Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/339

 STIGMATA

295

STIGMATA

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 corre- sponil to their role of co-sufferers, beholding from time to time the blood-stained scenes of the Passion. AVith 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 hoiu-s, from Thursday noon till Friday afternoon at four o'clock, the only interruption being for the saint to receive Holy Com- munion. Catherine conversed aloud, as if enacting a drama. This drama was divided into about seven- teen 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: (1) None are known prior to the thirteenth century. The first mentioned is St. Francis of Assisi, in whom the stig- mata were of a character never seen subsequently: in the wounds of feet and hands were excrescences of flesh representing nails, those on one side ha\-ing round black 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 the.se wonderful wounds during his life- time 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. (2) 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. (3) In this list there are 41 men. (4) There are 62 saints or blessed of both sexes, of whom the best known (numbering tw'entv-six) were: St. Francis of As.si.si (1186-1226); St. Lutgarde (1182-1246), a Cistercian; St. Margaret of Cortona (1247-97); St. Gertrude (1256-1302), a Benedictine; St. Clare of iMontefalco (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 Cas.sia (1386-1456), Augustinian; Bl. Osanna of Mantua (1499-1505), Dominican tertiary; St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), Franciscan tertian.'; Bl. Baptista Varani (14.58-1524), Poor Clare; Bl. Lucy of Xami (1476-1.547), Dominican tertiary; Bl. Catherine of Racconigi (1486-1.547), Dominican; St. John of God (149.5-1.5.50), founder of the Order of Charity; St. Catherine do' Ricci (1.522- 891, Dominican; St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi (1.566-1607), Carmelite; Bl. Marie de I'lncarnation (1566-1618), Carmelite; Bl. Mary Anne of Je-sus (1557-1620), Franciscan tertiary; Bl. Carlo of Sezzc (d. 1670), P'ranciscan; Bl. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90), Visitandine (who had only the crown of thorns); St. Veronica Giuliani (1600-1727), Capuchin- ess; St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (171.5- 91), Franci.scan tertiarj-.

(5) There were 29 stigmatics in the nineteenth century. The most famous were: Catherine Em- merich (1774-1S24), Augustinian; Elizabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825), Trinitarian tertiary; Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837); Maria Dominica Lazzari (1815- 48); Marie de Moerl (1812-68) and Louise Lateau (1850-83), Franciscan Tertiarics. Of these, Marie

de Moerl spent her life at Kaltorn, 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 expression 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 Gorres (who describes his visit in his "Mj'stik", 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. Borl, 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 nourish- ment save weekly communion. For drink she was satisfied with three or four glasses of water a week. She never slept, but pa.ssed her nights in contem- plation and prayer, kneeling at the foot of her bed.

II. The facts having been set forth, it remains to state the explanations that have been offered. Some physiologists, lM)th Catholics and Free-thinkers, have maintained that the wounds might be produced in a pureh' natural manner by the sole action of the imag- ination coupled with lively emotions. The person being keenly impressed by the sufferings of the Sav- iour 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. Phys- iological science does not a|5pear to be far enough advanced to permit 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 argu- ments based on exaggerated or misinterpreted facts. But if the progress of medical sciences and psycho- physiology should present serious objections, it must be remeinhcrcd that neither rehgion nor mysticism is dependent on the solution of these questions, and that in i3roces.ses 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 ti.s,sues (De canoniz., Ill, xxxiii, n. 31). But with regard to persons in an abnormal condition, such as ecstasy or hypnosis, the question is more difficult; and, despite numerous attempt 8, hypnotism has not produced very clear results. At most, and in ex- ceedingly rare cases, it has induced exudations or a sweat more or less coloured, but this is a very imper-