A history of stigmata
"Stigmata" is a Catholic phenomenon, used to describe the appearance of the wounds of Christ on a pious saint or Christian believer. It has been long debated by many who believe stigmata is instead a psychosomatic effect brought on by intense prayer. Stigmatics themselves are the main source of mystery for thousands of Christian believers. Are they really being punctured by the forces of God? Or are the wounds self-inflicted by those who harbor intense belief?
Stigmata can exist in two forms, visible and invisible. Invisible wounds are those covered by the forces of God for the inner comfort of the sufferer. Visible wounds appear on the side, palms, feet and head, and often appear and disappear in the space of a few hours. They can appear in one area alone, or all areas at once. Often, intense bleeding accompanies them, and the period before they appear is characterized by depression and weakness. Some stigmatics report feeling whips across their backs.
The first recorded case of these wounds was in the year 1222, by a man names Stephen Langton of England. St. Francis of Assissi, a famous follower of Jesus, experienced wounds in 1224.
The wounds can be experienced by both men and women. One of the more famous female stigmatics was St. Catherine of Siena, who experienced invisible wounds on her hands and feet. An interesting fact about stigmata is that it corresponds with the Passion and Death of Christ. Many wounds appear during the Last Supper, and the holy days of Easter. They disappear on Easter itself. Stigmatics reportedly speak to visions of Christ and angels during their trials, and smell strange scents. There are even reported cases of the blood types not matching between stigmata and wounds.
Stigmata has been reported everywhere from America to Italy. There are cases in France, Spain, England, and Germany. The count of these victims has stopped at 345. It is believed that there are many more, however. Among this count are some of the most famous saints, such as St. Frances of Rome, St. Gertrude, St. Collette, St. John of God, and St. Marie of the Incarnation. They span many religious orders, including Dominican priests, Augustinian monks and the Poor Clare nuns.
One of the more interesting theories to explain this phenomenon is the idea of "theological placebo effects." According to this line of thought, stigmatics are so emotionally and physically tied to their belief that they experience a state of mind similar to raptures. It is a fact that the immune system can be controlled by the waking mind, and in some cases, a heartbeat can be consciously slowed. It is this belief that leads some to think that the wounds of the stigmata are personally, albeit unconsciously, produced.
Stigmatics still exist today. There were a reported 20 in the nineteenth century, and their numbers are diminishing. One of the most famous current stigmata is Georgio Bongiavani, who has stigmata on his hands and forehead. His religious wounds cannot be explained by any sources, and according to several news reports they appear and disappear at will.
Padre Pio, a humble Capuchin priest from San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, was allegedly blessed by God in many wonderful and mysterious ways. The most dramatic was the stigmata. Padre Pio bore the wounds of Christ for fifty years!
Among his other gifts were perfume, bilocation, prophecy, conversion, reading of souls, and miraculous cures. People are still being cured through his intercession in ways that cannot be explained by medicine or science.
More important, if less spectacular, are the spiritual healings that take place in all parts of the world! Padre Pio is a powerful intercessor!!
Padre Pio was born to Giuseppa and Grazio Forgione, peasant farmers, in the small Italian village of Pietrelcina on May 25, 1887. From his childhood, it was evident that he was a special child of God.
Santa Maria degli Angeli, Our Lady of the Angels, the parish church, where he was baptized, was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1980. Through the generosity of our faithful benefactors, the Padre Pio Foundation donated the magnificent mural of angels that now adorns the sides of the altar.
To decide merely the facts without deciding whether or not they may be explained by supernatural causes, history tells us that many so-called 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, impossible to verify phenomena, which could just as easily be either a complete hoax, or less maliciously, a sign of mental illness, 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 rôle 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. On coming 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:
Interestingly, 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 St. 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.
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 (1566-1618), 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:
Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), Augustinian;
Elizabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825), Trinitarian tertiary;
Anna Maria Taïgi (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 statement 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 Görres (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. Boré, 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.
