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Stigmata / Stigmatics

This has been described before on'ere.

I was out with my family in Wales, wandering around a farm/zoo place in the drizzle. We saw the llamas and the funny cows, and then the kids spotted a sheep stuck between a fence and a hedge. It was bleating and a larger sheep was bleating back. My kids were quite upset about it so we went off to find the farmer.

He said not to worry, the sheep would get out on its own. When we went back though it was still there and seemed more distressed than before.

By now my kids were crying and begging me to help the sheep. I decided to give it a shot and leaned over the fence, grabbed a big handful of fleece in each hand and pulled hard.

The sheep lifted off the ground and to my surprise, flew up over my head. I swung it round and over my shoulder and it landed on all fours and ran off to the other sheep, which we realised was its mother. They ambled away happily together. The kids cheered!

The thick fleece had made it look like a full-grown sheep and not a lamb, so I had gripped it and pulled upwards as hard as I could, but it was actually tiny under all that wool.

As I realised all this I looked at my hands. There was blood running down the palms, mixed with rain. There must have been thorns caught in the fleece which had dug into my hands.
I watched for a minute or so and saw the blood run away, leaving no trace. No cuts.

So that's my stigmata story; Scargy heroically rescuing the Lost Sheep.
You're secretly superhuman. Admit it.
 
A short (6 min) film on stigmatic Therese Neumann. Lots of bloody images so if that disturbs, look away:


Therese Neumann was a German Catholic mystic and stigmatic. On March 10, 1918, Therese Neumann was partially paralyzed after falling off a stool while attending to a fire in her uncle’s barn. She sustained more falls and injuries during this period. After one particular fall in 1919, she lost much of her eyesight. Therese reported that her eyesight was fully restored on April 29, 1923 — the day Therese of Lisieux was beatified (the first step to sainthood) in Rome. She said that on March 5, 1926, the first Friday of Lent, a wound had appeared slightly above her heart, but that she had kept this secret. However, she did report a vision of Jesus at Mount Olivet with three Apostles. On Easter Sunday, she claimed a vision of the resurrection of Christ. For several consecutive Fridays after that, she stated she was experiencing the Passion of Christ, supposedly suffering in her own body along with all his historic agonies. She especially suffered the Passion on Good Fridays each year. By November 5, 1926, she displayed nine wounds on her head as well as wounds on her back and shoulders (most of which are visible in the image above). According to several sources these wounds never healed or became infected and were found on her body at death. From the years of 1922 until her death in 1962, Therese Neumann said she had consumed no food other than The Holy Eucharist, and to have drunk no water from 1926 until her death. In July 1927 a medical doctor and four Franciscan nurses kept a watch on her 24 hours a day for a two-week period. They confirmed that she had consumed nothing except for one consecrated sacred Host a day, and had suffered no ill effects, loss of weight, or dehydration. Formal proceedings for her beatification were begun in 2005.
 
Meaning no disrespect, but it just makes me think of skin cancer.
 
From the years of 1922 until her death in 1962, Therese Neumann said she had consumed no food other than The Holy Eucharist, and to have drunk no water from 1926 until her death. In July 1927 a medical doctor and four Franciscan nurses kept a watch on her 24 hours a day for a two-week period. They confirmed that she had consumed nothing except for one consecrated sacred Host a day, and had suffered no ill effects, loss of weight, or dehydration.
This would be more than a bit unusual wouldn't it. That is to say, either she was a big fibber or truly a supernatural wonder that would have turned scientific understanding on its head. I wonder if she ever excused herself to go to the toilet in those two weeks. Stigmata's one thing, but claiming you never eat or drink is stretching things a bit far surely.
 
I have mentioned this before, but someone I've known for about 8/9ths of my life had stigmata --it happened before I knew him, but I am sure it did happen. It was told to me by someone I trust more than any other person who has know this person longer than I have been alive. When this non-Christian person married a Christian person, this happened. I don't even like to talk about it, really.
 
