Today is an important feast day for the Franciscan family. We celebrate the day our Seraphic father, St. Francis of Assisi received the sacred stigmata or the wounds of Christ. After a long retreat in the Apennines Mountains of Italy, St. Francis had a spectacular mystical experience. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, St. Francis arose and prayed, “My most precious Jesus, I beg that you fulfill my greatest desire. I wish to feel the actual pain that you suffered on the cross. I yearn to feel that love that you felt for us.”
On September 17, 1224, St. Francis’ prayer was answered. A seraph with six flaming wings descended from the clouds. Amidst the wings, he saw a man hanging on a cross. It was the Lord. Flaming darts shot out from the seraph and hit the body of Francis. Imprinted on his hands and his feet were the painful nail marks of the crucified Jesus. His right side bore the wounds caused by the centurion’s lance.
St. Francis may have been the first person to have the stigmata verified by eyewitness. Some speculate that St. Paul may have had the stigmata. In his letter to the Galatians he wrote, “Henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear the brand marks of Jesus in my body.” St. Paul suffered greatly for Christ, but we will never know for sure if he had the stigmata.
Another famous Franciscan, St. Padre Pio, bore the stigmata for fifty years. He also had the shoulder wound Jesus experienced as he carried the cross.
How can you introduce the story of St. Francis’ stigmata to children? I told the story in Miraculous II, winner of the Catholic Media Award as best self-published children’s book.