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. But with regard to persons in an abnormal condition, such as ecstasy or under a self-induced state of 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 (sleepwalking), or unconsciously. But physicians have always taken measures to avoid these sources of error, proceeding with great strictness, particularly in modern times. At times, the patient has been watched night and day, at other times, the limbs have been enveloped in sealed bandages. On one occasion, 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.
Are the Stigmatta real? Are they an outward sign, awarded by God, for inward piety? Are they a deliberate wound, self-inflicted by the bearer to show the world his or her holiness and to gain notoriety? Are they the unconscious act of a sleepwalker or the deranged act of the mentally ill? Who's to decide? It is, after all, a matter of faith, isn't it?
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Miracles or Deception?
The Pathetic Case of Audrey Santo can be read here.
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Tales of the City: Padre Pio and the Mystery of the Other Glove
John Walsh
19 June 2002
I grew up listening to tales about Padre Pio. In the world of hard-line, superstitious Catholicism, the arena of miracles and mythologies, he was the ne plus ultra. I learnt how he could cure people in the street, just by waving at them (what a cheery cove he must have seemed). That he could cure any disease, no matter how nasty or terminal. And that he could, if he wanted, mend a broken bottle just by looking at it (the saint as handyman). I heard that, during the war, Allied fighter pilots once saw him walking in the sky over Italy and waving at them. It sounds like a typical bit of celebrity showing-off to me, but they took it as a warning and zoomed off back to base. We learnt stranger things about him that he was a recluse, but could sometimes be spotted with fast women in fashionable nightclubs, and therefore (the only possible explanation) he must be capable of bilocation, or being in two places at once. (A likely story, I thought, even at the age of seven.) But the most enduring myth about him was the Glove.
Padre Pio's glove seems to turn up all over the place. It gets everywhere, like Zelig or Geri Halliwell. If you explore the scores of websites devoted to Padre Pio, the glove will feature in half of them. Readers brought up Catholic will know how swoon-makingly disgusting were the little "relics" you used to find inside the crucifix on the end of your Rosary, like a toy in a bad-taste cereal packet an unidentifiable lump of St Agatha's flesh, say, or something from between the toes of St Jerome. But Padre Pio's glove was the ultimate fetish object, because it had once covered a simulacrum of the blood of Christ. Hospitals in Pennsylvania, nursing communities in Brooklyn, credulous nuns in Sligo and converted zealots in Belize all claim to have seen, or to have known someone who saw, the glove being used to heal the sick before their very eyes.
The thing is, the saint did have a pair of gloves, which he used to conceal the signs of stigmata on his hands. But in the Padre Pio shrine in San Giovanni (his home town), there's only one of them, encased in a gold frame. And everyone who's seen it has presumably said to his or her neighbour, "'Ere where's the other glove?" And thus a worldwide conspiracy is born. The Other Glove, like the Wrong Trousers, owes more to fiction than fact. It was lost at sea. No, it's being held captive by Basque separatists. No, it's owned by a spoilt priest who uses it as a freak show to make money. No, the priest who used to be Pio's minder in Rome brought it back to Brooklyn with him when he became a parish priest...
Whatever the truth, thousands of Catholics believe that it could heal them if only it were fitted over their quaking fingers. As a cult object, it has escaped from its owner's moribund embrace, and scuttled off (like the disembodied hand in The Addams Family) to find fame and stardom on its own. I expect there'll be a movie quite soon. Glove Story, starring Joe Pesci as the man with blood on his hands...
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Saint's Town Up in Arms Over Vatican Move
ROME (Reuters) - The small Italian town where the world famous mystic monk Padre Pio is buried was up in arms on Monday after the Vatican (news - web sites) named a commissioner to oversee his shrine that generates hundreds of millions of dollars.
People in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo took to the streets in solidarity with Capuchin monks, whose leader accused the Vatican of instigating a "climate of persecution" by stripping them of effective control of the shrine.
Padre Pio, who was made a saint last year, is big business. Some eight million pilgrims visit the town each year and can buy everything from Padre Pio pens and statues to Padre Pio telephone cards.
Italian media said the Vatican was concerned about excessive commercialization surrounding the saint and possible financial irregularities in plans for a new, bigger church.