Benedetta: A biopic of Benedetta Carlini, a mystical Italian nun and supposed stigmatic in 17th century Tuscany, adapted from Judith Brown’s 1986 biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. The young Benedetta is being taken by her family to Pescia to become a nun. When they stop at a roadside altar to pray, a group of bandits arrive and try to steal Benedetta's mother's necklace. Benedetta warns them that she speaks with the Virgin Mary, who will punish them. A bird, which Benedetta says is the spirit of Mary,scores a scat direct hit in the bandit leader's eye, he gives back the necklace. At the Convent in Pescia, Abbess Felicita (Charlotte Rampling) makes it clear that Benedetta's entry is transactional demanding a higher dowry. Benedetta is soon off on her adventures, surviving when a statue of the Virgin Mary falls on her. Eighteen years later Benedetta (Virginie Efira) is transported into raptures as she sees visions of Jesus, he saves her from serpents, meets her in fields, she embraces him on his cross. In the real world she develops stigmata. There is a question over their provenance but Felicita's skepticism is overruled by Prvoost Cecchi an ambitious cleric/bureaucrat who sees this as an opportunity to make Pesci a pilgrimage town with himself as bishop. The drama is fraught with Bedetta's love for a novice, Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) and power struggles both within the Convent and between the Nuns and the male power structures which they are subservient to. Very much an adult film, both in how the love story evolves and in the tortures carried out by the Inquisition when they arrive. Many disturbing scenes which are not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, the film is also permeated with "blasphemies". Comets appear in the skies and the Black Death stalks the land as the narrative unfolds. A disconcerting yet engaging film with great performances from Efira, Rampling, Patakia and Olivier Rabourdin as the duplicitous Cecchi. Directed/Written by Paul Verhoven. 8/10.

In cinemas.
 
Benedetta: A biopic of Benedetta Carlini, a mystical Italian nun and supposed stigmatic in 17th century Tuscany, adapted from Judith Brown’s 1986 biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. The young Benedetta is being taken by her family to Pescia to become a nun. When they stop at a roadside altar to pray, a group of bandits arrive and try to steal Benedetta's mother's necklace. Benedetta warns them that she speaks with the Virgin Mary, who will punish them. A bird, which Benedetta says is the spirit of Mary,scores a scat direct hit in the bandit leader's eye, he gives back the necklace. At the Convent in Pescia, Abbess Felicita (Charlotte Rampling) makes it clear that Benedetta's entry is transactional demanding a higher dowry. Benedetta is soon off on her adventures, surviving when a statue of the Virgin Mary falls on her. Eighteen years later Benedetta (Virginie Efira) is transported into raptures as she sees visions of Jesus, he saves her from serpents, meets her in fields, she embraces him on his cross. In the real world she develops stigmata. There is a question over their provenance but Felicita's skepticism is overruled by Prvoost Cecchi an ambitious cleric/bureaucrat who sees this as an opportunity to make Pesci a pilgrimage town with himself as bishop. The drama is fraught with Bedetta's love for a novice, Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) and power struggles both within the Convent and between the Nuns and the male power structures which they are subservient to. Very much an adult film, both in how the love story evolves and in the tortures carried out by the Inquisition when they arrive. Many disturbing scenes which are not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, the film is also permeated with "blasphemies". Comets appear in the skies and the Black Death stalks the land as the narrative unfolds. A disconcerting yet engaging film with great performances from Efira, Rampling, Patakia and Olivier Rabourdin as the duplicitous Cecchi. Directed/Written by Paul Verhoven. 8/10.

In cinemas.
How about some paragraphs? :)
 
How about some paragraphs? :)

How now?

