What are Stigmata?

Stigmata are wounds on the body that correspond with the suffering Jesus experienced during the crucifixion. Common stigmata include forehead wounds seemingly caused by a crown of thorns, marks on the hands and feet where Jesus would have been pierced by nails, and even marks across the arms and back similar to those Jesus bore from being flogged.

Most stigmata occurs in Roman Catholic circles. Stigmatists believe that by bearing stigmata, they are suffering with Mary, honoring Christ, and helping to pay the penalty for others' wrongdoing. They believe that God Himself is inflicting these wounds supernaturally.

However, stigmata go against the very nature of God. The atonement—Christ death and resurrection to pay our penalty—is worthless if humans are required to suffer Christ's wounds all over again. Scripture tells us that Christ died once, for all.

Some instances, such as St. Francis' hand and foot wounds, can be explained as the result of other normal medical issues. However, some stigmata cannot easily be explained away by science. They are deceptive wounds, inflicted by Satan.

Marie Rose Ferron

Marie Rose Ferron (1902-1936) was a Roman Catholic born in Quebec. For most of her short adult life, which was spent in Rhode Island, Ferron experienced terrible stigmata.

Bloody wounds appeared on her hands, feet, forehead, and arms, and Ferron would often pass out from the intensity of the pain. But according to one biography, she was happy to suffer, believing that she was suffering in order to take the punishment for other people's sin:

She found even love for the passion He was completing in her reduced body. As the story of pain unfolded with the months and the years, the realization that she was a victim grew more vivid.

She knew that she was being tortured in the place of others and she accepted her vocation of bearing in her own body the physical pain spared them. In that, too, she resembled her Master, whose love prompted Him to bear mankind's punishment in its stead.ⁱ

Marie Rose Ferron died at 33 years of age, still covered in painful stigmata.ⁱⁱ If Jesus died once, for all our sins, is it necessary for anyone else to suffer the pain of the crucifixion? No. It is Satan—not God—inflicting suffering upon the stigmatists.

Pointless Pain

Many others have experienced similar symptoms to Marie Ferron. A young Syrian girl named Myrna Nazzour suffered intense and excruciating bleeding from her hands, feet, and head.

Irishwoman Christine Gallagher experiences the same suffering. Other modern stigmatists include Therese Neumann of Germany (1898-1962), Padre Pio of Italy (1887-1968), Catalina Rivas of Bolivia, and Julia Kim of Korea.

Stigmata is a declaration that the sacrifice of Christ is incomplete. Satan would love to have us believe that Christ is not powerful enough to provide salvation, and that we need to earn it ourselves. But it is simply not Biblical that anyone should suffer any longer in order to pay for the sins of the world.

The unfortunate truth is that these poor people are suffering for nothing. Their pain does not please God and is not atoning for any wrong done.