St. Francis of Assisi was the first saint known to receive the sacred stigmata, the marks of Christ’s passion on the body. St. Francis received the stigmata at Mount Alverna in Tuscany in the year 1224. St. Francis had been observing a 40-day fast on the mountain in preparation for the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th), St. Francis saw a six-winged seraph, fiery and glowing. Francis saw that the seraph appeared to be crucified; it gave expressions of deep joy but also pain and sadness. After the vision faded, St. Francis was left with the physical wounds of Christ on his body—his hands, feet, and side were all pierced with bloody wounds, which he bore until the day of his death.
This much is well-known, but today we will delve into the primary sources on St. Francis of Assisi to learn more about his sacred stigmata which are often overlooked.
1. Francis’s Stigmata Contained Actual Nails
St. Francis’s stigmata was not merely the impressions of the nails; they contained actual nails. In Chapter 13 of his biography of Francis, St. Bonaventure explained the stigmata thus:
His hands and his feet appeared pierced through the midst with nails, the heads of the nails being seen in the inside of his hands and the upper part of the feet, and the points on the reverse side. The heads of the nails in the hands and feet were round and black, and the points somewhat long and bent, as if they had been turned back.
The 14th century Little Flowers of St. Francis similarly relates:
For his hands and feet seemed to be pierced through the center with nails, the heads of which were in the palms of his hands and in the upper part of his feet outside the flesh, and their points extended through the back of the hands and soles of the feet so far that they seemed to be bent and beaten back…and the heads of the nails were round and black. (Little Flowers, 2:3)
No one is quite sure what these nails were made of, as Francis was notoriously secretive about his stigmata. (Francis’s other biographer, Thomas of Celano, said the nails were “marvelously fashioned by divine power of his own flesh, in fact, grown of the flesh itself.”) When Francis died, a local knight named Sir Jerome examined these nails and swore there was something in the wounds:
In order to make himself sure about them, [Sir Jerome] boldly moved the nails in the hands and feet…as a result, later he was a steadfast witness of the fact, swearing on the Book that it was so and that he had so seen and touched. (Little Flowers 2:4)
2. All of Mount Alverna Was Illumined
The miracle of the stigmata was so glorious that it illumined the entire mountaintop upon which Francis was staying. The Little Flowers tells the story:
During this marvelous apparition, all of Mount Alverna seemed to be on fire with very bright flames, which shone in the night and illumined the various surrounding mountains and valleys more clearly than if the sun were shining over the earth. The shepherds who were guarding their flocks in that area witnessed this. And they were gripped by intense fear when they saw the mountain aflame and so much light around it, as they later told the friars, declaring that the fiery light remained above Mount Alverna for an hour or more. (2:3)
3. Christ Promised Francis the Stigmata Would Get Franciscans Out of Purgatory
Shortly after the apparition of the stigmata, Jesus Christ appeared to Francis and told him the that stigmata conferred upon the saint a very special privilege relating to the Franciscan family. Christ told Francis:
I have given you the Stigmata which are the emblems of my Passion, so that you may be my standard-bearer. And as I descended into Limbo on the day when I died and took from there by virtue of these Stigmata of mine all the souls that I found there, so I grant to you that every year on the day of your death [Oct. 4] you may go to Purgatory and by virtue of your Stigmata you may take from there and lead to Paradise all the souls of your Three Orders…and also others who have been very devoted to you, whom you may find there…” (Little Flowers 2:3)
4. The Stigmata Worked Many Miracles
Francis lived for two more years after receiving the stigmata. During this brief period, there were numerous miracles worked specifically by means of the miraculous wounds. St. Bonaventure relates that water in which the saint had washed his stigmatized hands was used to heal a pestilence in Rieti. A peasant of Alverna who was in danger of freezing on a harsh winter night was miraculously warmed by a touch from the saint’s hand (Vita, 13). The Little Flowers relate how a boy with a stomach tumor saw his tumor disappear after Francis laid the wound in his hand upon it; a piece of bread blessed with the stigmatized hands drove a demon from a possessed friar (2:4). Thomas of Celano says that a man who doubted the stigmata was pierced in the hand with a painful, invisible arrow. (Treatise on the Miracles of St. Francis, Chap. 2)
5. The Stigmata Was Witnessed by a Pope
Pope Alexander IV ruled from 1254 to 1261, but long before he was pope he was Rinaldo di Jenne, a cleric who was a friend and patron of the Franciscans. Both the Little Flowers and St. Bonaventure affirm that the future pontiff not only knew St. Francis personally, but that he was even privileged to see the holy stigmata as a young priest. Bonaventure wrote:
The Supreme Pontiff, Alexander [IV], when preaching to the people, in the presence of many of the friars, of whom I was one, affirmed that, in the lifetime of the Saint, he had seen the sacred stigmata with his own eyes. (Vita, 13)
The year after St. Francis died, Rinaldo would be appointed Cardinal Deacon and Protector of the Franciscan Order by his uncle, Pope Gregory IX. When Rinaldo himself ascended the Chair of Peter in 1254, he published a bull Benigna Operatio (1255) affirming in writing the authenticity of Francis’s stigmata, which he knew of by his own knowledge. This bull even decreed ecclesiastical penalties for anyone who denied the truth of the stigmata. (4,6)
6. The Seraph Was Christ Himself
When St. Francis received the stigmata, it was imparted by a crucified seraph, flaming with six wings. For years there was a great deal of speculation about the identity of this seraph and details about the stigmata were matters of deep curiosity among the Francsicans.
Fifty-five years after Francis’s death, in the year 1281, a certain friar named Brother Matthew of Castiglione was praying about these matters and received an apparition from St. Francis, who filled in many details about the stigmata. The following year, Brother Matthew was commanded by his superiors to relate the details of this vision. Brother Matthew said that Francis revealed to him the real identity of the seraph:
The time has come [said Francis] when God wishes to disclose for His glory what the friars have so far not sought to know. For he who appeared to me then was not an angel but was my Lord Jesus Christ in the form of a Seraph. With His hands He imprinted in my body these five wounds as He had received those same holy wounds in His body on the Cross. (Little Flowers, 2:5)
7. A Special Dream Convinced Pope Gregory IX of the Stigmata
Pope Gregory IX (r. 1227-1241) was troubled by doubts about the stigmata of St. Francis. Then one night he had a dream in which Francis appeared to him with a large vase. Francis had Gregory place the vase under Francis’s side, and the vase became filled to the brim with blood draining from the saint’s side. After this, all doubt left him, and in the year 1238 the pope gave the friars a special certificate with his own seal authenticating the stigmata. (Little Flowers 2:5)
Conclusion
From a peasant’s healed frostbite to a pope’s private testimony, the record left by Francis’s contemporaries treats the stigmata not as pious legend but as a physical event witnessed, touched, and formally attested by multiple credible parties. Nearly eight centuries later, these accounts still offer some of the most direct and personally corroborated evidence for any miraculous claim in the Christian tradition.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
