Editing Stigmata (section)

==Specific cases==

===Saint Ansbert of Rouen===

Earlier reports of stigmatics do exist, however there is a lack of consensus on how the concept of stigmata was understood pre-Saint Francis.<ref>Muessig, C. (2013, February 21). "Signs of salvation: The evolution of stigmatic spirituality before Francis of assisi": ''Church history''. Cambridge Core. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/church-history/article/signs-of-salvation-the-evolution-of-stigmatic-spirituality-before-francis-of-assisi/5303041ED21A96178473592D1ADD06B5</ref> St. [[Ansbert of Rouen|Ansbert]] of Rouen (d. 695 AD) could be considered the earliest stigmatic due to the claims of witnesses following his death:

"When they had opened his tomb and they thought his body would stink because of the amount of time that had elapsed since it had been buried, such a sweet fragrant odor like a diversity of flowers flowed forth, and the whole church was filled with little drops of balsam. And when the brothers who had come to see him from the neighboring province... removed the clothes in which he had been buried because they wanted to change them wishing to dress him in new clothes, they found on his forearms the sign of the dominical cross, bearing the likeness of a red color. It was evident to all the faithful that this was given to be understood that while he lived he bore the arms of Christ in his heart, therefore, Christ's stigmata were revealed on the body of the dead man."<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Signs of Salvation: The Evolution of Stigmatic Spirituality Before Francis of Assisi |journal=Church History| jstor=23358905 |last1=Muessig |first1=Carolyn |date=2013 |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=40–68 |doi=10.1017/S000964071200251X }}</ref>

===Saint Francis of Assisi===
[[File:Giotto. Stigmatization of St Francis. 1295-1300. 314x162cm. Louvre, Paris.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (Giotto)|Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata]] by [[Giotto]]]]
[[File:El Greco - The Stigmatization of St Francis - WGA10562.jpg|thumb|St. [[Francis of Assisi]], by [[El Greco]]]]

St. [[Francis of Assisi]] is widely considered the first recorded stigmatic in Christian history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1163/whats-the-deal-with-stigmata |title=What's the deal with stigmata? |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=1998-02-20 |access-date=2012-02-27}}</ref> In 1224,<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Stigmatization |volume=25 |page=918 |first=Alexander |last=Macalister }}</ref> two years before his death, he embarked on a journey to [[La Verna|Mount La Verna]] for a forty-day fast. The legend states that one morning, near the feast of the [[Exaltation of the Cross]], a six-winged angel appeared to Francis while he prayed. As the angel approached, Francis could see that the angel was crucified. He was humbled by the sight, and his heart was filled with elation joined by pain and suffering. When the angel departed, Francis was left with wounds in his hands, feet, and side as if caused by the same lance that pierced Christ's side. The image of nails immediately appeared in his hands and feet, and the wound in his side often seeped blood.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/archive/stfrancis/stf_stigmata_of_st_francis.htm |title=Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi |publisher=Franciscan Friars T.O.R. |access-date=2012-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307093413/http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/archive/stfrancis/stf_stigmata_of_st_francis.htm |archive-date=2012-03-07 }}</ref> [[Pope Alexander IV]] and other witnesses declared that they had seen these marks both before and after his death.<ref name=EB1911/> In traditional artistic depictions of the incident, Francis is accompanied by a Franciscan brother.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=25151940 |title=Sasseta: crucifixion with St. Francis |journal=The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=46–49 |publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art |last1=Francis |first1=Henry S. |year=1963 }}</ref>

St. Francis' first biographer, [[Thomas of Celano]], reports the event in his 1230 ''First Life of St. Francis'':
<blockquote>
When the blessed servant of God saw these things he was filled with wonder, but he did not know what the vision meant. He rejoiced greatly in the benign and gracious expression with which he saw himself regarded by the seraph, whose beauty was indescribable; yet he was alarmed by the fact that the seraph was affixed to the cross and was suffering terribly. Thus Francis rose, one might say, sad and happy, joy and grief alternating in him. He wondered anxiously what this vision could mean, and his soul was uneasy as it searched for understanding. And as his understanding sought in vain for an explanation and his heart was filled with perplexity at the great novelty of this vision, the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet, just as he had seen them slightly earlier in the crucified man above him.

