The Stigmata: A history of various cases.

The wonderful grace of the Stigmata was a thing unknown in the Church before the time of S. Francis of Assisi. It is possible there may have been unnoticed cases of partial stigmatization, but there are none on record. When S. Paul says that he bears in his body the marks (stigmata) of the Lord Jesus, he is not supposed to mean that he had impressed on his body the Five Sacred Wounds: but he alludes rather to the chains, stripes, etc., which he had borne for Christ, the marks of which were on his body. The Stigmata, properly so-called, were reserved in God’s treasure-house, in a secret casket, till the day S. Francis should come to be adorned with them.

The book is a beautiful treatise approaching the Stigmata phenomenon - that complete and profound transformation of the lower life in man which does not in general appear instantaneously, on the contrary, it spreads slowly and gradually over the diverse regions of life, and only consummates its work after having submitted them one and all to its own action. Signs and degrees are studied, with ample descriptions of cases: Veronica Giuliani, Catharine of Raconisio, Saint Lutgard, Jane Mary of the Cross, Angela of Peace, Jane of Jesus Mary, Helen of Hungary, Saint Catharine of Siena, Domenica Lazzari, Louisa Lateau, Lucy of Narni, Agnes of Jesus, Jane de Carniolo, Maria Moerl.