The Church’s Wondrous Stigmatists

Since stricter lockdowns were imposed in certain regions of the Philippines two months ago, I’ve thought about how the saints in heaven would have coped with this global pandemic, their “take” on how lives have been snuffed out by the vicious coronavirus. In my country, many people infected with Covid-19 die inside their cars waiting for doctors and nurses to attend to them.

The situation is drastic. Hospitals cannot cope with the surge of Covid-19 patients. They have had to turn them away forcing them to travel to far-flung provinces to find accommodation in other hospitals. Our government has failed to prioritize the early procurement of vaccines and mass vaccinations (thanks to our inept leaders).

My thoughts have turned to the mystery of suffering, especially that of the stigmatists (who must have suffered unimaginable pain with every bodily movement). The dictionary defines “stigmata” as “the marks resembling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, said to appear supernaturally on certain persons.” In this matter, the first saint who came to mind was the great mystic, St. Pio (or Padre Pio) of Pietrelcina.

Bleeding Daily for Fifty Years

Padre Pio, a Capuchin priest, received the stigmata after saying Mass on the morning of September 20, 1918 while praying before a crucifix. In a Catholic Digest article about him, author Daniel T. Schweikert noted that “the priest’s cries of pain brought his fellow friars, who found him unconscious, and bleeding from the hands, feet, and side.”

Over the course of time he was examined and reexamined by doctors of all persuasions – Catholics and non-Catholics, even anti-Catholics – some of whom were sent by the Vatican and others by the Franciscan Order, says Schweikert. None of them established what had caused the wounds which bled daily for fifty years until his death on September 23, 1968.

Throughout his life, Padre Pio spent long hours in the confessional giving comfort to the downtrodden and healing those physically and spiritually broken. Countless souls were converted and called back to the faith. Much has been written about his holiness, the miracles attributed to him, and his charisms; among these were the ability to read souls, the “extraordinary gift of perfume”, the ability to survive without food, and bilocation.

Schweikert poses these questions: What do the stigmata represent? How were they acquired? What is their significance?

From a religious standpoint, he says, the external marks of the wounds of Christ are only the material element of stigmatization. “To be a true charism,” he writes,

the marks must be accompanied by a participation in the sufferings of Christ. And not all wounds, even if they are in those places where our Lord bore his, are regarded as true stigmata. Theologically, the wounds must not be mere surface wounds, but must be deep. They must not vanish after a short period of time but must remain for years without infection. Most importantly, they must emit fresh blood.

St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena

St. Francis of Assisi is known to be the first saint to have received the stigmata, although there is some indication in St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (6:17) that Paul might have had them. While in meditation on Mt. Alvernia in the Apennines, Italy in September of 1224, Francis received Christ’s wounds which bled periodically during the final two years of his life. According to Catholic Online, his wounds 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.”

But not all stigmatists bore Christ’s wounds externally. The wounds of St. Catherine of Siena, for example, became visible only upon her death because she prayed that they would be concealed from human eyes. She received the stigmata in 1375.

The Italian artist Domenico Beccafumi painted St. Catherine receiving the stigmata. The image is described by the Getty Center, Los Angeles, thus: “Catherine is shown kneeling in a small chapel while members of her order wonder what is overtaking her, since only she can see the miraculous vision.”

St. Catherine is depicted in portraits holding a sprig of lilies and wearing the black-and-white habit of the Dominican sisters. She is the patron saint of firefighters, and is invoked against fire prevention, sexual temptations, and miscarriages.

Extraordinary Goodness, Piety

Schweikert goes on to say that the believing Catholic accepts stigmatization as a divine gift, given to a person of extraordinary goodness and piety. “As to a person’s spiritual disposition, the Church is not much interested in extraordinary manifestations such as visions, ecstasies or stigmata…but this is not to say that it rejects the stigmata,” he says. “Many have been canonized or beatified. But what of the others? Did a lack of grace of sanctity preclude their consideration? Of course not. Many of them simply lacked a good ‘press agent,’ an advocate of their cause.”