His wrists and feet seemed to be pierced by nails, with the heads of the nails appearing on his wrists and on the upper sides of his feet, the points appearing on the other side. The marks were round on the palm of each hand but elongated on the other side, and small pieces of flesh jutting out from the rest took on the appearance of the nail-ends, bent and driven back. In the same way the marks of nails were impressed on his feet and projected beyond the rest of the flesh. Moreover, his right side had a large wound as if it had been pierced with a spear, and it often bled so that his tunic and trousers were soaked with his sacred blood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-lives.html |title=Medieval Sourcebook: Thomas of Celano: Lives of St. Francis |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=2012-02-27}}</ref>
</blockquote>

From the records of St. Francis' physical ailments and symptoms, Edward Frederick Hartung concluded in 1935 that he knew what health problems plagued St. Francis. Hartung believed that he had an eye ailment known as [[trachoma]] and [[Plasmodium malariae|quartan malaria]].<ref name="Hartung 1935">Hartung, Edward Frederick. (1935). "St. Francis and Medieval Medicine". ''Annals of Medical History'' 7: 85–91.</ref>

Quartan malaria infects the [[liver]], [[spleen]], and [[stomach]], causing the victim intense pain. One complication of quartan malaria occasionally seen around Francis' time is known as [[purpura]], a purple hemorrhage of blood into the skin. According to Hartung "If this were the case of St. Francis, he would have been afflicted by ''ecchymoses'', an exceedingly large ''purpura''. The purple spots of blood may have been punctured while in the wilderness and there appear as an open wound like that of Christ."<ref name="Hartung 1935"/><ref>{{Cite news
| issn = 0040-781X
| title = Medicine: St. Francis' Stigmata
| magazine = Time
| access-date = 2009-09-14
| date = 1935-03-11
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883261,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071116111728/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883261,00.html
| archive-date = November 16, 2007
}}</ref>

A later medical hypothesis was proposed in 1987 to explain the wounds, it claimed that St. Francis may have contracted [[leprosy]].<ref>Schazlein, Joanne; Sulmasy, Daniel P. (1987). ''The Diagnosis of St. Francis: Evidence for Leprosy''. Franciscan Studies 47: 181–217.</ref>

===Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina===
[[File:Padre Pio of Pietrelcina with the stigmata.jpg|thumb|A young [[Padre Pio]] showing the stigmata]]
For over fifty years, Padre [[Padre Pio|Pio of Pietrelcina]] reported stigmata which were studied by several 20th-century physicians, whose independence from the Church is not known.<ref name="time1">
{{Cite news
 | title = The Stigmatist
 | journal = [[Time Magazine]]
 | date = 19 December 1949
 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855088,00.html
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080501181214/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855088,00.html
 | archive-date = May 1, 2008
 | access-date = 2008-01-19
}}
</ref><ref name="time2">
{{Cite news
 | title = A Padre's Patience
 | journal = [[Time Magazine]]
 | date = 24 April 1964
 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870915,00.html
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930114430/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870915,00.html
 | archive-date = September 30, 2007
 | access-date = 2008-01-19
}}
</ref><ref name="clairval">
{{cite web
 | last =  Marie osb
 | first = Dom Antoine
 | title = Letter on Blessed Pader Pio: Stigmata – Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist – Suffering
 | url = http://www.clairval.com/lettres/en/2000/04/24/2260400.htm
 | date = 2000-04-24
 | access-date = 2006-09-27
}}
</ref>
The observations were reportedly inexplicable and the wounds never became infected.<ref name="time1"/><ref name="time2"/><ref>Michael Freze, 1989, ''They Bore the Wounds of Christ: The Mystery of the Sacred Stigmata'', OSV Publishing {{ISBN|0-87973-422-1}} pp. 283–285.</ref> His wounds healed once, but reappeared.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9375317 |title=Padre Pio |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=1968 |access-date=2012-02-27}}</ref> The wounds were examined by Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the City Hospital of [[Barletta]], for about one year. The physician Angelo Maria Merla noted that the wounds were not [[Tuberculosis|tubercular]] in origin but could not make an official diagnosis without further tests.<ref name="Ruffin 1991">Ruffin, Barnard. (1991). ''Padre Pio: The True Story''. OSV Press. pp. 160–178. {{ISBN|0-87973-673-9}}</ref> The surgeon [[Giorgio Festa]], a private practitioner, also examined them in 1920 and 1925.<ref name="Ruffin 1991"/> Professor [[Giuseppe Bastianelli]], physician to [[Pope Benedict XV]], examined the wounds, but no report of his examinations was made. Pathologist [[Amico Bignami]] of the [[Sapienza University of Rome|University of Rome]] also observed the wounds, describing them as shallow. Festa, who had originally agreed with Bignami, later described the wounds as superficial when covered with a scab.<ref name="Ruffin 1991"/> Giorgio Festa noted that "at the edges of the lesions, the skin is perfectly normal and does not show any sign of [[edema]], of penetration, or of redness, even when examined with a good magnifying glass".<ref name="Ruffin 1991"/> Alberto Caserta took [[X-ray]]s of the hands in 1954 and found no abnormality in the bone structure.<ref name="Ruffin 1991"/> [[Giuseppe Sala (physician)|Giuseppe Sala]] who worked as a physician for Pio between 1956 and 1968 commented that tests revealed his blood had no signs of abnormality.<ref name="Ruffin 1991"/>

