Have you see the movie “Stigmata” staring Patricia Arquette!? Well this movie has been one my family’s owned for quite some time and one I watched several times when I was younger. I got FREAKED but, like most scary movies of that age, I assumed it was fake and continued with my life.
Um. Stigmata’s are real. I had figured the movie had some basis to it, sure. But check this out! This website says that 62, yes SIXTY TWO saints or blessed people were stigmatics.
Who was the first? SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI! His wounds were somewhat different compared to most though; in the places of nail wounds, his flesh was actually blackened and resembled nails on both sides of his feet. One end being rounded and the other long and bent around.
This article also points out that some stigmatics in the past with physical signs of the sufferings ask God out of humility to make the signs invisible, choosing to bear the pain of sins as Christ but so others cannot see. Ok, Way to go for them! I only hope that I could have the strength to do that.
Well. Here’s the link to this article. If you haven’t seen the movie and now choose to, I saw it most recently last summer and didn’t realize how much they rip on the Catholic Church. So. This is my attempts to address the fact that they place a lot of rumored corruption on the Vatican and other leaders of the Church and to be prepared for that.
Laura
