Offer it up: Stigmatas, Suffering and the Catholic Church
By Jackie Alnor  (Posted March 2, 2003)

This is seen most often during the season of Lent, approaching Easter. EWTN, the Catholic television network, airs footage of processions of the Catholic faithful walking up cobblestone stairs on their knees until they are bloody. Also in the processions are monks with their backs bared who lash themselves with leather whips while keeping in step with the crowds who are following behind a liter carrying an ornate and decked out statue of Mary.

In some extreme cases, men present themselves every Good Friday, particularly in the Philippines, to be literally nailed to wooden crosses while the crowds gather around and look upon them with awe and approval. Some of these self-afflicted sufferers come back year after year to compete with each other to see who can stay nailed to their cross the longest.

A well-known monastic practice is the wearing of hair shirts designed to make a penitent monk very uncomfortable. The wearers of the burlap attire would take vows to not satisfy the urge to scratch even as the itching became unbearable. They were to offer it up to God for merit in heaven.

Bible-believing Christians look at this and get sick to their stomachs. It is obvious to them that these activities have no spiritual merit whatsoever. The Bible backs up that assessment. The Apostle Paul wrote of the spirit of this sort of thing when he said:

"These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence" (Col 2:23).

Stigmata Origins

Historically, these sorts of traditions came out of the monastic practices of the Middle Ages. The Franciscan order of monks were known for their vows of poverty, strict rules, and harsh treatment of their bodies. The founder St. Francis of Assisi is the first known person to ever have the ultimate in pain piety -- the stigmata. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes this paranormal phenomena this way:

"Many ecstatics bear on hands, feet, side, or brow the marks of the Passion of Christ with corresponding and intense sufferings. These are called visible stigmata. Others only have the sufferings, without any outward marks, and these phenomena are called invisible stigmata."

St. Francis received his painful stigmata, where his skin allegedly bunched up over his wounds to take on the form of the nails of the crucifixion, after a statue of the suffering Christ hanging on a cross took on life and spoke to him, according to published literature from one of EWTN’s television series.

The stigmatists believe that their suffering can release people from Purgatory. The stigmata, as well as self-induced suffering, has redemptive value to those alive and dead, according to Catholic tradition.

Victim Souls

Today there are several Catholics showing the marks of the stigmata who are revered by those given to the mystical. One unusual case is that of Audrey Santo, a teen-aged girl who has been comatose since the age of three when she fell into a swimming pool and drowned and was resuscitated. She was featured on a 20/20 feature in 1999 which showed hundreds of pilgrims descending upon Worcester, Massachusetts, seeking healing by touching the girl.

Although this girl hasn’t spoken since she was three, she often shows the stigmata and her face reveals excruciating agony when it is present, usually around Easter time. Other strange phenomena surround this tortured girl -- allegedly statues weep and secrete oil and Eucharistic hosts bleed. Biographer Antonia Felix in the book "Silent Soul" noted, "In the Santo family home chapel there is a large photograph of Padre Pio saying Mass, and the dark traces of the stigmata can be seen around the edges of his gloves. Oil is continuously flowing from this photograph and staining the wall beneath it."

There seems to be this strange pattern involving those who bear the stigmata -- weird paranormal things happen all around them. According to Felix, in a list published in the late 19^th century there had been around 321 stigmatics and only 41 of them were men, the rest women. One of those women, St. Catherine de’ Ricci, besides having the stigmata, also had the "gift" of bi-location -- being in two places at once. She was said to have been mystically married to Jesus who gave her a special ring that only she could see.

St. Clare of Assisi is the one who came up with hot cross buns and would pray before St. Francis’ talking crucifix. She also was known to bi-locate and her body is one of those that refuses to decay and is venerated as incorrupt in her church. 
(See http://www.cultlink.com/CathAnswers/EntDevils.htm for info on incorruptibles.)

St. Gemma Galgani was also allegedly mystically married to Jesus, experienced his flagellation and levitated to Jesus’ arms on the crucifix in Lucca, Italy. Levitation is a common byproduct of the stigmata. The same mystical duet happened to St. Veronica Giuliani, an Italian mystic whose blood-stained pillow cases are still on display at the church in Citta di Castello, Italy. Pilgrims there get to see the tree to which she levitated, according to an EWTN broadcast.

There are several websites dedicated to the memory of the newly canonized stigmatic Padre Pio. His stigmata first assailed him in September of 1918 after praying before a crucifix. Many of his experiences have been recorded of him wrestling with demons who tried frequently to throw him into the burning fireplace.

