Do You Know That Saint Francis Receivesd the Stigmata?

By Matthews Otalike, National Communication Commission / 03/04.25

In the Italian region of Tuscany stands a mountain called La Verna (or Alverna). It was once owned by an Italian Count named Orlando Cattani, but in 1213, the Count donated the mountain to Francis and his monks as a place to go for silent prayer and contemplation. The Count’s note to Francis read, “I have in Tuscany a faithful mount that is named Mount of La Vernia, which is really isolated and wild and perfect for those who want to do penance in a remote place or to those who want to live in solitude. If you would like it I will give it to you and your followers for my soul’s safety.” Though the Count had no way of knowing, the mountain he donated would become the site of a majestic miracle that would affect the lives of countless Catholics henceforth. For it was at La Verna that Francis received the stigmata. 

While on retreat with Brother Leo at the hermitage in La Verna in September 1224, Francis prayed, asking God what his will was for him. Francis was undergoing significant physical pain—even by his standards. He felt that he was at a crossroads in his life and was faced with two possible choices: whether to live at the hermitage in prayer for the remainder of his life, or to continue evangelizing among the people. Either way, Francis was entirely open to God’s will and prayed for a sign. To help find that sign, Francis turned to the Gospel and implored that God would communicate his will through a Gospel passage. He believed that whatever passage he came upon would contain the answer. So Francis opened the Gospel book. Thomas of Celano describes the scene: 

“And it happened, when he opened the book, that the first thing to meet his eye was the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the passage saying that he would suffer a great ordeal. To avoid any suspicion that this was just coincidence, he opened the book a second and a third time and found the same passage or a similar passage each time.” 

Though Francis understood that he was destined to undergo great suffering—and did not understand what form this suffering might take—he was joyful for obtaining clarity of God’s will for him.  

Shortly after that, Francis received a vision of a six-winged seraphic angel. This vision gave him a powerful consolation. But it also made Francis sad. Because in the positioning of the man’s arms and legs, it became clear to Francis that the angelic person was nailed to a cross. Francis was overcome with simultaneous happiness, sadness, and wonder, for he did not know what the vision meant. As he watched and wondered, Francis began to see that wounds appeared on his own body. 

Thomas of Celano describes, “His hands and feet seemed to be pierced by nails, the heads of the nails appearing on the inside of his hands and the upper side of his feet, and their points protruding on the other side. On the palms of his hands these marks were round, but on the outer side they were longer, and there were little pieces of flesh protruding from the surface which looked like the ends of nails, bent and hammered back.” 

But it was not just the hands and feet of Francis that bore wounds; it was his side as well. Thomas continues, “His right side was scarred as if it had been pierced by a spear.”

As in all things sent by God, Francis accepted the stigmata with happiness and gratitude. In fact, he was so overwhelmed with joy that he wrote a short piece to express his thoughts, known as The Praises of God. Happily, we not only know the content of that composition; we have the actual original parchment written by “the stigmatized hand of Francis.” Today, the parchment is kept in Assisi, in the Basilica of St. Francis. Some parts of the writing on the parchment are illegible to the naked eye, and other parts are illegible even with the assistance of technology, but close examination of the original in comparison with existing copies renders this: 

You are the holy Lord God who does wonderful things. 
You are strong. You are great. You are the most high. 
You are the almighty king. You holy father, king of heaven and earth. 
You are three and one, the Lord God of gods; 
You are the good, all good, the highest good, Lord God living and true. 
You are love, charity; you are wisdom.  
You are humility, you are patience, you are beauty, you are meekness. 
You are security, you are rest, you are gladness and joy, you are our hope.  
You are justice, you are moderation, you are all our riches to sufficiency. 
You are beauty, you are meekness. 
You are our protector, you are our custodian and defender. 
You are strength, you are refreshment.  
You are our hope, you are our faith, you are our charity. 
You are our sweetness, you are our eternal life: 
Great and wonderful Lord, almighty God, merciful Savior.

Francis gave the parchment to Brother Leo, and on the other side of that parchment is the firsthand testimony of Brother Leo, who writes, “Blessed Francis two years before his death kept a Lent in the place of Mount La Verna in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord, and of the blessed Michael, the Archangel, from the feast of the Assumption of the holy Virgin Mary until the September feast of St. Michael. And the hand of the Lord was laid upon him; after the vision and speech of the Seraph and the impression of the stigmata of Christ in his body, he made and wrote with his own hand the Praises written on the other side of the sheet, giving thanks to the Lord for the benefits conferred on him.”