GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, MYSTICAL UNION IN ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA, PART II, CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER FOUR: The Stigmatization

After speaking of the infused doctrine of the Virgin of Siena—of her visions, raptures, and other extraordinary favors—we must now consider her stigmatization, along with the particularly exceptional circumstances in which it occurred.

The Church has instituted a special feast to commemorate this mystical grace, just as she established a proper Mass and Office for the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi. The institution of such feasts is significant. It shows, first of all, that the Church has attained moral certainty regarding the divine origin of this extraordinary favor—particularly in the cases of Francis and Catherine. It also indicates that the Church judges this grace capable of powerfully recalling the faithful to the memory of the Crucifixion of the Savior.

In this context, we shall consider two key points:

1. The necessity of examining the circumstances of stigmatization in order to determine its divine origin.

2. The meaning and spiritual value of this grace, once its authenticity is assured.

Can Stigmatization Have a Natural Cause?

Rationalists have sought to demonstrate in various ways that the fact of stigmatization can be explained naturally. To respond to their claim, we must closely consider both the nature of this exceptional fact and the circumstances in which it occurs.

It is commonly taught that the examination of the physical and moral circumstances surrounding an event that appears miraculous can help discern whether it truly has a divine origin. Such discernment is especially necessary when dealing with second or third order miracles—such as the instantaneous healing of a fever—which surpass created powers less visibly than, say, the resurrection of a dead man.

All the more, then, we must examine the physical and moral circumstances of a phenomenon that—though rare—does not in itself visibly exceed the powers of created agents. This is the case, for example, with levitation or walking on water. Scripture recounts that Simon Magus was lifted from the ground by a force that was not of God, as the circumstances demonstrate. Yet when St. Peter walked upon the waters with the assistance of the Savior, the circumstances of the act revealed its divine origin.

Is stigmatization—considering merely the external fact of the visible wounds of Christ’s Passion impressed on the hands, feet, and side, accompanied by intense physical pains—a true and proper miracle that only God can perform? That is, does it exceed the natural capacity even of angels, good or fallen?

It would be difficult to prove that the production of such wounds necessarily surpasses all created powers. A man could inflict the external wounds of the crucifixion with a scalpel. A good or evil angel, capable of locally moving, striking, and even profoundly injuring our body, might also produce such effects.[1] Indeed, diabolic intervention is not unheard of in this regard. It is known that in many cases the devil has attempted to imitate true stigmatization.[2] In some cases, even human deception has played a role.

The difficulty increases when we consider the uncertain limits of the power of the imagination, especially when agitated by intense desire. The imagination can have considerable influence over the body—particularly when inflamed by an ardent passion—producing abnormal strength or, conversely, great debilitation. We know, for instance, that the imagination of a pregnant woman can affect the child in her womb, and that hypochondriacs can become genuinely ill through the conviction of illness.

Yet this influence of the imagination and overexcited passion has its limits. Even the most powerful imagination cannot add a single inch to our stature; it cannot lift us into the air, nor can it separate muscles and bones in the hands and feet. As St. Thomas observes,[3] imagination may account for the acceleration of certain bodily functions—such as the beating of the heart—but it is not sufficient to produce deep wounds in the hands and feet, to the point of piercing them through.[4]

Stigmatization Is Not a Natural Phenomenon

As Dr. R. van der Elst observes, “Nature is known by its consistency. To say that there are some natural stigmatas is to claim that wounds regularly come about in determined conditions—wounds in determined places that rupture not only blood vessels beneath the skin, but also the skin itself, causing visible bleeding. To this day, such phenomena have not only never been observed, but no one has even been able to induce them—no case is known in which suggestion alone has produced a true lesion followed by hemorrhage.”[5]

Furthermore, not only has natural stigmatization never been observed or reproduced to this day, but it also appears to be impossible—no less so than natural levitation or the spontaneous elevation of the human body in defiance of the law of gravity.

With regard to the limits of the overexcited imagination, it is frequently and rightly observed that if the prolonged and loving contemplation of the Savior’s wounds were sufficient to produce these sacred signs, how is it that more than twelve centuries passed before St. Francis of Assisi—the first stigmatic—without a single similar occurrence in the Church, despite the fact that so many saintly men and women had immersed themselves in the thought and love of the wounds of Jesus?

Moreover, how is it that stigmatization produces in the hands, feet, and side such deeply profound wounds—yet always without suppuration, infection, or the ordinary stages of scarring?[6]

And finally, how is it that the vast majority of stigmatics have received the divine wounds without any suggestion or autosuggestion, without anticipating or desiring them—many even begging to be freed from them? How can it be explained that in some cases, the wounds became invisible in response to prayer?

