STIGMATA

'Stigmata' are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. The term originates from the line at the end of Saint Paul's Letter to the Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus," with "marks" in the Latin Vulgate rendered as "stigmata." An individual bearing stigmata is referred to as a 'stigmatic.'
The causes of stigmata are the subject of considerable debate. Some contend that they are miraculous, while others argue they are hoaxes or can be explained medically.
Stigmata are primarily associated with the Roman Catholic faith. Many reported stigmatics are members of Catholic religious orders. The majority of reported stigmatics are female.^[1]

Contents

Description

History

Famous stigmatics

Skepticism

Similar phenomena in other mystic traditions

Popular culture

Television shows

Films

Novels

Comic books

Nightbane(a game)

Dungeons & Dragons(a game)

Online Culture

References

See also

External links

Description

Reported cases of stigmata take various forms. Many show some or all of the five Holy Wounds that were, according to the Bible, inflicted on Jesus during his crucifixion: wounds in the hands and feet, from nails, and in the side, from a lance. Some stigmatics display wounds to the forehead similar to those caused by the crown of thorns. Other reported forms include tears of blood or sweating blood, wounds to the back as from scourging, or wounds to the shoulder as from bearing the cross.
Some stigmatics feel the pain of wounds with no external marks; these are referred to as ''invisible stigmata.'' In other cases, stigmata are accompanied by extreme pain. Some stigmatics' wounds do not appear to clot, and stay fresh and uninfected. The blood from the wounds is said, in some cases, to have a pleasant, perfumed odor.
Cases of stigmata have been reported at different ages for different stigmatics. Some have manifested stigmata continually after the first appearance; others have shown periodic stigmata that re-occur at certain times of the day or on certain, sometimes holy, days throughout the year.

History

The first well-documented case, and the first to be accepted by Church authorities as authentic, was that of Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), who first experienced stigmata in La Verna, Italy, in 1224 [1].
In the century after St. Francis's death, more than twenty additional cases of stigmata were reported. Stigmata have continued to be reported since, with over three hundred cases by the end of the 19th century [2]. In the 20th century, the number of cases increased dramatically; over 500 cases have now been recorded. In modern times, increasing numbers of ordinary people – rather than mystics or members of religious orders – began to report stigmata. Cases were also reported among non-Catholic Christians [3].
The first written record of a woman to have received stigmata is in the Mediaeval Codex Iuliacensis, ca. 1320-1350, reporting the stigmata of Blessed Christina von Stommeln (died 1312), whose relics rest in the Propsteikirche in Jülich, near Aachen [4], or Georgetta von Schnitenburgs. It is claimed that one can still see marks from the crown of thorns on Christina of Stommeln's skull, which is publicly displayed annually during the octave beginning 6th November in Jülich.

Famous stigmatics

★ Saint Catherine of Siena

★ Saint John of God

★ Saint Marie of the Incarnation

★ Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

★ Brother Roque

★ Therese Neumann

★ Lilian Bernas

★ Saint Francis of Assisi

★ Saint Gemma Galgani

★ Lucia Brocadelli of Narni

★ Faustina Kowalska

★ Myr

Skepticism

There have been historical stigmatics that were known to have faked wounds, such as Magdalena de la Cruz (1487–1560), who admitted the fraud.
Similarly self-inflicted wounds can be associated with certain mental illnesses. Some people who fake stigmata suffer from Munchausen syndrome which is characterized by an intense desire for attention. People with Munchausen hurt themselves or fake an illness hoping to end up in a hospital where they can be given attention and care.
Skeptics also point out that stigmata have appeared on hands in some cases, wrists in others, and the lance wound has appeared on different sides of the body. This suggests some form of internally generated phenomena, based on the victim's own imagination and subjective in character, rather than something of external divine origin. It is unknown, either through the gospels or other historical accounts, whether crucifixion involved nails being driven through the hands, or wrists, or what side the lance pierced Christ's body, and this would appear to be reflected in the inconsistent placement of stigmatists' wounds. However Roman Crucifixions involved the nails driven through the ulna and radias gap, being just medial to the wrist.
Similarly, no case of stigmata is known to have occurred before the thirteenth century, when the crucified Jesus became a standard icon of Christianity in the west.[5]. Since crucifixes typically show Jesus having been nailed by the hands, people popularly believed this depiction to be true. As such, if one were to receive stigmata through the wrists, people would not consider it as Jesus' wounds.
In his paper ''Hospitality and Pain,'' iconoclastic Christian theologian Ivan Illich touches on the phenomenon of stigmata with characteristic terseness: "Compassion with Christ... is faith so strong and so deeply incarnate that it leads to the individual embodiment of the contemplated pain." His thesis is that stigmata result from exceptional poignancy of religious faith and desire to associate oneself with the suffering Messiah.

Similar phenomena in other mystic traditions

Caitanya Mahaprabhu experienced blood oozing from his body in intense emotional states (Sanskrit ''bhāva.'')^[2]

Popular culture

Television shows

★ In the ''The X-Files'' episode "", a young boy, played by Kevin Zegers, gets stigmata.

★ In the anime series ''Chrono Crusade'', Rosette Christopher develops stigmata.

★ In an episode of ''Picket Fences'', Adam Wylie is blessed with the stigmata and with an ability to effect miraculous faith healings.

★ In an episode of ''The Glass House'', an Australian Television Series, Alan Brough told his story of sitting in church whilst he was a young boy and picking a wart resulting in him bleeding, which made a nun near by yell "He has received the stigmata".

★ The ''Nip/Tuck'' episode "", involved a woman who claimed to suffer from stigmata.