On Monday, residents parked about 10 earth movers, cranes and bulldozers in the square in front of the church where Padre Pio is buried.
Police forced the owners of the heavy vehicles to move them but the climate remained so tense in the town that the mayor had to appeal for calm.
Youths blew whistles in front of the church to support the monks and said they would protest during a planned visit by the newly-named overseer.
Pope John Paul (news - web sites) at the weekend gave the bishop of the nearby city of Manfredonia ultimate authority over the shrine and some linked activities, including a large hospital.
Padre Pio, who died in 1968 at the age of 81, had the stigmata -- bleeding wounds in the hands and feet similar to those of Christ. Scientists could not explain the wounds.
One of Italy's most popular saints, he was said to have wrestled with the devil in his monastery cell, predicted events in the lives of visitors, known what penitents were about to confess and been seen in two places at once.
The pope made him a saint in 2002 at a ceremony that drew one of the biggest crowds ever at the Vatican.
In apparent stigmata, a question of belief
News Staff Reporter
6/15/2003
Lilian Bernas stood beneath an icon of the crucified Jesus, gripping the lectern, speaking smoothly and matter-of-factly about what happened to her on Good Friday.
Her hands and feet were blistered when she awoke the morning of April 18, Bernas explained, and by 11:30 a.m., they began spontaneously to bleed.
By the afternoon, her forehead started bleeding, too, as did a wound in her side and on her shoulder.
Then a series of intensely bright white lights appeared, out of which emerged four saints, she said. One of the saints recited the Lord's Prayer in Latin and delivered the Eucharist to her.
By 5 p.m., the wounds disappeared, and Bernas visited her church in Niagara-on-the-Lake for the Stations of the Cross.
"That was my Good Friday. Marvelous. Beautiful," Bernas said to the captivated audience inside St. John the Baptist Church in the Town of Tonawanda in early May.
If Bernas has stigmata - the five wounds of the crucified Jesus - they were not apparent during this speaking engagement a few weeks ago.
Her hands showed no blood when she raised and lowered her glasses to her face. Her temples didn't bleed.
Small marks of healed skin were visible on her hands, but the only other evidence of her Good Friday experience were the photographs on a small table in the front of the church - snapshots of her bloody palms and feet and of blood oozing down her forehead.
A group of parishioners invited her to speak at St. John the Baptist on "Peace in a Broken World." Bernas, since her first stigmata claims in 1992, has typically drawn a crowd to the churches she has visited, despite little publicity. The May 13 visit was no exception.
About 250 men, women and children came for a glimpse and an opportunity to embrace her after the 90-minute talk. It was a small group for Bernas, who is quietly gaining a following in Western New York and beyond.
Growing crowd of believers
On April 27, the Sunday following Easter, an estimated 800 people filled the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit, in the Rochester suburb of Webster, to see her. In November 2001, she drew 1,000 people to St. Michael Parish in Buffalo, and she has attracted hundreds at churches in Florida.
Many of them walk away hailing Bernas as a humble prophet, with little doubt that the wounds are authentic.
"It has to be real, in my way of thinking, because nobody wants to suffer in this way just for the glory of people," said Lise Farnand of Webster, who has seen the open wounds. "Lilian wouldn't be suffering this much to have people around her. It's not worth it."
Farnand believes God "is sending us consolation" through people like Bernas.
It's unclear exactly how many people have actually seen the bleeding wounds, but for some, simply hearing Bernas speak has been a moving experience.
"I've never witnessed this whole thing actually happen, but I guess I don't need to," said Marleah Close, a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament Church in Buffalo who has met Bernas several times. "What she has to say just reaffirms everything I've been taught and have known. The fact that this is happening to her gives you a feeling that she's some kind of messenger. It's kind of an awesome thing what is happening to her."
The Rev. John G. Sturm, a Jesuit priest who serves as parochial vicar of St. Michael Parish, admits he was skeptical about claims of stigmata and visions of Jesus.
"You say, "Oh, sure.' You're really like (doubting) Thomas in a way," he said.