This difficulty parallels the question of the origin of ecstasy; in fact, stigmatization generally occurs during an ecstatic state. How can true, divine ecstasy be distinguished from natural fainting or swooning, which can also involve a suspension of the external senses, as seen in certain cases of catalepsy or syncope? Such natural fainting may be caused by intense emotional excitement or by the profound impressions of prayer upon a fragile constitution. As for diabolical ecstasy, it is a kind of obsession which may likewise involve a loss of external sensory perception.

Yet despite these imitations—both natural and preternatural—true divine ecstasy can often be clearly identified through the physical and moral circumstances, as Benedict XIV explains in De Servorum Dei Beatificatione (Book II, chapter 49, nn. 5–6). He notes that natural fainting arises from a delicate condition, the symptoms of which are usually obvious, and it leaves the subject in a state of physical and mental exhaustion, without any recollection of what transpired during the loss of external senses.

When the devil simulates ecstasy, there are, according to Benedict XIV, certain signs that betray his influence: the disorderly life of the individual; grotesque or contorted bodily movements; incoherent speech, of which the subject retains no memory; ostentation that drives the person to seek out public places and put themselves on display; agitation and disturbance following the episode; and even communications that tend to lead to evil.[7]

By contrast, divine ecstasy manifests itself through contrary signs. It occurs in persons who are mentally sound and who practice the virtues—especially humility—with a high degree of perfection. In them, there is nothing disordered and their ecstasy is often accompanied by prodigies: like the discernment of hidden things, freedom from the law of gravity, prolonged fasting, invulnerability to injury, and, notably, an immediate return to ordinary consciousness at the command of the representatives of spiritual authority.

All of this shows that to determine the divine origin of a stigmatization, one must examine the full range of physical and moral circumstances. This comprehensive study of the facts—which provides an overview—must never be divorced from the consideration of particulars—for such details only have value in relation to the whole. The overview which may initially appear obscure often becomes clearer and more compelling as these signs accumulate and illuminate one another.

Now, the circumstances surrounding the stigmatization of St. Catherine of Siena, as recorded by Bl. Raymond of Capua, are particularly striking.[8] No less striking is the fact that even today the stigmata can be seen on the hand of the Saint, preserved in Rome at the convent of the contemplative Dominican nuns of Monte Mario. The hand is pierced through, and the wound may be seen by holding a candle to it.[9]

The Circumstances of the Stigmatization of St. Catherine

The principal circumstances of this event are as follows: It occurred unexpectedly, on the occasion of fervent prayer and a divine promise of eternal salvation, which it confirmed. It took place in the presence of credible witnesses. It is attested to by the Saint herself, who says to have a perfect certainty of it. Lastly, its effects were intense physical pain and an even greater love for Jesus Crucified.

1. It occurred unexpectedly, on the occasion of fervent prayer and a divine promise of eternal salvation, which it confirmed.

It was August 18, 1370.

“Catherine, in her cell—outstretched on the hard bench that served as her bed—was praying for many people, naming some of them in particular, especially her confessor… She was asking God, on behalf of him and the others for whom she prayed, for the certainty of eternal salvation. To that end, she extended her hand, saying: ‘Promise me that you will save them.’ While her hand was extended, she seemed to feel a great pain, and drawing a deep breath, she exclaimed: ‘Praised be Christ the Lord!’—a phrase she was accustomed to saying in times of illness or suffering.

Her confessor went to her and asked what had happened during the vision. Bound by obedience, she recounted all that we have just narrated, and added: ‘I insisted in asking for eternal life for you and for the others for whom I prayed, and the Lord promised it to me. Then—not out of disbelief, but to have a certain confirmation—I said to Him: “What sign will you give me, O Lord, that you will do what you say?” And He replied: “Extend your hand.” I extended it to Him, and He drew forth a nail, placed it in the center of my palm, and pressed it so forcefully into my hand that it seemed to me to be pierced through. I felt as much pain as if an iron nail had truly been driven into it with a hammer… And so, by the grace of the Lord my Jesus Christ, I now bear His stigmata on my right hand. Though it is invisible to others, I feel it continually, and it causes me unceasing pain.’”[10]

Here, then, is a sudden and unexpected pain—not the result of autosuggestion, but appearing as a divine sign accompanying a promise of eternal salvation, given in the context of fervent prayer.

Indeed, throughout the life of St. Catherine of Siena, great graces were often granted during moments of ordinary life or following fervent prayer.[11]

2. A confirmation and a supernatural renewal of the fact took place later before creidble witnesses.

Blessed Raymond recounts in the same chapter that the event was later confirmed by a remarkable renewal of the stigmata in the presence of trustworthy witnesses.