★ In an episode of ''The Simpsons'', Milhouse has stigmata and, lifting his arms to show Bart on the playground, he has blood oozing from the palm of his hands down to his elbow.

★ In ''House'', series 1 episode 5 "Damned If You Do", the primary patient is mistaken to have stigmata by her Catholic sisters.

★ In episode 46 of ''Sealab 2021'', entitled "", Debbie misinterprets the laser beams focused on her chest as "nipple stigmata."

★ In an episode of Judging Amy, Judge Amy Grey has to rule a case on a boy who is in a vegetative state but is thought to cure people and show evidence of stigmata.

★ Madonna's 1989 video for Like a Prayer gained controversy when she was seen with stigmata, as well as her dancing in a field of burning crosses and dancing on the altar of a church.

★ In the anime series ''Code Geass'', the character C.C. has stigmata under her left breast.

★ On , Kathy stated that Oprah thought she was Jesus, saying "Oprah would get a paper cut and say 'Stigmata?'"

Films

★ ''Winter Light'' (1963), directed and written by Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman.

★ ''Agnes of God'' (1985), starring Meg Tilly and Jane Fonda

★ In ''The End of Evangelion'' (1997), Shinji Ikari produces stigmata during the initiation of Instrumentality.

★ ''Stigmata'' (1999), starring Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne.

★ ''End of Days'' (1999), starring Robin Tunney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gabriel Byrne.

★ In ''The Butterfly Effect'' (2004), Evan produces stigmata to trick his religious cellmate in to helping him.

★ In ''The Exorcism of Emily Rose'' (2005), the title character receives the stigmata for her sacrifice of burdening six evil spirits to prove the existence of Satan, and therefore as a balance, God.

★ ''The Virgin of Juarez'' (2006), starring Minnie Driver and Angus McFayden.

★ "I Know Who Killed Me" (2007), starring Lindsay Lohan, produces stigmata in the belief that she in turn has a stigmatic twin.

Novels

★ ''Touch'' by Elmore Leonard is about a former monastic brother who exhibits stigmata when he heals people.

★ ''Keeping Faith'' by Jodi Picoult features a 7 year-old girl, Faith White, with no religious background, who develops stigmata.

★ ''Lucky You'', a novel by Carl Hiaasen, incorporates a character that has self-inflicted wounds to represent stigmata in order to attract Christian tourists.

★ ''Maybe a Miracle'' by Brian Strause revolves around a character named Annika Anderson, a comatose eleven-year-old with stigmata.

★ ''Wild Cards'' by various authors (edited by George R. R. Martin) included among its characters a Joker (an individual disfigured by an alien disease) called Stigmata, whose skin would perpetually rupture and bleed.

★ ''When We Were Saints'' by Han Nolan portrays Clare having stigmata, and also has a picture of a stigma on the hand on the front cover.

★ "The Husband" by Dean Koontz features the wife Holly Rafferty using stigmata as a way to trick her captor and distract him long enough to affect her escape.

★ "The Shining" by Stephen King has a chapter where main characters Jack and Wendy Torrance are trying to find out what is wrong with their son. Jack Torrance suggests that he may be a stigmatic but not in the religious sense; in a way that maybe he receives the same afflictions that people had in the past when he enters rooms where murders and violence had occurred.

Comic books

★ ''Love and Rockets '' features a character named Errata Stigmata, a young woman who, to her dismay, has recurring stigmata.

★ ''Death, Jr.'' has a character Stigmartha, a girl who carries hand stigmata, much to her chagrin.

Nightbane(a game)

★ ''Nightbane'' in the game of the same name are shape-changers with a variety of features. One of the classes of features a nightbane can have is "Stigmata" which range from the more traditional eternal wounds to such things as being reduced to a skeleton, appearing severely burned, and or have barbed wire which appears to be wrapped around the body (but is actually part of it). Stigmata features give a nightbane access to abilities that allow them to heal others at a cost of damage to themselves, drown people in blood, or temporarily afflict an enemy with their stigmata.
Stigmata features are most common among Nightbane that were either religious Christians, masochists, those with a history of abuse (prior to discovering they weren't completely human), and those who experienced a life-threatening or "fatal" injury at approximately the same time as their "Becoming".

Dungeons & Dragons(a game)

★ The ''Book of Exalted Deeds'' features a feat called Stigmata which allows a good-aligned character to heal others at the expense of his health.

Online Culture

★ In the popular Neurotically Yours flash cartoon, one of the characters suffers a "stigmata of the eye" in one episode.

References

1. Mystical Stigmata
2. Caitanya Caritamrta 2.2.6, 2.13.104, 3.14.93


★ The Catholic Encyclopedia The Encyclopedia Press, 1913, Online Edition 2003, K. Knight.

★ Boyle, Alan, Science replays the crucifixion, MSNBC, 2005.

★ Carroll, Robert Todd, The Skeptics Dictionary, Wiley, 2003.

★ Living Miracles - Stigmata, Zentropa Real ApS. & Wonders Unlimited, 2005.

★ Sadaputa Dasa, Religion and Modern Rationalism: Shifting the Boundary Between Myth and Science, ISKCON Communications Journal #1.2, July/Dec 1993.

See also

★ Zlatko Sudac known for his stigmata which he bears on his forehead, and on on his wrists, feet and side

External links

★ The Stigmata of Heather Woods (ASSAP article)

★ What is Stigmata? Article by a Spiritualist

★ Autobiography of a Yogi/Chapter 39: Therese Neumann, the Catholic Stigmatist of Bavaria Paramahamsa Yogananda meets Therese Neumann

★ Stigmata page on Catholic.org

★ Banda Cristiana Stigmatas