Sturm met Bernas about four years ago in Naples, Fla. He recalled "her extreme humility" and the simple way she answered questions.
"It was a very casual meeting. It wasn't like meeting an ordinary person, in a way. Her manner was just different. It just amazed me," he said.
The two became friends. Sturm said he has witnessed Bernas' bleeding wounds four or five times.
"For a while, she had it every first Friday," said Sturm. "It's very, very strange. The blood . . . sometimes it spurts out, and sometimes it drips."
Even a photojournalist, taking pictures for the Ottawa Citizen, was amazed by what he saw during two visits with Bernas in 2001: deep wounds in her hands and feet, teardrops of blood from her forehead, and the sweet smell of roses emanating suddenly from her.
"It was pretty remarkable," said the photographer, Simon Wilson.
A history of the blood
Bernas first began to experience her wounds during Easter in 1992. She also claims to have had visions of Jesus, who addresses her as "my sweet petal" or "my suffering soul." She has written about these experiences in two self-published books.
The Archdiocese of Ottawa, where Bernas lived prior to Niagara-on-the-Lake, set up a special commission to investigate her claims, but diocesan officials are reluctant to talk about it.
"It doesn't really concern the general public. It just creates propaganda," said Gabrielle Tasse, spokeswoman for the Ottawa Archdiocese.
In the foreword to her books, Bernas maintains that the commission concluded she was neither lying nor crazy.
The Ottawa Archdiocese will say only that it recommended Bernas be "well-guided spiritually."
"The inquiry did not make a judgment on the authenticity," said Tasse.
Since the inquiry, Bernas, a convert to Catholicism who once worked in a nursing home in the Ottawa area, has spoken at several local churches.
At St. John the Baptist, she dressed simply in an olive green sweater and checkered pants, with a chain and pendant hanging from her neck.
Her brown hair was cut short, and she appeared to be in her early 40s. She spoke clearly and lyrically, like a polished preacher, her words flowing seamlessly and never stumbling into each other.
Bernas' talks have been advertised in church bulletins, and she was profiled in Western New York Catholic, the region's Catholic newspaper.
Church is wary
But officials at the Diocese of Buffalo said she is not supposed to be discussing the stigmata and visions in churches.
"We are following the policy of her home archdiocese (Ottawa) that she is not to speak publicly because her faith journey is private," said diocesan spokesman Kevin Keenan.
Keenan said it was possible that Western New York parishes were not aware of the Ottawa Archdiocese's policy.
"This is the first time this has come up, so we're responding to that," he said.
Officials in the Diocese of St. Catharine's, where Bernas now lives, have not returned phone calls seeking comment.
It's not unusual for the Catholic Church hierarchy to resist publicity regarding claims of the supernatural, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and editor of America, a weekly Catholic magazine.
"The church rarely comes down and says, "Yeah, it's legitimate,' " Reese said. "The church is very skeptical of these things."
Many bishops struggle with how to approach phenomena such as stigmata and apparitions - which stir intense interest among many devout Catholics, but are difficult to verify and aren't integral to the practice of the faith.
The Vatican reportedly is working on new guidelines for bishops.
In January, the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acknowledged a steady increase in claims of visions of Mary, messages, stigmata and other miracles, according to a report by the Catholic News Service, the media arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith plans to update its 25-year-old guidelines regarding the authenticity of such occurrences, which sometimes have pitted reluctant bishops against insistent believers.
"People are always looking for extraordinary things. They find their faith strengthened by such manifestations," said Lawrence Cunningham, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. "People are after intense religious experiences," said Cunningham, author of several books on spirituality.
Joe Nickell saw the bleeding Bernas, too, and isn't convinced.
Nickell, a former detective and magician, investigates claims of the supernatural and paranormal for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, based in Amherst. In 1993, he wrote a book on the topic, called "Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures."
Nickell met Bernas on a Friday evening in March 2002 in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He was one of about 100 people who gathered in a social hall to see Bernas, whose appearance was advertised earlier on a church billboard.
