The story has been told...
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The story has been told repeatedly that some saints bore the very marks of the crucified Jesus on their own bodies. These are known as stigmata, and it is claimed their hands and feet are pierced as if by nails. Some have purported, also, to have been pierced on the right side as by a lance and may have the marks of the crown of thorns on their heads. It is said by some critics these marks come about by means of autosuggestion. Be that as it may, the first person in history to make this claim was Francis, the Saint of Assisi.
Francis received the wounds of Christ, according to tradition, on Mount La Verna on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September) shortly before his death. He had prayed that, as far as possible, he experience the actual sufferings of Christ's Passion and that he experience the love Christ felt which had caused this divine sacrifice. It is said a seraph with six flaming wings flew down towards Francis. An image of a man hanging on a cross appeared between the pair of wings -- Christ. As Christ appeared before Francis, darts of flame imprinted up the saint's body the wounds of the crucified Christ. For the rest of his life Francis carried on his body the stigmata: the round, blackened nail-head scars on his hands and feet, and the lance wounds which bled so much as to penetrate his clothes from time to time.
Paul probably meant when he "bore the marks of Jesus" a reference to the beatings he had suffered for Christ's sake. Do your wounds show? Or have you denounced your Lord and fled the test?
Francis received the wounds of Christ, according to tradition, on Mount La Verna on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September) shortly before his death. He had prayed that, as far as possible, he experience the actual sufferings of Christ's Passion and that he experience the love Christ felt which had caused this divine sacrifice. It is said a seraph with six flaming wings flew down towards Francis. An image of a man hanging on a cross appeared between the pair of wings -- Christ. As Christ appeared before Francis, darts of flame imprinted up the saint's body the wounds of the crucified Christ. For the rest of his life Francis carried on his body the stigmata: the round, blackened nail-head scars on his hands and feet, and the lance wounds which bled so much as to penetrate his clothes from time to time.
Paul probably meant when he "bore the marks of Jesus" a reference to the beatings he had suffered for Christ's sake. Do your wounds show? Or have you denounced your Lord and fled the test?
