Holy Wounds/approved/condemned/neither?

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Ive read some old threads and am more confused than ever! Some say this chaplet/rosary has been condemned, others say approved, others say ok for private worship. A few people alluded to the chaplet being acceptable but not the rosary, but I dont know the difference between the 2 lol! I LOVE and feel myself growing attached to the Chaplet of the Holy Wounds…but will leave it, if its condemned!

Thanks for any info that clarifies!
 
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I’m aware of two Chaplets of the Holy Wounds.
One is from the Passionists and has been approved since the early 1800s. The other is from the Visitandines and was approved for their order a long time ago and for general use by the public a couple decades ago.

Do you have an exact source/ link for the one people are claiming has been “condemned”? I’ve not heard of such a thing. Veneration of Christ’s Wounds has been around for hundreds of years.
 
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Theres a thread on here from May 2008 where some folks say it was condemned. Also, a discussion on Fisheaters (a site I 99 percent of the time avoid, lol) and some people there implying it was condemned. However, on all of the threads Ive seen, there is confusion between/about:
  1. the chaplet
  2. if the rosary is the same thing as the chaplet
  3. the relationship (if any) to the Passionists holy wounds prayer
  4. some confusing it with divine mercy
    and
  5. people saying theyve seen sites saying its approved, and those saying condemned.
Its mayhem! 😅 Thank you for your information Tisbear. Its comforting. I love this chaplet.
 
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Yes, well, you’ll find websites with all kinds of conflicting info on them. And a lot of people reading them who don’t do good research.

The Passionist chaplet of the Five Wounds, which uses a special chaplet with medals of the wounds, is here:


I note that page also has a chaplet by St. Alphonse Liguori (Redemptorist) which I wasn’t familiar with. Edited to add, I see by one of my old posts I did read about it before and apparently forgot.

The Visitandine chaplet, which was approved by the Vatican in 1999 and is said on a regular rosary, is here on the official website for the cause of Servant of God Sister Marie-Marthe Chambon, who said she received it in private revelation.

http://www.marie-marthe-chambon.fr/
 
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Thanks so much! I look forward to reading about this Servant of God…
 
The Five Wounds are something real and true. Our Lord received these wounds, and the scars remained after He was resurrected, He presented these wounds to St Thomas, so that tells me they are important.

Usually what is approved or unapproved are private revelations, these may be connected with devotions or not. Devotion to Christ is not condemned.
 
OK, I did some research on this. Let’s put all the info in one place for when this question inevitably comes up again.

The Passionist and Liguori chaplets have never been suppressed.

In a 1951 article, a Passionist priest writing about the Passionist chaplet refers to a “Rosary of the Holy Wounds” that was condemned by the Holy Office in 1939.
New Beads Condemned: It is well to note here that the recent (1939) decree of the Holy Office condemning a certain “Rosary of the Holy Wounds,” does not refer to our Passionist Five Wound Beads. This is evident from the fact that the Cardinals of the Holy Office, in their decree forbidding the new Rosary, were following out an earlier decree, of May 26, 1937, “de novis cultus seu devotionis formulis non introducendis, deque inolitis in re abusibus tollendis.”
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The Passionist article footnote refers to the Vatican publication “A. A. S. , Vol. XXXII, p. 24” which is indeed available on the Vatican website and says what the Passionist father said it said. It is not totally clear what issue it had with the Visitandine Rosary of the Holy Wounds, and the 1937 document to which it refers does not seem to be available in AAS’s 1937 issues or elsewhere. It may be as Little Lady said that they were wary of the connection with unapproved private revelation or purported “promises”, or that as someone else suggested, they just didn’t want the Rosary being used for all different kinds of prayers. Certainly there is nothing inherently wrong with venerating Christ’s wounds as the Church already had all kinds of approved devotions for that via the Passionists, St. Alphonse Liguori, St. Bridget of Sweden, St. Gertrude, and others.

Some have claimed that because an alternate title of the Rosary of the Holy Wounds was the “Chaplet of Mercy”, the Holy Office must have been referring to the Divine Mercy devotion. That is not the case. For one thing, in 1939 St. Faustina had just recently died, the Divine Mercy devotion was just starting to spread, and it wasn’t suppressed until 1959. On the other hand, Sister Marie-Marthe Chambon died in 1907, and the Rosary of the Five Wounds was approved for Visitandine use in 1912 and was (based on Catholic newspaper archives) popular with the public by the 1920s.

For another thing, I found this in an Aug 1940 issue of a newspaper called the Catholic Advance (Wichita, KS):

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

So the Vatican definitely suppressed the Visitandine chaplet for the faithful. I would assume the Visitandines might have still said it. It is interesting how much this chaplet seems similar to the Divine Mercy chaplet, both chaplets said to have been given by Our Lord, although Sister Marie-Marthe died when St. Faustina was only 2 and they were in different countries as well.