Nickell can demonstrate how to fake stigmata with tiny incisions in his hands and feet that create plenty of blood, and he believes Bernas' wounds were self-inflicted.
He gives several reasons.
First, he said, no one in the audience witnessed the start of the bleeding that evening, because Bernas appeared before the crowd with blood already streaming from the tops of her bare feet and the backs of her hands.
Secondly, a true stigmatic would have wounds through the entire foot or hand, not just on the top of the foot or the back of the hand, he said.
And third, Nickell said that by the time Bernas finished displaying the wounds that evening, her blood had already coagulated.
"Everything about it was consistent with trickery. Nothing about it was in the slightest way supernatural or intriguing," said Nickell.
He refers to stigmatists like Bernas as "pious frauds," and he believes they are engaged in a "very insidious deceit."
They don't steal money - Bernas refuses to be paid for her appearances - but their deception might even be worse.
"Would you rather be misled on your most sacred and deeply held beliefs or be robbed of $50 in a shell game?" Nickell said.
Wary of persecution
But Bernas' defenders say they've witnessed the wounds open without provocation, sometimes in the palms, other times on the backs of the hands.
"You don't know it's coming or when it's coming. It's just you wait and the skin bursts and the blood keeps coming," Sturm said. "It gives you an inkling of what Jesus went through on Good Friday."
The wounds may appear healed, but the pain never goes away, said Mary Shinerrock, a close friend of Bernas.
"She's always in pain," said Shinerrock. "Those wounds she has, even when they're not active, she's still in pain."
Bernas lives with Mary and Stanley Shinerrock in their Niagara-on-the-Lake home.
The Shinerrocks, who are retired, took in Bernas in 1996. They refer to her as a "victim soul" and protect her like a daughter.
Bernas is misunderstood and unappreciated by the church, said Mary Shinerrock, who compares her to Padre Pio, the Italian stigmatic priest canonized as a saint last summer, and other stigmatics.
"They've all been persecuted, and Lilian is no exception to that," Shinerrock said. Church leaders, she added, "don't know what to do with someone like Lilian."
Bernas was not interested in being interviewed for this story, according to Shinerrock, despite several inquiries.
In a telephone conversation, Shinerrock requested that no story be written about Bernas.
Previous media coverage "didn't go down well with the church," and Bernas doesn't want to disobey church authorities, she said.
In July 2001, the Ottawa Citizen published a lengthy profile of Bernas in its weekly magazine.
The story, picked up by several other newspapers in Canada, included photos of her bloody wounds and the author's firsthand account of the bleeding.
The Most Rev. Marcel Gervais, archbishop of Ottawa, apparently wasn't pleased by the attention and requested that Bernas keep the matter to herself.
A history of saints, fakes
The first stigmatist is believed to be Francis of Assisi, one of the most revered Catholic saints, who lived during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Since then, the Catholic Encyclopedia estimates at least 320 people - including more than a dozen saints - have had the painful wounds of Christ.
The church, however, never has declared that the phenomenon is miraculous, said Cunningham.
There also have been several documented fakes.
"The church itself has caught many of them and exposed them," said Nickell, the Skeptical Inquirer author.
Magdalena de la Cruz, for example, confessed in 1543, during a serious illness, that her stigmata were faked. And Maria de la Visitacion, who was known as the "Holy Nun of Lisbon," was found to have painted fake wounds onto her hands. More recently, Gigliola Giorgini was convicted of fraud by an Italian court in 1984, according to "The Bleeding Mind," a 1988 book on stigmata by Ian Wilson.
Nickell doubts that any stigmata are truly supernatural or even psychogenic - that is, manifested physically because of a fervent belief that the wounds exist.
He notes that some stigmatists exhibit wounds on their hands, even though the recent research indicates that Jesus most likely was nailed to the cross through his wrists.
Once the notion that Jesus was nailed through the wrists became accepted, some stigmatics began to display wrist wounds.
"Here's my logic: Stigmata are supposed to be a reflection of the wounds of Christ, whatever those were like. If these were true manifestations, they ought to tell us where the wounds were," Nickell said.