Benedetta: A biopic of Benedetta Carlini, a mystical Italian nun and supposed stigmatic in 17th century Tuscany, adapted from Judith Brown’s 1986 biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. The young Benedetta is being taken by her family to Pescia to become a nun. When they stop at a roadside altar to pray, a group of bandits arrive and try to steal Benedetta's mother's necklace. Benedetta warns them that she speaks with the Virgin Mary, who will punish them. A bird, which Benedetta says is the spirit of Mary,scores a scat direct hit in the bandit leader's eye, he gives back the necklace. At the Convent in Pescia, Abbess Felicita (Charlotte Rampling) makes it clear that Benedetta's entry is transactional demanding a higher dowry. Benedetta is soon off on her adventures, surviving when a statue of the Virgin Mary falls on her. Eighteen years later Benedetta (Virginie Efira) is transported into raptures as she sees visions of Jesus, he saves her from serpents, meets her in fields, she embraces him on his cross.

In the real world she develops stigmata. There is a question over their provenance but Felicita's skepticism is overruled by Prvost Cecchi an ambitious cleric/bureaucrat who sees this as an opportunity to make Pesci a pilgrimage town with himself as bishop. The drama is fraught with Bedetta's love for a novice, Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) and power struggles both within the Convent and between the Nuns and the male power structures which they are subservient to. Very much an adult film, both in how the love story evolves and in the tortures carried out by the Inquisition when they arrive. Many disturbing scenes which are not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, the film is also permeated with "blasphemies". Comets appear in the skies and the Black Death stalks the land as the narrative unfolds. A disconcerting yet engaging film with great performances from Efira, Rampling, Patakia and Olivier Rabourdin as the duplicitous Cecchi. Directed/Written by Paul Verhoven. 8/10.
 
How now?

Benedetta: A biopic of Benedetta Carlini, a mystical Italian nun and supposed stigmatic in 17th century Tuscany, adapted from Judith Brown’s 1986 biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. The young Benedetta is being taken by her family to Pescia to become a nun. When they stop at a roadside altar to pray, a group of bandits arrive and try to steal Benedetta's mother's necklace.

Benedetta warns them that she speaks with the Virgin Mary, who will punish them. A bird, which Benedetta says is the spirit of Mary,scores a scat direct hit in the bandit leader's eye, he gives back the necklace. At the Convent in Pescia, Abbess Felicita (Charlotte Rampling) makes it clear that Benedetta's entry is transactional demanding a higher dowry.

Benedetta is soon off on her adventures, surviving when a statue of the Virgin Mary falls on her. Eighteen years later Benedetta (Virginie Efira) is transported into raptures as she sees visions of Jesus, he saves her from serpents, meets her in fields, she embraces him on his cross.

In the real world she develops stigmata. There is a question over their provenance but Felicita's skepticism is overruled by Prvost Cecchi an ambitious cleric/bureaucrat who sees this as an opportunity to make Pesci a pilgrimage town with himself as bishop.

The drama is fraught with Bedetta's love for a novice, Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia) and power struggles both within the Convent and between the Nuns and the male power structures which they are subservient to. Very much an adult film, both in how the love story evolves and in the tortures carried out by the Inquisition when they arrive.

Many disturbing scenes which are not for the squeamish or the faint of heart, the film is also permeated with "blasphemies". Comets appear in the skies and the Black Death stalks the land as the narrative unfolds. A disconcerting yet engaging film with great performances from Efira, Rampling, Patakia and Olivier Rabourdin as the duplicitous Cecchi. Directed/Written by Paul Verhoven. 8/10.
Loads of small paragraphs are helpful to people reading on phones or small screens. A block of text just won't get read. ;)
 
Loads of small paragraphs are helpful to people reading on phones or small screens. A block of text just won't get read. ;)

I Hadn't thought of that. I will use shorter paragraphs but not that short in reviews. Online mags like New Yorker, LARB, Guernica, various Science & SF sites tend to use longer paragraphs and they're not short of views.
 
I Hadn't thought of that. I will use shorter paragraphs but not that short in reviews. Online mags like New Yorker, LARB, Guernica, various Science & SF sites tend to use longer paragraphs and they're not short of views.
I always chop up longer pieces into short paragraphs, often only a couple of sentences long. Not exactly elegant but it helps with reading small text.
 
