Mystical Stigmata

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By: Beverly Moore  AlienAdam Reporter 7-3-2012

Marks resembling crucifixion wounds: marks on the hands and feet resembling the wounds
from Jesus Christ’s crucifixion

THE STIGMATICS

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.

The catholic church counts 321 stigmatics in whom there is every reason to believe in a Divine
action. More may be found by consulting the papal libraries of Germany, Spain, and Italy. In this
list there are 41 men.

There are 62 saints or blessed of both sexes of whom the best known (numbering twenty-six)
were:

•

St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226);

•

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);

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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

One of the first recorded Stigmatics was St Francis of Assisi. He was an adventurer who came
from a wealthy family. However, in 1202 he was taken prisoner, the experience causing him to
become ill. From this point on he changed, eventually having a religious experience and publicly
stripping himself, and denying material things.

In 1224 he founded the Franciscan Order and shortly afterwards he had a vision on the slopes of
Mt Alvernia. He began to bleed from the wounds of Christ, and bled continually for the last two
years of his life.

SPR member Eric Dingwall studied cases of Stigmata such as that of St Mary Magdalen de
Pazzi who became a Stigmatic in 1585 after much religious devotion. Dingwall concluded that
it was nothing more than self-mutilation, caused by the masochistic attitudes of early religious
devotion.

In 1918, twenty year old Therese Neumann from Konnersreuth, Bavaria, became paralyzed and
bedridden after witnessing a horrific fire. By 1925 she began having visions, and the following
year she began to bleed from palms, feet and forehead every Friday…even crying tears of blood.
Dying in 1962, her affliction reached a climax every Holy Week.

TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING

In 1972, ten year old Cloretta Robertson from Oakland, California, became a Stigmatic after
watching a film about the crucifixion. Not particularly religious, Cloretta shows that we may not
be dealing with religious devotion at all.

This becomes clear from the case of Elisabeth K, a psychiatric patient looked after by a Dr
Albert Lechler in 1932. After watching slides of the crucifixion, she began to feel tingling effects
at the traditional sites of the wounds of Christ. Hypnotizing her, the doctor suggested wounds at
these points, which duly appeared.

This suggests the idea that Stigmata as a replication of Christ’s wounds is unlikely. Evidence
suggests people were nailed through the wrist during crucifixion, not the palms. Similarly,
Stigmata seems to have begun when Church statuary first depicted crucifixion, giving a cultural

stimuli.

What seems to be the guiding principle here is stress. Further, hypnosis can cause similar, if less
severe, phenomena.

Indeed, Oscar Ratnoff of Cleveland, Ohio, investigated some sixty cases where emotional
distress has caused inexplicable bleeding.

Just what causes Stigmata remains unclear. But one thing that is clear is that the ability to cause
bodily scars by mind power is more common and observable than we think.

HYSTERIA

That hysteria is involved seems more than likely. Cases of hysterical blindness and paralysis are
quite common, the mind having a definite effect on the body. Further evidence is offered by the
placebo effect.

Here, it has been shown that a state of mind can have up to a 30% effect upon the severity
of illness. As for bleeding itself, psychological states are known to have an effect upon
menstruation.

Bodily blemishes, welts, and even sores can have a psychological foundation, with some cases of
psoriasis being put down to stress. And if release is caused by, say, reliance upon Christianity, it
could possible result in the imitation of Christ’s wounds.

This shows a distinct cultural effect to the form psychologically induced body mutation can
seem to take. And bearing this in mind, Stigmata can often be seen to help explain other areas of
phenomena. For instance, the a poltergeist or demon infestation can often exhibit such bodily
change, such as words appearing on the body as welts. Evidence for reincarnation often comes in
the form of similar physical scaring to a previous life.

Perhaps most relevant to modern phenomena, some cases of alien abduction are said to include
physical evidence, such as marks on the body. However, by inducing the possibility of known
hysteria in Stigmata, we can maybe conclude that other forces may be involved – forces from the
inner mind rather than outer space.

DEFYING EXPLANATION

No explanation has been offered of three circumstances presented by the stigmata of the saints:

1. Physicians do not succeed in curing these wounds with remedies.

2. 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.

3. 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 color 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, unconsciously. But physicians have always
taken measures to avoid these sources of error, proceeding with great strictness, particularly in
modern times. Sometimes the patient has been watched night and day, sometimes the limbs have
been enveloped in sealed bandages. 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

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