Instead, stigmata appear "all over the place. There's every kind of variant, and they keep changing."
A matter of personal belief
Sturm, the Jesuit priest, isn't concerned by skeptics or the lack of interest church leaders have in Bernas.
"It's up to each person to believe it or not," he said. "The church won't move unless many, many, many people are touched by her. She's really not that widely known. The church won't act until loads of people are asking, "Is it true or not true?' "
Church leaders haven't found any fault with Bernas' theology or her sincerity, he added.
"If she's for real, it will last. If not, it will die out quickly," said Sturm.
Supernatural or not, Bernas' stigmata could benefit the faithful if she uses it "to lead people to Jesus Christ and to the sacraments, to the church and to works of charity," said Reese.
"But," he added, "to the extent it becomes a magic show or a cult of personality, it's a distraction from the central message of the gospel, which is that Jesus is our savior and has mercy on us."
June 15, 2003
INEXPLICATA
The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
December 4, 2003
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MIRACULOUS TEARS
* A statue of Padre Pio de Pietralcina, famous for his stigmata and the gift of bilocation, allegedly "weeps blood."
EFE/ROMA
News that a statue of Padre Pio--proclaimed a saint by John Paul II last year at the Vatican in a major ceremony--is "weeping blood" has spread like wildfire throughout the Calabrese city and hundred of persons have flocked to it, praying and claiming that the event is a miracle. According to city mayor Domenico malara, a gypsy girl living in the town square noted that a red liquid descended from the eyes of the life-size bronze statue of Padre Pio, streaming down the tunic and puddling at the base of the pedestal. Numerous locals approached the site, among them the mayor, who ordered that the statue be surrounded with fencing.
According to deputy mayor Scaramozzino, inital tests performed have shown that [the liquid] is indedd blood, although whether human or animal has yet to ascertained. The parish priest of Brancaleone, Leone Stillitano, advised locals to be prudent and to wait for the analyses.
A similar phenomenon occurred last year to another statue of [Padre Pio] which was later discovered to a prank, as well as in Castel di Judica, in the Sicilian city of Catania. Aside from weeping statues, there are many who claim having seen Padre Pios face on houses in San Giovanni Rotondo, where he is buried, as well as in facades in the towns of Monte San Biagio and Cagnano Varano. Capuchin friar Padre Pio de Pietralcina was proclaimed a saint on June 16, 2002, 18 after the start of the canonization process and three following his beatification.
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Translation (C) 2003. Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology. Special thanks to Gloria Coluchi.
Mystery of Christ's Wounds
08/30/2004 15:35
Stigmata appeared for the first time on the hands of the founder of the Franciskan order, St. Francis
Mental processes, emotions and feelings are closely connected with the human body. The interaction of 'body and soul' is exposed most explicitly on human skin. The phenomenon of stigmata is still considered a religious enigma. However, one may say there are a lot of religious people, whose hands may start bleeding on religious holidays, particularly during The Passion. "In Christian mysticism, bodily marks, scars, or pains suffered in places corresponding to those of the crucified Jesus-on the hands and feet, near the heart, and sometimes on the head (from the crown of thorns) or shoulders and back (from carrying the cross and being whipped)," Encyclopedia Britannica says.
The phenomenon appeared long ago. At the end of the 19th century doctors examined Louise Lato - bleeding wounds appeared on her hands during religious holidays for no particular reason. Doctors put a sealed bondage on one of the girl's hands prior to a religious holiday. The bondage was removed on Good Friday - members of the Belgian Academy of Sciences saw bleeding ulcers on the girl's hand.
Teresa Neiman (deceased in 1962) was kept under profound medical supervision for a very long time. Teresa was suffering from Christ's Wounds too: blood would start flowing spontaneously, causing terrible pain to the woman. Wounds would then heal up in a week without scarring. Furthermore, the woman was suffering from bloody tears and bloody sweat.
