Stigmata

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A stigmata is a spontaneous manifestation of bloody wounds on a person's hands, feet, and side, similar to wounds of the crucified Jesus Christ. Writers about stigmata episodes, categorize them as either divine or mystical, external or internal. “Over 300 have been recorded and are regarded as a truly coveted experience in ones spiritual acceptance.” (Britanica 293) A Stigmata consists of five classic points where wounds appear: the side, both hands and both feet. Traditionally these are known as the Five Wounds or the Sacred Wounds of our Lord, because they are the marks that occurred at the time of His Crucifixion. Some people are said to suffer the Passion of Christ which includes the agony at Gethsemane which had the tears or sweating of blood, scourging at the pillar, the crowning of thorns, beatings, the shoulder sound from carrying the Cross, and the Five Wounds inflicted during the Crucifixion itself.
With the stigmata we have to be very discerning and very careful. “It is true that psychosomatic effects can take place in people when they are in an hysterical state or whatever”. (Harrison, 3.) Even some cases have been documented where people induced this phenomenon by their own will. However, that doesn't discard the validity of the phenomenon in the context of a real mystical experience. Catholics have a very sound foundation of sacramentality which means that God sets aside, blesses and utilizes material reality to manifest a greater spiritual reality, so that we believe in the seven sacraments of the Church where material reality is a sign of the spiritual immense infinite reality. Having that as a foundation, we can also understand that the signs of the Passion of Christ in the flesh of a living person can be a radical call to conversion and to death and rebirth to others.
To see this is for us an icon of the suffering that Christ endured for our salvation. It is, if you will, without down grading it by using ...