"Saint" Padre Pio

Padre Pio devotees do not see the obvious sinister origins of his torments. The Padre Pio homepage (www.gl.umbc.edu/~tcunni1/PioIntro.html) says:

"The world today needs credible signs. Padre Pio is a credible sign to our time. He is a true victim with Christ. He is a channel of grace. At the altar he is the anointed one…He presented his many spiritual children to Our Lord offering his own suffering for them."

The late Bible Answer Man Walter Martin is one of the few church leaders in the 20^th century to lend credibility to the stigmata. In November of 1983, he told his Bible class:

"Stigmata is, down through the ages, a valid form, particularly at Easter time, of identification with Christ. I know the stigmata, the wounds on the hands and the feet and the side and around the top of the head, have appeared in the lives of many Christian saints, and therefore it would be very difficult to say that it was demonic. And I take it to be, when it is genuine, a genuine manifestation of a witness to Christ and to his sufferings on the cross." (See www.waltermartin.org for RealAudio of the message.)

But, what are the biblical options? It’s either demonic, psychological, or a hoax. It certainly can’t be a valid Christian experience since Jesus is the only one worthy to be the sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

"I met Padre Pio at his home in San Giovani Rotundo in 1960," wrote Mike Gendron, founder of the Proclaiming the Gospel ministry (www.pro-gospel.org), in response to my inquiry concerning Martin’s statement. "At the time I thought as Walter Martin did, however later after my conversion, I read his autobiography. He said souls from Purgatory would stop by his window on the way to heaven to thank him for suffering on their behalf. Wrong!"

Another ministry associate friend of this writer's (who will remain unnamed) had strong words in response to Martin’s apparent affirmation of the stigmata.

"This isn't surprising," he said. "Walter Martin:

Blind Science

The psychological profession would write off cases of the stigmata as mere manifestations of auto-suggestion while the victims were in self-induced hypnotic trances while contemplating crucifixes. But there is no real evidence that such a thing is possible; that is mere speculation. The secular world cannot accept any spiritual reality, so they can only postulate the abundance of their ignorance on paranormal issues.

Certainly the demonic element can manifest markings in the body. There was the famous case of an alleged satanic ritualistic abuse victim whose story was told in the controversial book "Michelle Remembers." While under hypnosis, recalling her traumatic experiences as a child with Satan worshippers, she developed rashes on her body that were in the shape of the devil’s tail -- a pointed triangle as is seen drawn in caricatures of the guy with the pitchfork in his hand. The book contained photographs of those infernal markings and whether her story is to be believed or not, the pictures were pretty convincing that some devil was playing with her and making the marks.

I do not believe that the mind has some sort of latent powers that can create such diabolical markings. It isn’t explainable scientifically, but is in the realm of the unseen, where it is either divine or demonic.

Bible Clues

So is the stigmata of divine origin? The evidence rules that out. The first stigmatic was talking to idols that talked back to him and that is idolatry: a forbidden practice in scripture. The other paranormal accompaniments such as bi-location and levitation have no scriptural basis, and are only seen in the occult.

People may argue that just because it isn’t in scripture doesn’t mean it isn’t of God. But, the Bible says "do not exceed what is written," (1Cor. 4:6) and this certainly does.

The Bible’s teaching on suffering for Christ’s sake has to do with enduring persecution that will most certainly be the result of becoming His follower. Jesus told us:

"Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also" (John 15:20).  And He told His followers that in this world they would have tribulation. 

The Apostle Paul saw this in his own life. He was beaten, left for dead, and eventually executed because of his testimony for Christ. These were the marks he referred to when he said, "I bear in my body the brand marks of Jesus" (Gal. 6:17). This has often been interpreted to mean that he bore the stigmata, but one cannot get that from the passage.

Peter also spoke of how we would suffer -- not self-inflicted wounds, but those caused by persecution to those who would not deny Jesus as Lord.

"Instead, as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah rejoice, so that you may also rejoice with great joy at the revelation of His glory" (1 Peter 4:13).

Suffering for the sake of suffering as is done in the Catholic processions has no eternal merit and is not the sufferings of Christ, but the sufferings of spiritual pride in action. This does not give Jesus any glory whatsoever. The demonic-inflicted pain of the stigmatics gives no glory to the Lord either, but makes a mockery of the once and for all sacrifice of the cross.  Jesus bore our sin and the chastisement we deserve was placed on Him (Isaiah 53:5). The sufferings inflicted upon us because we are His true followers will bring eternal rewards and a martyr’s crown.

I leave you with an admonition from Walter Martin that I can agree with:

"Unrepentant evil cannot be cooperated with. You have to turn away from it. If you don’t, you will become guilty as an accessory after the fact" (WAM Bible class: 11-27-83).

http://www.littleaudreysanto.org/

(Audrey’s home page)