“Since we are speaking of Catherine’s Communions and her stigmata,” he writes, “I am obliged, dear reader, to tell you what happened much later in Pisa, in my presence… After Mass, during which she had received Communion, the Saint remained in ecstasy for some time, as was her custom—her spirit, thirsting for its Creator, the Supreme Spirit, having withdrawn far from the senses. We waited for her to return to herself, as she often shared words of spiritual comfort when she did. Suddenly, we saw her fragile body, previously lying prostrate, slowly rise until she knelt upright, arms and hands extended, her face radiant with light. After remaining thus, perfectly still and with eyes closed, she suddenly collapsed, as though struck dead. Shortly after, her soul returned to her senses.

The Virgin then called me to her and said in a low voice: ‘Know, O Father, that by the mercy of the Lord Jesus, I bear in my body His stigmata.’

I replied that I had perceived something was happening by observing her movements during the ecstasy and I asked her how the Lord had accomplished it.”

Thus, the extraordinary grace was supernaturally confirmed and renewed before several credible witnesses who were then further illuminated by the testimony of the Saint herself.

3. The quality of the testimony of the favored person.

The value of such testimony is greatly increased when the favored soul has practiced the Christian virtues at length to a heroic degree—especially humility, obedience, and charity—without any trace of ostentation. Above all, it is significant when the soul, immediately upon receiving the stigmata, asks that they be made invisible.

This we find in St. Catherine’s own words in the same place in her Life, as recounted by Bl. Raymond:

“I saw the Lord nailed to the Cross, coming toward me in a great light. So strong was the impulse of my soul to go to meet my Creator, that my body was lifted to its knees. Then, from the scars of His most sacred wounds, I saw five rays of blood descending toward my hands, feet, and heart. Sensing the mystery that was happening, I cried out: ‘Ah, Lord, my God, I ask You—do not let these wounds appear outwardly upon my body.’ While I spoke, before the rays reached me, their sanguine color turned to a resplendent color. In the form of pure light, they arrived at the five points of my body: the hands, the feet, and the heart.”

This request for invisibility—granted immediately—bears witness to the authenticity and humility of the Saint.

4. The supernatural character of the stigmatization is also confirmed by its physical and spiritual effects.

When Bl. Raymond asked the Virgin of Siena whether she felt physical pain from the wounds, she took a deep breath and replied:

“The pain I feel in these five places—especially in my heart—is so great that, unless the Lord were to work another miracle, I do not believe I could survive it. In a few days, I would die.”

So intense were her sufferings that her spiritual children feared for her life. They prayed that the Lord would ease her pain—and He heard them. St. Catherine later said to her spiritual father:

“The Lord, to my great sorrow, has heard your prayers. These wounds no longer cause my body pain; rather, they strengthen and invigorate it. I feel that new life now flows from the very places where torment once reigned.”

The chief spiritual fruit of true stigmatization is a greater love for Jesus Crucified and a fervent desire to be conformed ever more to Him through imitation Him in all His virtues. This love of the cross is clearly visible in the Saint in the pages that follow. As her biographer tells us, she prayed:

“Since You have decreed, O Lord, that I must still remain in this body for a time, grant me at least to share in all the sufferings You bore.”

From that time on, she bore more and more intensely the cross of the desire for the salvation of souls, which she called “the greatest cross of the Savior.”

Taking into account the unexpected circumstances in which the stigmatization occurred, its purpose as confirmation of a divine promise, its later renewal before several witnesses, the quality of the testimony of the person to whom the favor was granted, the enduring physical and spiritual effects, and the Church’s eventual institution of the feast of St. Catherine’s stigmata, we may affirm with moral certainty the divine origin of this extraordinary grace.

The Significance and Value of This Special Grace

The meaning and value of this extraordinary favor entirely elude those rationalists who seek to evaluate it purely from its external and material aspects, without considering its exalted purpose. Their approach is like trying to describe Michelangelo’s statue of Moses by examining only the marble from which it is made—ignoring the expression of the figure, the genius of the sculptor, and the higher purpose of the work.

Of the four causes of any work of art—the final, efficient, formal, and material—the material is the least important. One who knows only the marble of the statue knows only what is most inferior.

The external fact of the stigmata is, at first glance, like the stained-glass window of a church seen from the outside: its form may be perceived, but its meaning remains obscure. It is only when viewed from within, under the proper light, that its true beauty and message are revealed.

So too, in the case of the stigmata, we move from a confused idea, to a distinct idea, and finally to a lived idea. It is the same truth, perceived ever more deeply and made increasingly vivid through a more profound contact with its reality.

Finally, in those who live profoundly the liturgy of the feasts of the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena, there is an intimate knowledge of the radiance of the Savior’s Passion in His Mystical Body. The stigmatization thus holds a most profound meaning—one that the faithful, especially those of pure heart, are able to penetrate. It fosters a deeper understanding of the Passion of Christ, the life of His Mystical Body, and the marvelous way in which God is so admirable in His saints whom he conforms to His Son in this way.

Thus, the words of St. Paul take on greater depth and immediacy (Phil 3:8–10):

I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ: And may be found in him, not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ Jesus, which is of God, justice in faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.

