The Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi

On the 17^th of September, members of the Franciscan Order celebrate a feast in honor of the day on which St. Francis received the Stigmata, the marks of the crucifixion, on his body. He had been spending a time of solitary prayer atop Mt. Alverna in Italy. During his prayer he asked God to show him a sign that he had been forgiven the sins of his youth when he had led a rather hedonistic lifestyle. St. Bonaventure recorded the event in his Major Life of St. Francis of Assisi.

“On a certain morning about the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, while Francis was praying on the mountainside, he saw a Seraph having six wings, fiery as well as brilliant, descend from the grandeur of heaven. And when in swift flight, it had arrived at a spot in the air near the man of God, there appeared between the wings the likeness of a man crucified, with his hands and feet extended in the form of a cross and fastened to a cross. Two of the wings were raised above his head, two were extended for flight, and two covered his whole body. Seeing this, he was overwhelmed and his heart was flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. . . For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet just as he had seen a little before in the figure of the man crucified. . . Also his right side, as if pierced with a lance, was marked with a red wound from which his sacred blood often flowed, moistening his tunic and underwear.”