(Continued next post due to length limits)
 
(Continued from previous post)

I also noted that Sister Marie-Marthe Chambon has had an active sainthood cause since 1937, but because she is still a Servant of God and not beatified, her private revelations aren’t approved. Since she claimed to see Jesus, that will make approval difficult because the Church has a high standard for Jesus apparitions and has only officially approved 2 of them (St. Faustina’s and St. Margaret Mary’s). Nevertheless there seems to be no question that this Sister was very holy, and her biography greatly influenced St. Andre Bessette to the point where he handed copies of it out to people he was trying to convert.

Her cause still seems to be active as it even has a fairly new website run by the Visitation monastery. As I mentioned above, I noticed that the website contains a section with the prayers for the Rosary of the Holy Wounds, and cites “Decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome, March 23, 1999”. So it would appear the devotion has been un-suppressed by Pope John Paul II, which wouldn’t be surprising.

While I don’t think a Visitation monastery pushing a sainthood cause would lie, I was disappointed that this decree doesn’t seem to be posted on their website. Nor does it seem to be available on the Vatican website in either the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith documents or in the AAS for 1999.

I just wrote the Visitation folks and asked if they could please post the Decree, as follows:
Hello,
I just visited your informative website “Marie-Marthe Chambon and Friends” dealing with the cause of Servant of God Sister Marie-Marthe for sainthood. It is good to have resources to learn more about this holy sister who influenced St. Andre Bessette and others.

I noticed that your site contains the Rosary of the Holy Wounds aka Chaplet of Mercy that was propagated based on Sister’s private revelations, with a notice that it was approved by Decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) dated March 23, 1999. I was wondering if you could perhaps post the decree on your website?

As I’m sure you know, the Rosary of the Holy Wounds was suppressed by the Holy Office in 1939, and several references to the suppression are on the Internet on a Passionist webpage, in Catholic newspaper paid archives, and on the Vatican website itself in the AAS for 1939 (in Latin). I do not doubt that the Decree you mention from 1999 exists as it would be in keeping with Pope John Paul II who also “rescued” the similar Divine Mercy Devotion. But it is sadly not on the Vatican website - I could not even locate it in the AAS.

It would be good to be able to read the 1999 Decree and link it on Catholic forums and websites. Many people are interested in this devotion and in Sister Marie-Marthe, but they get nervous when they hear the Holy Office prohibited the devotion. So please if possible consider posting an image of the Decree on your site to remove all doubt.

Thank you and I will pray for Sister’s cause.
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I will post again if I get an answer back.
 
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Little chaplet of the five wounds of Jesus Christ – St. Alphonsus Liguori

O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Your left foot. I thank You for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Your pain, and that of Your afflicted Mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray You to grant me the pardon of my sins, of which I repent with all my heart, because they have offended Your infinite goodness. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc.

By all the wounds which You did bear With so much love and so much pain, Oh, let a sinner’s prayer Your mercy, Lord, obtain!

O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Your right foot. I thank You for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Your pain, and that of Your afflicted mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray You to give me the strength not to fall into mortal sin for the future, but to persevere in Your grace unto my death. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc.

By all the wounds which You did bear With so much love and so much pain, Oh, let a sinner’s prayer Your mercy, Lord, obtain!

O my Lord Jesus Christ, I adore the wound in Your left hand. I thank You for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Your pain, and that of Your afflicted Mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray You to deliver me from hell, which I have so often deserved, where I could never love You more. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc.

By all the wounds which You did bear With so much love and so much pain, Oh, let a sinner’s prayer Your mercy, Lord, obtain!

O my Lord Jesus Christ! I adore the wound in Your right hand. I thank You for having suffered it for me with so much sorrow and with so much love. I compassionate Your pain, and that of Your most afflicted mother. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray You to give me the glory of paradise, where I shall love You perfectly, and with all my strength. O sorrowing Mary! pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc.

By all the wounds which You did bear With so much love and so much pain, Oh, let a sinner’s prayer Your mercy, Lord, obtain!

O my Lord Jesus Christ! I adore the wound in Your side. I thank You for having willed, even after Your death, to suffer this additional injury, without pain indeed, yet with consummate love, I compassionate Your afflicted Mother, who alone felt all its pain. And, by the merit of this sacred wound, I pray You to bestow upon me the gift of holy love for You, that so I may ever love You in this life, and in the other, face to face, for all eternity, in paradise. O sorrowing Mary, pray to Jesus for me.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be, etc.

By all the wounds which You did bear With so much love and so much pain, Oh, let a sinner’s prayer Your mercy, Lord, obtain!
 
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WOW! I am SO impressed with the amount of digging you have done AND your clarity, in such a complicated situation! I REALLY appreciate this Tisbear. You have taken a lot of information, condensed it, and explained it so well.

At this point, from what you said, it was condemned at one point, but very likely brought back by John Paul II. I do very much hope thats the case, as Im by the minute growing more attached to it! (ps - and your letter is great!)
 
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