(OSV News) - Throughout 2024, Franciscans around the world commemorate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata on Sept. 17, 1224, the appearance of the bodily wounds of Christ's crucifixion.
At an April 5 audience with members of the Franciscan communities of La Verna, Italy, where St. Francis was staying when he received the wounds of Christ, Pope Francis commemorated the eighth centenary and said the stigmata serves as a reminder of "the pain suffered by Jesus in His own flesh for our love and salvation."
"The image of Christ in the crucifix that appears to him in La Verna, marking his body, is the same as the one that had impressed itself upon his heart at the beginning of his 'conversion,' and which had indicated to him the mission of 'repairing his house,'" the pope said.
While there have been several notable figures in the church who experienced the stigmata, St. Francis' experience was the first recorded occurrence of the phenomenon. Yet, such recognition of a quite miraculous, and excruciatingly painful, phenomenon was something the poor man of Assisi did his utmost to avoid.
On Sept. 14, 1224, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, just two years before his death, St. Francis was at the hermitage of La Verna, nestled in the Tuscan Apennine Mountains, for a time of prayer and reflection.
Franciscan Brother Thomas of Celano, who was commissioned by Pope Gregory IX to write about St. Francis' life in 1229, recounted how he received the stigmata.
According to Brother Thomas, St. Francis was praying when he saw a vision "a man like a seraph having six wings, standing over him with hands outstretched and feet joined together, fixed to a cross."
After seeing the vision and trying to understand its meaning, "marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet."
Furthermore, the Franciscan biographer wrote that "certain small pieces of flesh were seen like the ends of nails bent and driven back" and "his right side, as it had been pierced by a lance, was overlaid with a scar, and often shed forth blood, so that his tunic and drawers were many times sprinkled with the sacred blood."
However, Brother Tommaso also dedicated a chapter to recount the lengths St. Francis went to hide the wounds he had received.
St. Francis, he wrote, "concealed the stigmata most diligently from strangers, and from those about him he hid them so carefully that even the brethren at his side and his most devoted followers were for a long time unaware of them."
Yet, despite his best efforts, St. Francis couldn't hide the wounds nor the pain it caused from his fellow brothers.
"Once when one of his companions saw the stigmata in his feet, he cried, 'What is this, good brother?'" Brother Tommaso wrote.
"'Mind your own business,'" the saint replied.
While only a few knew about the phenomenon and the stories of St. Francis' stigmata were only whispered among a few brothers, it wasn't until the saint's death in 1226 when it was confirmed as his body was prepared for burial.
Mourning the death of their founder, Brother Thomas said their "grief was converted into singing and weeping into jubilation" upon seeing the wounds of Christ on St. Francis' hands, feet and side, "for never had they heard or read in Scriptures of a thing which was now displayed before their eyes."
Polish Franciscan Father Emil Kumka, an expert on early and medieval church history, as well as Franciscan history and hagiography, at Rome's Pontifical Theology Faculty of St. Bonaventure, also known as the Seraphicum, said that bearing the marks of the crucifixion served as "a sign and proof" of the possibility of belonging "intimately to Christ."
"The exemplary value of the saint of Assisi is universal, also due to his behavior after encountering the winged seraph with the figure of the crucified Savior. His reaction - discretion, humility and gratitude for such an extraordinary gift - exemplifies a truly evangelical following of Christ," Father Kumka told OSV News Sept. 13.
However, the Franciscan priest said "it is difficult to answer definitely" why God chose this form of manifestation "because it enters into the mystery of God."
"Yes, it is a painful gift, but the mystics who received the stigmata did not see it merely as a sacrifice but as the joy of participating in the supreme love God offers to the world," Father Kumka explained. "The love of the Lord, which passes through suffering, gives meaning to this pain. For this reason, human sacrifice in stigmatics was an added dimension, not the determining one."
There have been several revered saints in the Catholic Church who reportedly received the stigmata, including Sts. Padre Pio, Faustina Kowalska and Rita of Cascia.
Like St. Francis, those who authentically experienced the phenomenon "were reluctant to reveal this special grace," Father Kumka told OSV News.
"The stigmata are a free gift from the Lord and only demonstrate his holiness and goodness. Of course, those who receive them are viewed as 'saints' by others, but stigmatics themselves often felt unworthy of such immense trust from God."
Catholics, he said, should view the stigmata not simply as proof of one's holiness, but instead as "a comfort and sign" of God's closeness.
The faithful, Father Kumka said, should "be inspired to follow the humble, poor, and crucified Son of God, as St. Francis did" and "remain aware that the call to holiness is universal and leads to total conformity with Christ, offering themselves to him with trust and willingness."
In Poland, for the grand anniversary of St. Francis' stigmata, Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski of Kraków Sept. 15 elevated the Church of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi into the Sanctuary of Sorrowful Jesus Ecce Homo.
The church is located some 18 miles west from Kraków, in Alwernia -- a town that got its name from the Tuscan La Verna. Polish nobleman Krzysztof Korycinski, devoted to St. Francis of Assisi, visited La Verna in 1616, was mesmerized by the place, saw the similarity of land and initiated the construction of Polish La Verna in 1625 on a hill that he owned.
During his homily, Archbishop Jedraszewski said St. Clare of Assisi sewed special shoes for St. Francis to "ease his pain" caused by stigmata and that "many people describing Francis wrote: Whoever saw Francis saw Christ," the archbishop said.
Alwernia's church is also home to Ecce Homo painting of Christ before his crucifixion that "was already famous for its graces in the 15th century and was venerated in the Imperial Chapel of Constantine XI."
Caption: This 17th-century oil on canvas painting by Bernardo Strozzi titled "Saint Francis in Prayer" is part of the "Heavenly Earth: Images of Saint Francis at La Verna" exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. (CNS photo/courtesy National Gallery of Art)