These five saints are among the handful of the faithful who have received the stigmata:
- St. Francis of Assisi. Feast: October 4. St.
- St. Padre Pio. Feast: September 23. One of the best-known stigmatics, St.
- St. Catherine of Siena. Feast: April 29. St.
- St. Faustina Kowalska. Feast: October 5.
- St. Rita of Cascia. Feast: May 22.
St Francis of Assisi received the stigmata (wounds) of Jesus Christ while praying at La Verna in 1224. These wounds emanated from a vision of a seraph in the form of a cross, and consisted of nail marks on his hands and feet, and a gash in the side of his chest.
Stigma was borrowed from Latin stigmat- , stigma, meaning "mark, brand," and ultimately comes from Greek stizein, meaning "to tattoo." Earliest English use hews close to the word's origin: stigma in English first referred to a scar left by a hot iron—that is, a brand.
The friar claimed that he had received the stigmata of Christ – wounds to his hands, feet and side like those suffered by Christ during his crucifixion – at the culmination of a mystical seizure. "My thought was that the carbolic acid could be used by Padre Pio to procure or further irritate wounds on his hands."
How true is it that Jesus received 39 lashes, representing the 39 diseases known in His time?
At her canonization ceremony, she was bestowed the title of Patroness of Impossible Causes, while in many Catholic countries, Rita came to be known as the patroness of abused wives and heartbroken women. Her incorrupt body remains in the Basilica of Santa Rita da Cascia.
St. Catherine of Siena was a Dominican tertiary and mystic who lived in Italy in the 1300s. She was known for her holiness, asceticism, and spiritual visions and was said to have received stigmata. She was also a reformer and political activist, and she was influential in religious and political affairs of the church.
Suffocation, loss of body fluids and multiple organ failure. It wasn't pleasant, but for those with a strong constitution take a deep breath and read on. "The weight of the body pulling down on the arms makes breathing extremely difficult," says Jeremy Ward, a physiologist at King's College London.
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
When nails were involved, they were long and square (about 15cm long and 1cm thick) and were driven into the victim's wrists or forearms to fix him to the crossbar. Once the crossbar was in place, the feet may be nailed to either side of the upright or crossed.
Biblical referencesJust before they did so, they realized that Jesus was already dead and that there was no reason to break his legs ("and no bone will be broken"). To make sure that he was dead, a Roman soldier (named in extra-Biblical tradition as Longinus) stabbed him in the side.
The pentangle was also known to represent the five joys of Mother Mary: The Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and Assumption (Rose 110).