This overview of modern stigmatics appeared in Fortean Times, issue #96.
Blood on their Hands

In May 1992, Heather Woods, a 43 year old widow living in Lincoln confided in her bishop and showed him the palms of her hands where there were round tender areas of skin which periodically seeped blood. Similar marks appeared on her feet and a livid crescent wound appeared on the skin on her side.

For over seven hundred and fifty years there have been individual Christians who have exhibited on their bodies the physical marks of Christ's suffering. They have had wounds in their hands as if nails have been hammered through; their feet similarly have scarred and bled; some have had marks on the forehead corresponding to those which might have been made by a crown of thorns; others have had a wound in the side as if they have been speared; or stripes across the back as if from scourging. They have carried the stigmata, the marks of Christ's suffering.

It is very difficult to calculate the precise number of stigmatics living at any given time. There will be some whose experiences have not become public knowledge and there will be others, who, having once been thrust into the public domain, have retreated into privacy and who have since died. However a good estimate of current cases would be 25 with the following being amongst the best known: Christina Gallagher from County Mayo; Father Jim Bruse from Virginia USA; Jane Hunt from Derbyshire in England; George Hamilton from Glasgow, Scotland; Cloretta Robinson from California, USA; Julia Kim from Korea; Sister Angus Sasagawa from Japan; Giorgio Bongiovanni from Italy; Angelica Rael from the USA; Domenica Lo Bianco from Italy; Roberto Casarin from Italy; Vera D'Agostino from Italy; Gino Burresi from Italy; Amparia Cuevas from Portugal; Georgette Faniel from Canada.

It is generally accepted that St Francis of Assisi was the first person to receive these strange wounds. His stigmatisation occurred in September 1224 on the Feast of Exultation of the Holy Cross. This somewhat minor festival was, in the thirteenth century, celebrated with considerable fervour. St Francis was at the time totally absorbed in a longing to suffer for and with Christ. As many subsequent paintings have shown his wounds were received, according to legend, in the course of a vision during which a six winged seraph etched the marks of crucifixion on the Saints hands feet with five lines of light.

Various theories can be put forward to explain stigmata's emergence at this time. The first relates to the way in which theological trends, or fashions, come and go. After the Catholic and the Orthodox churches had diverged around a thousand years ago, the Catholic wing began to reemphasise the doctrine of the incarnation. There was a shift in theological emphasis towards the contemplation of the Christ in human form. A new church feast was introduced into the church calendar, Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, and great emphasis was laid on devotion to and contemplation of the physical sufferings of Jesus during his trial and execution. Secondly there was an upsurge in realism in religious art and depictions of the crucifixion, which had previously been stylised and devoid of emotion, became vivid, gorey and bloody. Thirdly the lay people of the church, and women in particular, felt excluded from the mysteries of the Mass when the bread and wine, they believed, was turned into the body and blood of Christ. The church, which the laity increasingly saw as corrupt, only gave priests the authority to celebrate the last supper. Stigmatics enabled many people to marvel at the wounds of Christ in such a way that gave them direct access to the body of Christ in a way which the church could not condemn outright.

The personality profile of stigmatics is similar in many cases to that of people who have claimed to have received marks on their body from aliens when abducted onto UFOs. Given the tendencies towards various forms of self abuse of people with these personality profiles it would be easy to assume that all stigmatics (or indeed abductees) have received the marks by wounding themselves. However it would be wrong to make the assumption that all stigmatics are frauds. The causes of stigmatisation are far more complex. If a person commits some act of self abuse it is a by-product of a medical or psychiatric condition and not a case of wilful deceit. Secondly, it would appear that many people who do harm themselves do not consciously recall doing so. Thirdly there is substantial evidence to suggest that marks on a person's body, once healed, can reappear psychosomatically or spontaneously.
SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE: https://web.archive.org/web/19980216123432/http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/96/stigmata.html
 
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