This painful configuration to the Crucified is the prelude to the glorious configuration, for Christ does not unite His saints to His sufferings except to make them sharers in His glory in eternity.

And so, these extraordinary facts are given to us in the lives of the saints to awaken us from our slumber and draw our attention to what is most profound in the ordinary Christian life—the hidden interior life of every soul truly faithful to Our Lord. It is rare indeed that some Servants of God receive the stigmata, but such graces are granted to remind us that we too are called to be spiritually conformed to Christ. Each day, with ever-deepening faith, we must make our own the words of the Via Crucis:

Sancta Mater, istud agas, Crucifixi fige plagas Cordi meo valide.[12]

Holy Mother, pierce me through; In my heart each wound renew Of my Savior crucified.

ENDNOTES

[1] Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 114, a. 4, ad 2.

[2] Cf. G. Ribet, La Mystique divine distinguée des contrefaçons diaboliques et des analogies humaines, vol. III, p. 454: "Sometimes stigmatization is recognized by no other sign than a discoloration of the skin, which at the site of the stigmatic wound appears dark, black, rough, or depressed—similar to the scarring of a healed lesion. It also happens that these marks are entirely invisible and can only be discovered through the testimony of the initiated, or by methodically pressing various parts of the body. Ordinarily, these signs are accompanied by insensibility in the area where they appear. In the trials against witches, the accused were often blindfolded and pricked with pins or needles; no blood would appear, nor any sign of pain. Often the witches, hoping to deceive their examiners, would cry out or tremble even before being touched—but their pretense would betray them."

[3] St. Thomas Aquinas notes in the Summa Theologiae III, q. 13, a. 3, ad 3: "If the imagination be strong, the body obeys naturally in some things, e.g., as regards falling from a beam set on high, since the imagination was formed to be a principle of local motion, as is said De Anima iii, 9, 10. So, too, as regards alteration in heat and cold, and their consequences; for the passions of the soul, wherewith the heart is moved, naturally follow the imagination, and thus by commotion of the spirits the whole body is altered. But the other corporeal dispositions which have no natural relation to the imagination are not transmuted by the imagination, however strong it is, e.g., the shape of the hand, or foot, or such like." St. Thomas treats this question in several other places: In IV Sententiarum, dist. IV, q. 1, a. 3; q. 3; q. 3, c.; Contra Gentiles, book II, ch. 99, §6; De Potentia, q. 6, a. 3, ad 7; and a. 9, corpus.

[4] Cf. the works of Dr. Imbert-Gourbeyre, La Stigmatisation, 2 vols., Paris, 1873; Dr. Jorez, La Médecine et la question de la stigmatisation (in response to Dr. Warlomont); and Dr. Lefèbvre, Louise Lateau, 1870—a confutation of the rationalist theses concerning stigmatization.

[5] Cf. Dictionnaire d’Apologétique, article on "The Stigmata of St. Francis," col. 1498.

[6] Cf. Ribet, op. cit., vol. IV, p. 54.

[7] Cf. Cajetan, in IIa IIae, q. 173, a. 3.

[8] Cf. Bl. Raymond of Capua, Life of St. Catherine of Siena, Part II, ch. VI.

[9] Fr. Alberto Zucchi, O.P., historiographer of the Roman Province, provides the following note: “On the stigmata of St. Catherine of Siena, after Bl. Raymond of Capua, Fr. Tommaso Caffarini also wrote (though his treatise remains unpublished), as did Mons. Luca Castellino and Fr. Gregorio Lombardelli. The controversies continued for nearly three centuries, until Pope Urban VIII brought them to an end.” Among the published works, the most important is that of Fr. Gregorio Lombardelli, Summary of the Disputation in Defense of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Catherine of Siena (Siena, 1601). A manuscript of this work, in Latin, is preserved in the Vatican Library under the reference Cod. Vat. 54-i, p. 198, and treats the question at length.

[10] Life, II P., cap. VI.

[11] We saw earlier that the grace of spiritual espousal was granted to St. Catherine at the age of twenty, while the citizens of Siena were celebrating Carnival. The Lord said to her: "Since for love of Me you have cast aside all that is vain and fled from it, and in despising the pleasures of the flesh you have placed the delights of your heart in Me alone, now—while the others of your household are feasting at table and enjoying worldly celebrations—I have resolved to celebrate with you the nuptials of your soul. And as I promised you, I espouse you to Myself in faith." (Life, Part I, ch. XII) The saint also received the grace of the transformation of her heart into the Heart of the Savior, after she had frequently repeated the prayer of the Psalmist: "Create in me, O Lord, a new heart." Yet she never imagined that this prayer would be answered in such a particular and exalted manner.

[12] Literal translation: Holy Mother, do this for me: Firmly implant the wounds Of the Crucified in my heart.