As it is known from the history of religion, stigmata appeared for the first time on the hands of the founder of the Franciskan order, St. Francis (1182-1226). Over 300 cases have been described since then. It is noteworthy, religion is not the only ground that causes stigmata to appear. Writers may suffer from them at times too, when they become too much preoccupied with their own characters. Charles thingyens wrote, for instance, that his face had swollen when he was working on the story "The Chimes." Soviet writer Maxim Gorky fainted, when he was writing a scene, in which a jealous husband stabs his wife in the liver. A bleeding wound soon appeared on Maxim Gorky's body, in the area of his liver.
Mysterious bodily wounds may appear, if relatives endure too much of their relatives' sufferings. A sister witnessed her brother being whipped - her back was then covered with bleeding scars reminiscent of her brother's. The fact was officially documented. Doctor Faivishevsky described similar occurrences with women, who were forced to witness their children being beaten.
Stigmatization as a result of nightmares has also been described in medical literature. A medical college student attended the autopsy procedure for the first time in her life. The next day she said she had had a very bad dream, in which the dead man was choking her and grabbing her hands, trying to drag her away. When she woke up, she found her neck and wrists bruised. Doctor Kolbin described a child, who had lost his hair after a nightmare. The little boy had a dream, in which his grandfather rose from the casket and grabbed the boy's hair. The child had the nightmare several nights in a row, losing more and more of his hair.
The phenomenon of imaginary pregnancy is to be categorized as autosuggestion, when sterile women develop lipopexia on their stomachs, which in its turn incites adequate breast changes. "It comes from your head, your dreams, to influence such a quiet vegetative process as the augmentation of adipose tissue," scientist I.Pavlov wrote.
Some experts believe stigmata appear due to brain activities, such as imagination. A religious fanatic may suffer from Christ's Wounds, if he or she thinks too much about the crucified Jesus. Writers may suffer from this bodily ailment if they share the suffering and pain of their own literature characters.
Doctor A. Lechner hypnotized a girl in 1993, having reproduced Christ's Wounds on her hands. Doctor A. Kartashev was keeping a female patient under his observation in 1936. In a state of hypnosis the woman had been convinced she had been taking quinine. Nettle-rash developed for the woman several hours after the seance. Bruises, frostbite, edema, rash and pigmentation are possible to be caused with hypnosis.
The above-mentioned story about the boy, who had lost his hair because of the nightmare, can also be classified as autosuggestion. A well-known Russian "psychotherapist" Anatoly Kashpirovsky was very popular in the USSR. He conducted healing sessions and seances for audiences numbering in millions on live Soviet television at the end of the 1980s. A girl's body was covered with hair as a result of one of such "healing sessions." One may assume Kashpirovsky caused a rough dysfunction of endocrine glands, which made hairs appear all over the girl's body. Kashripovsky claimed he did not use hypnosis in his session - he did not say the world "sleep," as he explained in an interview. One has to acknowledge, however, modern medicine does not identify hypnosis with sleep now. An up-to-date definition says hypnosis causes a state of constricted conscience, which may evolve not only as a result of a verbal influence. "Extrasensory individuals," "sorcerers" and other "healers" use the effect of autosuggestion in their practice. However, they do not think that hypnosis reminds the work of a surgeon. Putting a person in a hypnotic trance can be compared to an abdominal surgery. Just a cut on a patient's stomach does not determine the skills of a surgeon. The mastery of a psychotherapist implies the reasonable influence on a patient prepared to comprehend the medical treatment by suggestion. The diversity of this influence is similar to the diversity of illnesses. Complications are possible to occur when this condition is broken.
V. Lebedev
Doctor of psychological sciences
Stigmas indicate their carriers are either saints or insane
01/06/2006 11:34
For over 750 years already some Christians have stigmata on their bodies as symbols of Christ's sufferings
The hands and legs of the Savior were punched through with nails. The crown of thorns on his head scratched the forehead and the skull. One of the Roman legionaries deeply wounded the Savior with his spear right in the chest.
For over 750 years already some Christians have stigmata on their bodies as symbols of Christ's sufferings. The Greek word 'stigma' means 'wound.' Stigmata may look like bleeding wounds on palms or on feet as if people were nailed down. Some people having stigmata have wounds on their foreheads resembling scratches left by a crown of thorns. Others have bloody wales on their backs as if traces of flagellation.
