Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/573

 STIGMATIZATION 549 tude, is mentioned in many of the classics (Pliny, H. N., xviii. 3 ; Varro, De Re Rustica, i. 18 ; Suetonius, Caligula, xxvii. &c.), and was forbidden by Constantine. In the period of persecution Christian martyrs were sometimes branded with the name of Christ on their fore- heads (Pontius, " De Vit. S. Cypriani," Biblioth. Veterum Patrum, iii. p. 472, vii.). This was sometimes self- inflicted as a disfigurement by nuns for their protection, as in the case of St Ebba, abbess of Coldingham (see Baronius, Annales, xv. p. 215, anno 870, also Tert., De Vel. Virg.}. Some Christians likewise marked themselves on their hands or arms with the cross or the name of Christ (Procopius, In Esaiam, ed. Curterius, p. 496), and other voluntary mutilations for Christ's sake are men- tioned (Matt. xix. 12; Fortunatus, Life of St Rliadegund, ed. Migne, col. 508 ; Palladius, Lausiac History, cxii. ; Jerome's Letter to St Eustochium, &c.). In the life of St Francis of Assisi we have the first example of the alleged miraculous infliction of stigmata (see vol. ix. p. 692). While meditating on the sufferings of our Lord, in his cell on Mount Alverno, we are told by his biographers, Thomas of Celano and Bonaventura, that the Lord appeared to him as a seraph and produced upon his body the five wounds of Christ ; of these we are told that the side wound bled occasionally, though Bonaven- tura calls it a scar, and the wounds in the feet had the appearance and colour of nails thrust through. After his death St Clare endeavoured but in vain to extract one of these. Pope Alexander IV. and other witnesses declared that they had seen these marks both before and after his death (Raynaldus, ad annum 1255, p. 27). The divinely- attested sanctity of their founder gave to the newly- established order of Franciscans a powerful impulse, so that they soon equalled and threatened to overshadow in influence the previously-founded order of St Dominic. The reputation of the latter order was, however, equally raised in the next century by the occurrence of the same wonder in the case of a sister of the third rule of St Dominic, Catherine Benincasa, better known as St Catherine of Siena. From her biographer's account we gather that she was subject to hystero-epileptic attacks, in one of which, when she was twenty-three years old, she re- ceived the first stigma (see vol. v. p. 230). In spite of her great reputation, and the number of attesting witnesses, this occurrence was not universally believed in. Pope Sixtus IV. published a bull in 1475 ordering, on pain of anathema, the erasure of stigmata from pictures of St Catherine, and prohibiting all expressions of belief in the occurrence. Pope Innocent VIII. similarly legislated " ne de caetero S. Catherina cum stigmatibus depingatur ; neve de ejus stigmatibus fiat verbum, aut sermo, vel prge- dicatio ad tollendam omnem scandali occasionem " (see references in llaynaud, De Stigmatisme, cap. xi., 1665). In the years which followed, cases of stigmatization occurred thick and fast, now a Franciscan, now a Dominican, very rarely a religieuse of another order, showing the marks. Altogether about ninety instances are on record, of which eighteen were males and seventy-two females. Most of them occurred among residents in religious houses, and took place after the austerities of Lent, usually on Good Friday, when the mind was intently fixed on our Lord's Passion ; and, from their occurrence being for the most part among members of the two orders to which St Francis and St Catherine belonged, the possibility of the recep- tion of the marks was constantly before their eyes and thoughts. The order of infliction in the majority of cases was that of the crucifixion, the first token being a bloody sweat, followed by the coronation with thorns ; after- wards the hand and foot wounds appear, that of the side being the last. The grade of the infliction varied in individual cases, and they may be grouped in the follow- ing series : I. As regards full stigmatization, with the visible production of the five wounds, and generally with the mark of the crown as well, the oldest case, after St Francis, is that of Ida of Lou vain (1300), in whom the marks appeared as coloured circles ; in Gertrude von Oosten of Delft (1344) they were coloured scars, and disappeared in answer to prayer as they also did on Dominica de Paradis ; in Sister Pierona, a Franciscan, they were blackish grey. They were true wounds in Margaret Ebnerin of Nuremberg (d. 1351), but they also disappeared in auswer to her prayer (see her Life, Augs- burg, 1717), as was the case with Brigitta, a Dominican