of science.

The Stigmata are rare. The best known case in the 20th century was padre Pio, his Stigmata were extensively examined by several medical doctors. Among the many conclusions of their observations was that the Stigmata bled profusely, sometimes continuously, and such loss of blood would necessarily lead to anemia and other health complications - here science would say that simply by the principle of “conservation of mass” it would be impossible…

But, also, the wounds didn’t vary, nor heal, nor scar, and thus there is no term of comparison with other cases since the laws of “medical science” regarding tissue regeneration were also in complete violation.

Regarding the wide range of mystical phenomena I would recommend you take a brief look at this site:

 
When Padre Pio was alive the wounds of his Stigmata were examined numerous times by doctors on orders of the Vatican. They appeared when he was 25 (he was ordained at 23) and remained until his death, bleeding profusely every day. When he died they completely disappeared.

Dr. Sala a doctor who had examined him frequently, said that it was a miracle even greater than the stigmata since he was able to verify that dead tissue had been regenerated.

Padre Pio had an extremely intense prayer life from a very young age. At five he dedicated himself to God. At 16 he entered the monastery. His life was one of great personal holiness and extreme physical illness which prevented him from staying in the monastery for long periods as a young monk or completing National Service. He actually spent about 10 years back at home in the village with his mother due to extreme physical illness that frequently brought him to the brink of death.

The incredible miracles (healings, conversions, reading of hearts, bilocution) that were present in his life were as much a mystery to Padre Pio as others. He also suffered extreme and intense persecution, even at the hands of Mother Church. His greatest accuser (only known by the Vatican to whom he was communicating) was the local bishop. Although apparently supportive to Padre Pio and his Brother monks publically, behind the scenes he was encouraging his persecution.

The Stigmata are the wounds of Christ and a very rare and mysterious gift of which the individual shares in the suffering of Christ. That also includes Christ’s persecution and misunderstanding by the leaders in his own faith tradition. Just as Jesus was misunderstood by those leaders of the Jewish faith in his time.

Padre Pio’s patient endurance to the end was truly heroic.
 
When it is genuine, it is a miracle, a gift from God. The definition of a miracle is no known cause , no scientific explanation.

There have been genuine stigmatas and also frauds.
 
We do not have a scientific explanation for stigmata. You are free to believe what you like.

Since saints are not canonized based on having the stigmata - rather we have cases of people who lived holy lives who happened to also be stigmatics - then it’s kind of a moot point as long as there is no evidence of the stigmata being fraudulent.
 
Saints like Padre Pio,Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Sienna have received the wounds of Christ.
 
I was thinking about this a bit more and I don’t think it’s something people can wish or will into existence. The reason being that if it was something saints could just bring on themselves by wishing, you’d expect a lot more of them would have had stigmata.

For example, today on the Tridentine calendar is the feast of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists. This priest spent his entire life and founded a whole order dedicated to uniting oneself with Christ’s suffering on the cross. If desiring stigmata would give you stigmata, then St. Paul of the Cross would likely be getting them. He didn’t. Nor did many, many other saints. God decides who gets stigmata.
 
Last edited:
There have been about 500 reported cases of stigmata. Pretty much every stigmatic has been unique in one way or another.

For example—
  • St. Francis never bled from his hands and feet; only his side. He was the only stigmatic to have nails appear in his wounds, but they were nails made of his flesh.
  • Juana of the Cross’ wounds gave forth the smell of perfume
  • St. Christina of Stommeln had wounds in her hand, feet, forehead, and side. They bled every Easter.
  • Maria Domenica Lazzeri would receive the stigmata every Thursday evening to Friday afternoon, but would recover completely by Friday evening.
  • Catherine of Siena had hers, but prayed that they become invisible. They later became visible once again upon her deathbed.
  • Rita of Cascia had a forehead wound. People would sometimes observe a light coming from it.
  • Bl. Osanna of Mantua received her stigmata, but they were very faint during her life. They became very distinct after her death.
  • Padre Pio’s stigmata disappeared without a scar in the last few days before his death.
  • Teresa of Avila had a transverberation, which is a stigmata of the heart, like a puncture.
  • St. Catherine d’Ricci had the stigmata all the time, but relived the Passion every Thursday/Friday.
  • Ven. Catherine Anne Emmerich had an external wound over her heart, and an internal 3-inch wound upon her heart in the shape of a cross.
  • Marie-Rose Ferron had stigmata, including the shoulder stigmata, which manifested as a red blotch, whereas the others were more like scars.
  • Therese Neumann had 45 distinguishable marks from the Passion, and suffered the Passion an estimated 750 times during her life.
  • Passitea of Siena had the usual stigmata, and then received an invisible heart stigmata. She said that her heart had been removed during the course of this mystical union. 23 years later, after her death, her critical bishop asked for an autopsy. Her heart had the outer wall, but the inner bits were only a bit of dried muscle.
So, if you sort of look at it from the perspective that we’re dealing with spiritual truths, which is much bigger/far less limited than mere medical truth, or scientific truth, or historic truth. The whole point of Stigmatics is to call to mind the Passion and Suffering of Jesus, in order to save souls. Few of us have the spiritual chops to deal with what a genuine mystic experiences. And yes, history has been full of fakers as well— which is why merely being a stigmatic isn’t automatically a sign of great holiness. Instead, the Church is usually pretty skeptical of stigmatics, because they’ve been embarrassed in the past by the excitement surrounding fakers, but also because it’s such an attention-getting thing… and genuine holy people are usually very humble and retiring.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
40.png
Rabbi:
I’ve heard that it happens because the brain demands it because they wish it,
Click to expand...
I wish I had those kinda fancy schmamcy mind control powers 🤨
Click to expand...
No kidding! I still can’t levitate in prayer, no matter how much my mind wills it!

Every time I find myself levitating, the alarm goes off and it all comes crashing down.
 
You’re welcome. I have been there two or three times. It is definitely worth the trip. They have an email newsletter which tells what events are coming up at the shrine.
 
You know, I find myself being kind of skeptical of stigmata. All those medical descriptions from past centuries, how reliable are they?
 
I don’t think at this point it matters much. We have plenty of modern-day stigmatists to concern ourselves with, and no one was ever canonized for having stigmata anyway. Padre Pio regarded his as an embarrassment and would hide them and pray that they would go away.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top