Stigmata: In Imitation of Christ

Illness is another frequent characteristic. Rene Biot, in his The Enigma of the Stigmata (1962, 57), exclaims with wonder at "how many stigmatics have been bedridden!" He notes that St. Lidwina (d. 1433) had so many alleged illnesses that she was "a sort of pathological museum," indeed a "museum of horrors." Similarly, Therese Neumann experienced alternate bouts of convulsions, blindness, deafness, mutism, paralysis, and so on--effects that appear to have been due to hysterical hypochondria or, more likely, outright fakery since the alleged conditions evaded diagnosis (Rogo 1982, 65-66; Nickell 1993, 227-228). Given such cases one researcher noted the parallels between stigmata and M[ddot{u}]nchausen's syndrome, an emotional disorder involving feigned or inflicted illness (Schnabel 1993).

Still other stigmatics--like St. Veronica Giuliani (c. 1640-1727), Victoire Claire (c. 1808-1883), along with numerous others--often lapsed into states of ecstasy (i.e., apparent trance arising out of religious fervor). Following St. Francis, who supposedly received his stigmata during a vision of Jesus's crucifixion, came several emulators, including Passitea Crogi who, on Palm Sunday 1589, fell into an ecstasy and later described a vision of Christ bruised and bleeding. Other vision-delivered stigmata were claimed by Johann Jetzer, Therese Neumann (1898-1962), and James Bruse.

A great number of stigmatics were blessed, allegedly, with other supernatural phenomena, including the powers of prophecy and healing, levitation, bilocation (supposedly being in two places simultaneously), and inedia (the alleged ability to forgo nourishment). As an example of the latter, Angela of Foligno (1250-1309) reportedly went without food for twelve years. After death, the bodies of a few stigmatics were discovered to be "incorruptible" (i.e., to withstand decay). Also vials of blood preserved from the stigmatic wounds of Passitea Crogi purportedly reliquefy on occasion (Wilson 1988, 131-148). Needless to say, perhaps, such claims are unproved, and may be attributed to folklore, misperceptions and misunderstandings born of superstition, and pious fraud (Nickell 1993).

Proven Frauds

That many stigmatics were fakes is well established. For example, Magdalena de la Cruz, having become ill in 1543 and fearful of dying a sinner, confessed that her stigmata, inedia, and other phenomena were deliberate deceptions. Another, Maria. de la Visitacion, known as the "holy nun of Lisbon," was accused by a sister nun who saw her painting a fake wound onto her hand. Although initially defended by doctors in 1587, she was brought before the Inquisition, whereupon her wounds were scrubbed and the coloration washed off, revealing "unblemished flesh" beneath (Wilson 1988, 26).

Another fake was Palma Maria Matarelli who not only exhibited the stigmata but also "miraculously" produced Communion wafers on her tongue. Pope Pius IX privately branded her a fraud, stating that he had the proof in his desk drawer and adding, "She has befooled a whole crowd of pious and credulous souls" (quoted in Wilson 1988, 42). A more public condemnation awaited Gigliola Giorgini (b. 1933): Discredited by church authorities, in 1984 she was convicted of fraud by an Italian court (Wilson 1988, 42, 147).