History
of stigmata
For over seven hundred and fifty years there have
been individual Christians who have exhibited on their bodies the physical
marks of Christ's suffering.
They have had wounds in their hands as if nails have been hammered through; their feet similarly have scarred and bled; some have had marks on the forehead corresponding to those which might have been made by a crown of thorns; others have had a wound in the side as if they have been speared; or stripes across the back as if from scourging. They have carried the stigmata, the marks of Christ's suffering. It is very difficult to calculate the precise number of stigmatics living at any given time. There will be some whose experiences have not become public knowledge and there will be others, who, having once been thrust into the public domain, have retreated into privacy and who have since died.
However a good estimate
of current cases would be 25 with the following being amongst the best
known:
Christina Gallagher from County Mayo
Father Jim Bruse from Virginia USA
Jane Hunt from Derbyshire in England
George Hamilton from Glasgow, Scotland
Cloretta Robinson from California, USA
Julia Kim from Korea
Sister Angus Sasagawa from Japan
Giorgio Bongiovanni from Italy
Angelica Rael from the USA
Domenica Lo Bianco from Italy
Roberto Casarin from Italy;
Vera D'Agostino from Italy
Gino Burresi from Italy
Amparia Cuevas from Portugal
Georgette Faniel from Canada.
It is generally accepted
that St Francis of Assisi was the first person to receive these strange
wounds. His stigmatisation occurred in September 1224 on the Feast of
Exultation of the Holy Cross.
This somewhat minor festival was, in the thirteenth century, celebrated
with considerable fervour. St Francis was at the time totally absorbed
in a longing to suffer for and with Christ.
As many subsequent paintings have shown his wounds were received, according to legend, in the course of a vision during which a six winged seraph etched the marks of crucifixion on the Saints hands feet with five lines of light.