I admittedly have trouble believing this as fact, but I did enjoy the movie "Stigmata"
I apologize for the poor analogy.
To many, the stigmata can seem a strange “gift,” but Padre Pio is not the first to reportedly receive the wounds of Christ.
The stigmata—a history
The first stigmatic (a person whose body shows wounds like those of Christ) was St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order, in 1224. He is said to have borne the marks of the nails of the crucifixion on his hands and feet, and the wound from the lance in his side. Other stigmatics, like St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, bore only marks from the crown of thorns.
The word stigmata, the plural of stigma, comes from the Greek, meaning “mark” or “brand.”
There have been about 250 recorded instances of the stigmata, and approximately 90 percent of these stigmatics have been women. However, not all have been declared saints or even affirmed as legitimate by the church.
For St. Francis, the stigmata appeared when he received a vision of an angel crucified, and the wounds then appeared on his own body. His biographer, Thomas of Celano, also wrote that he suffered more illnesses after receiving the stigmata.
The stigmata usually is reported to occur alongside some form of religious ecstasy or visions, which tend to occur either at the reception of the marks or more regularly. Usually, physical pain and anguish for the sinful state of the world occur along with the wounds, showing the stigmatic’s connection to Christ.
Padre Pio, like other stigmatics, reportedly had a vision that led to his receiving the five wounds. He, too, had been sickly his whole life (he was discharged from the Medical Corps during World War I because of his ill health). The first priest to receive the stigmata, he was prohibited from celebrating Mass in public and from visiting with people for a few years in the 1930s because of church suspicion of his works.
Padre Pio allegedly experienced transverberation of the heart—two months before he received the stigmata—in which he suffered horrible pain in his side for two days, said to be part of participation in Jesus’ suffering for the world. He was able to bilocate, according to the testimony of Padre Carmelo Durante, the superior of Padre Pio’s community in 1954, and it was said he was in the town healing people or attending meetings while being simultaneously in the friary.
Padre Pio faced questions from authorities, including Pope John XXIII in the 1960s, about the veracity of his miracles, from the healings he performed to the stigmata he bore. Many argue to this day that he may have used carbolic acid on his hands to make the marks on his body. However, the pope who canonized him, St. John Paul II, had his own encounter with Padre Pio in 1947 and believed in Padre Pio’s prophetic powers; and he beatified and canonized him.
A very high percentage of stigmatics have been women. Some have attributed this to women being more active generally in religion, or to women’s lack of power in the church, especially in previous centuries. Others have argued that experiencing the wounds of Christ lent women with the stigmata a kind of authority in the church in which they have no clerical power. Most also had little earthly power in their own lives—Marie Rose Ferron was bedridden; St. Lidwina was paralyzed; Bl. Elena Aiello survived stomach cancer.
The first recorded case of stigmata occurred in the 13th century, which for some raises questions about the first 1,000-plus years after Christ’s death, when there is no record of anyone reporting these wounds. Some note that the beginning of the era in which the church has a record of people claiming to experience the stigmata aligns with the period in church history when the church embraced with special emphasis the recognition of the humanity of Jesus, especially as he was on the cross. Around that same time St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata, the feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated on the Christian calendar for the first time.
The self-proclaimed devil’s advocate Herbert Thurston, S.J., wrote that the suggestibility of the so-called stigmatics lends itself to a “crucifixion complex.” The stigmatics’ marks vary: The lance wound in the side is sometimes on the left, sometimes the right; many stigmatics have wounds in the palm, whereas Jesus would have been nailed through the wrist (as some more recent stigmatics have allegedly experienced); and some have markings directly corresponding to a crucifix at their local church. This could suggest that the stigmatics imprinted the marks on themselves, either purposefully or while in religious trance; in this case, they would not have been divinely caused.
Explainer: Padre Pio and the (controversial) history of the stigmata | America Magazine
I apologize for the poor analogy.
To many, the stigmata can seem a strange “gift,” but Padre Pio is not the first to reportedly receive the wounds of Christ.
The stigmata—a history
The first stigmatic (a person whose body shows wounds like those of Christ) was St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order, in 1224. He is said to have borne the marks of the nails of the crucifixion on his hands and feet, and the wound from the lance in his side. Other stigmatics, like St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, bore only marks from the crown of thorns.
The word stigmata, the plural of stigma, comes from the Greek, meaning “mark” or “brand.”
There have been about 250 recorded instances of the stigmata, and approximately 90 percent of these stigmatics have been women. However, not all have been declared saints or even affirmed as legitimate by the church.
For St. Francis, the stigmata appeared when he received a vision of an angel crucified, and the wounds then appeared on his own body. His biographer, Thomas of Celano, also wrote that he suffered more illnesses after receiving the stigmata.
The stigmata usually is reported to occur alongside some form of religious ecstasy or visions, which tend to occur either at the reception of the marks or more regularly. Usually, physical pain and anguish for the sinful state of the world occur along with the wounds, showing the stigmatic’s connection to Christ.
Padre Pio, like other stigmatics, reportedly had a vision that led to his receiving the five wounds. He, too, had been sickly his whole life (he was discharged from the Medical Corps during World War I because of his ill health). The first priest to receive the stigmata, he was prohibited from celebrating Mass in public and from visiting with people for a few years in the 1930s because of church suspicion of his works.
Padre Pio allegedly experienced transverberation of the heart—two months before he received the stigmata—in which he suffered horrible pain in his side for two days, said to be part of participation in Jesus’ suffering for the world. He was able to bilocate, according to the testimony of Padre Carmelo Durante, the superior of Padre Pio’s community in 1954, and it was said he was in the town healing people or attending meetings while being simultaneously in the friary.
Padre Pio faced questions from authorities, including Pope John XXIII in the 1960s, about the veracity of his miracles, from the healings he performed to the stigmata he bore. Many argue to this day that he may have used carbolic acid on his hands to make the marks on his body. However, the pope who canonized him, St. John Paul II, had his own encounter with Padre Pio in 1947 and believed in Padre Pio’s prophetic powers; and he beatified and canonized him.
A very high percentage of stigmatics have been women. Some have attributed this to women being more active generally in religion, or to women’s lack of power in the church, especially in previous centuries. Others have argued that experiencing the wounds of Christ lent women with the stigmata a kind of authority in the church in which they have no clerical power. Most also had little earthly power in their own lives—Marie Rose Ferron was bedridden; St. Lidwina was paralyzed; Bl. Elena Aiello survived stomach cancer.
The first recorded case of stigmata occurred in the 13th century, which for some raises questions about the first 1,000-plus years after Christ’s death, when there is no record of anyone reporting these wounds. Some note that the beginning of the era in which the church has a record of people claiming to experience the stigmata aligns with the period in church history when the church embraced with special emphasis the recognition of the humanity of Jesus, especially as he was on the cross. Around that same time St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata, the feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated on the Christian calendar for the first time.
The self-proclaimed devil’s advocate Herbert Thurston, S.J., wrote that the suggestibility of the so-called stigmatics lends itself to a “crucifixion complex.” The stigmatics’ marks vary: The lance wound in the side is sometimes on the left, sometimes the right; many stigmatics have wounds in the palm, whereas Jesus would have been nailed through the wrist (as some more recent stigmatics have allegedly experienced); and some have markings directly corresponding to a crucifix at their local church. This could suggest that the stigmatics imprinted the marks on themselves, either purposefully or while in religious trance; in this case, they would not have been divinely caused.
Explainer: Padre Pio and the (controversial) history of the stigmata | America Magazine