There were both religious and non-religious critics who accused Padre Pio of faking his stigmata, saying he used [[Phenol|carbolic acid]] to make the wounds. The historian Sergio Luzzatto recounted that in 1919, Maria De Vito (the cousin of the local pharmacist Valentini Vista at [[Foggia]]) testified that the young Pio bought carbolic acid and the great quantity of four grams of [[Veratridine|veratrine]] "without presenting any medical prescription whatsoever".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Luzzatto |first1=Sergio |title=Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-4299-4645-2 |pages=91–92}}</ref><ref name="telegraph">Quote: Maria De Vito said, "I was an admirer of Padre Pio and I met him for the first time on July 31, 1919...he gave me personally an empty bottle, and asked if I would act as a chauffeur to transport it back from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo with four grams of pure carbolic acid. ... He explained that the acid was for disinfecting syringes for injections. He also asked for other things, such as Valda pastilles." {{cite news|last=Moore|first=Malcolm| title = Italy's Padre Pio 'faked his stigmata with acid'| date = 2007-10-24 | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1567216/Italys-Padre-Pio-faked-his-stigmata-with-acid.html|access-date = 2012-04-25| work=The Daily Telegraph}}.</ref>  Pio maintained that the carbolic acid was used to sterilize syringes used for medical treatments and that after being subjected to a practical joke where veratrine was mixed with snuff tobacco, causing uncontrollable sneezing after ingestion, he decided to acquire his own quantity of the substance in order to play the same joke on his confreres.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Luzzatto |first1=Sergio |title=Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-4299-4645-2 |page=103}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Castelli |first1=Francesco |title=Padre Pio under investigation: the secret Vatican files |date=2011 |publisher=Ignatius Press |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-1-58617-405-7 |pages=25, 114}}</ref>

[[Amico Bignami]] in a report wrote that the wounds were caused by "[[Neurosis|neurotic]] [[necrosis]]". He suggested they had been inflicted unconsciously by [[suggestion]] and artificially maintained by [[iodine]] that Pio had used as a disinfectant.<ref name="Ruffin 1991"/> In 1922, physician [[Agostino Gemelli]] went to visit Padre Pio, but Gemelli was denied the right to examine the stigmata without an authorization from the Holy Office. Gemelli, irritated and offended for not being allowed to examine the stigmata, wrote that Pio was a hysteric and his stigmata were self-induced, not of supernatural origin.{{sfnp|Luzzatto|2011|p=59}}<ref name="Higgens 2006">Higgins, Michael W. (2006). ''Stalking the Holy: The Pursuit of Saint Making''. Anansi Press. p. 129. {{ISBN|0-88784-181-3}}</ref> Gemelli also speculated that his wounds were kept open with carbolic acid.<ref name="Higgens 2006"/> Giorgio Festa, who examined the stigmata of the friar on October 28, 1919, wrote in his report that they "are not the product of a trauma of external origin, nor are they due to the application of potently irritating chemicals".<ref>{{cite book| first1 = Saverio |last1=Gaeta |first2= Andrea|last2= Tornielli| title= Padre Pio, l'ultimo sospetto: la verità sul frate delle stimmate|publisher= Piemme| location= Casale Monferrato (Alessandria)|date= 2008|language=it}}</ref>

Throughout his life, Pio had hidden his wounds by wearing fingerless [[glove]]s. At death there were no wounds, only "unblemished skin".<ref name="Nickell 2001">[[Joe Nickell|Nickell, Joe]]. (2001). ''Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal''. University of Kentucky Press. pp. 276–288. {{ISBN|0-8131-2210-4}}</ref>

===Mariam Thresia Chiramel===
The first saint from [[India]] with stigmata was nun [[Mariam Thresia Chiramel]].<ref>{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}</ref> She was canonised on 13 October 2019 by [[Pope Francis]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-10/biography-mariam-thresia-mankidiyan-mystic-holy-family.html|title=Mother Mariam Thresia Mankidiyan: From silent mystic to apostle of the family |date=October 12, 2019|website=www.vaticannews.va}}</ref>