tertiary (1390), and also with Lidwina. An intermission is described in the marks on Johanna della Croce of Madrid (1524), in whom the wound in the side was large, and the others were rose-coloured circular patches. The marks appeared on each Friday and vanished on Sunday. These emitted an odour of violets ; but in Sister Apol- lonia of Volaterra they were fetid while she lived. Angela della Pace (1634) was fully stigmatized at nine years of age, being even marked with the sponge and hyssop on the mouth ; while Joanna de Jesu-Maria at Burgos (1613), a widow, who had entered the convent of Poor Clares, was marked in her sixtieth year. To her in vision two crowns were offered, one of flowers and one of thorns ; she chose the latter and immediately was seized with such pain that her confessor heard her skull cracking. This case was investigated by the officers of the Inquisition. The stigmatization of Veronica Giuliani (1696) was also the subject of inquiry, and in this case the nun drew on a paper a representation of the images which she said were engraved on her heart. On a post-mortem examination being made in 1727 by Prof. Gentili and Dr Bordiga, the image of the cross, the scourge, &c., were said to have been impressed on the right side of the organ (Vita della Veronica Giuliani, by Salvatori, Rome, 1803). The case of Christina Stum- belen, a Dominican at Cologne, is noteworthy, as on her skull there was found a raised ridge or crown which was at first green, with red dots. This relic is still preserved. In Lucia di Narni (1546) the marks were variable, as they also were on Sister Maria di S. Dominico. On the body of St Margaret of Hungary the stigmata were found fresh and clear when her body was exhumed some time after her death for transportation to Presburg. Other stigmatized persons were Elizabeth von Spalbeck, a Cistercian ; Sister Coleta, a Poor Clare; Matilda von Stanz; Margaret Bruch of Endringen (1503); Maria Razzi of Chios (1582); Catharina Januensis; Eliza- beth Keith of Allgau ; Stieva zu Hamm in Westphalia ; Sister Mary of the Incarnation at Pontoise ; Archangela Tardera in Sicily (1608) ; Catharina Ricci in Florence (1590) ; and Joanna Maria della Croce, a Poor Clare at Roveredo (d. 1673), upon whom the markings of the thorn crown and spear wound were especially deep. II. In some cases, although the pains of stigmatization were felt, there were no marks apparent. This occurred to Helen Brumsen (1285); Helena of Hungary (1270); Osanna of Mantua (1476); Columba Rocasani ; Magdalena de Pazzis ; Anna of Vargas ; Hiero- nyma Carvaglio ; Maria of Lisbon, a Dominican ; Joanna di Ver- celli ; Stephania Soncinas, a Franciscan ; Sister Christina, a Car- thusian ; and Joanna Rodriguez, a Poor Clare. In the case of Ursula Aguir de Valenza, a tertiary of St Dominic (1608), and Catharine Cialina (d. 1619) the pain was chiefly that of the crown of thorns, as it was also in Amelia Bicchieri of Vercelli, an Augustinian. III. In a third series some of the marks were visible on the body, while others were absent or only subjectively indicated by severe pains. The crown of thorns only was marked on the head of Vincentia Ferreria at Valencia (d. 1515) and Philippa de Santo Tomaso of Montemor (1670), while according to Torellus the Augustinian Ritta von Cassia (d. 1430) had a single thorn wound on the forehead. The crown was marked on Catharina of Raconizio (b. 1486), who also suffered a severe bloody sweat. In the case of Stephano Quinzani, in Soncino (1457), there was a profuse bloody sweat and the wounds were intermitting, appearing on Friday and Saturday, vanishing on Sunday. Blanche Gazinan, daughter of Count Arias de Sagavedra (1564), was marked only on the right foot, as also was Catherine, a Cistercian nun. The heart wound was visible in Christina Mirabilis (1232). Gabrielda de Piezolo (d. 1473) died from the bleeding of such a wound, and similar wounds were described in Maria de Acosrin in Toledo ; Eustochia, a tertiary of St Francis ; Clara de Bugny, a Dominican (1514) ; Cecilia Nobili, a Poor Clare of Nuceria (d. 1655). In the last instance the heart wound was found after death a three-cornered puncture. A similar wound was seen in the heart of Martina de Arilla (d. 1644). Maria Villana, a Poor Clare, daughter of the margrave of La PeUa, was marked with the crown and the spear thrust, and after death the impresses of the spear, sponge, and reed were found on her heart (d. 1670). The wound was usually on the left side, as in Sister Masrona of Grenoble, a tertiary of Francis (1627) ; it was on the right in Margareta Columna, also a Clare. In Maria de Sarmiento it was said to have been inflicted by a seraph in a vision.