Stigmatization
the appearance or impression of counterparts of all or some of the wounds received by Jesus in His Passion, in their appropriate positions on the human body. The first case on record, and the most important, is that of St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscans. It is said that while the saint was engaged in a fast of 40 days on Mount A Alvernus, in the year 1224, a crucified seraph with six wings appeared and discoursed to him of heavenly things. Francis fainted, and on recovering consciousness found himself marked with the wounds of crucifixion in his hands, his feet, and right side. Thomas à Celana and St. Buonaventura attested the case, and Pope Alexander IV. (1254-1261) claimed to have seen the stigmata during the life time of St. Francis and after his death.
A feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis is celebrated in the Roman Church on September 17. The Dominicans claimed a similar distinction for a saint of their order (St. Catherine of Siena, 1347- 1380), and the fact of her stigmatization is recorded in the fifth lection of the office of her feast (April 30) in the Roman Breviary. She is honored with a special feast in her own order, though she is never represented in painting or sculpture with the stigmata. Since then many persons have claimed to have received these marks of divine favor.