Saint Francis of Assisi is believed the first man who ever had stigma. It was in 1224 that stigma appeared on the man during the holiday of Exaltation of the Cross. A legend says that Saint Francis had a vision of an angel who excised the stigmata on the saint's hands and legs with five rays of light.
However, some experts insist that the first evidence of stigma belongs to an earlier epoch, the first years of Christianity. One of Saint Paul's messages mentions that after the crucifixion of Christ Saint Paul got wounds like those that Christ had. The statement can be interpreted either literally or metaphorically. But it is true that no more evidence of stigma appeared within about a thousand of years afterwards.
There are some versions explaining why stigmata began to appear at the beginning of the current century. The first version says stigma appeared because of the intensified theological disputes in the 11-12th centuries. When Christianity split into the Catholic and Orthodox churches in 1054, Catholics proclaimed the Resurrection doctrine. Then theologians developed the ideas of Christ's human nature. A new religious holiday of Corp Christi was established to memorize the corporal life of Christ from Christmas to Crucifixion. The first evidence of stigma belongs to the period.
Another theory explains the appearance of stigma with the general tension and expressiveness of the church art of that epoch. Naturalistic bloody scenes of the Passion were in fashion and greatly excited the faithful. One more version says that many people considered the church too corrupt. The appearance of stigma strengthened laymen's opinion that Christ is the only shepherd of his herd; it also gave the faithful an immediate contact with Corp Christi.
French doctor Amber-Gourbet described about 300 instances of stigmatism in the 19th century that were based upon historical records and contemporary evidence. But today majority of his reports are declared unauthentic. Contemporary experts state that there were 406 of relatively authentic instances of stigma appearance within the past 800 years. Majority of stigma carriers were Catholics (68 percent) and others belonged to different religious sects.
Earlier, stigmata were typical of Mediterranean citizens, mainly Italians. Today stigma is also typical of Japans, Koreans; at least four Americans, an Argentinean and a Canadian are known as stigma carriers.
Thousands of people believe that stigma is the charisma. But one of theosophy schools states that stigma is Satan's sign. The official Vatican is rather cautious concerning appearance of stigma. The traditional procedure of canonization of a stigmatic requires that it may happen in about one hundred of years after his death. Clergymen and medical experts appointed by Vatican closely study every instance of stigma appearance. The church admits that stigma may mysteriously appear on people. But church experts believe that psychiatrists should study majority of stigma instances. Many of stigma carriers reveal hysteria quite obviously. In some cases stigma carriers revealed various clinical syndromes, inclination to self-torture and extremely low self-appraisal. There are also stigma carriers who say their wounds appeared as a result of contacts with aliens.
It is not ruled out that mentally unstable people may make wounds themselves. But stigma appearance is in fact a more complicated phenomenon. Majority of people carrying stigmata do not remembers when and how they got their wounds. There is much evidence proving that no matter what medical treatment is applied to the mysterious wounds, they will re-appear in the same area. Italian Doctor Marco Marnelli conducted several experiments on a woman carrying stigma. The experiments revealed the healed stigma re-appeared on the woman's hands several times. At that, each time the stigma became visible on the body the woman fell into a trance and saw beads and a cross. American Ethel Chapman got her stigma resembling nail wounds on the palms when she was in a hospital. When unconscious the woman observed her own crucifixion.
The faithful usually treat stigma carriers as God's elects. This opinion is as a rule substantiated with stories about the ability of some stigma carriers to levitate or about some wonderful aroma spreading from wounds of such people. As a rule, the nature of these phenomena is quite explainable.
Both secular and church experts say there may be no well-defined approach to the stigma phenomena. Majority of stigmata are quite of common origin but there is no rational explanation to many of stigmatism instances. This is a complicated phenomenon where physical, psychosomatic and supernatural motives are combined. The phenomenon will be probably explained some day. For the time being, people believe in the mysterious nature of stigmata.
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