668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mata in 1224. In the solitude of Monte Alverno, a part of the 

 Apennines bestowed on him by Count Orlando, of Cortona, and a 

 favorite place of retirement, he thrice opened the Scriptures 

 where they detail the passion of the Lord. This was interpreted 

 to mean that in some way he was to be brought into mysterious 

 conformity with the death of the Redeemer. While praying, he 

 experienced a most passionate desire to be crucified with Christ, 

 and saw, or imagined he saw, a seraph with six wings ; two were 

 arched over the head, two veiled the body, and two were stretched 

 for flight. Amid these wings appeared the likeness of the Cruci- 

 fied. Joy filled the soul of Francis, but grief also pierced his 

 heart like a sword. The vision vanished, but left him in an inde- 

 scribable condition of delight and awe. His body, like wax exhib- 

 iting the impression of the seal, now showed the stigmata. Each 

 hand and foot was pierced in the middle by a nail. The heads of 

 the nails, round and black like nails of iron, were on the palms of 

 the hands and fore part of the feet. The points of the nails, which 

 appeared on the other side, were bent backward on the wounds 

 they had made. Though somewhat movable, they could not be 

 drawn out. St. Clare tried, but failed, to do it after his death. 

 From a deej)-red wound of three fingers' breadth in his left side, 

 as if he had been pierced by a lance, the sacred blood then and 

 frequently afterward flowed upon his tunic. These wounds never 

 gangrened nor suppurated, nor did he try to heal them. Hands 

 and feet could be used as aforetime, but walking became so diffi- 

 cult that on subsequent journeys he usually rode on horseback. 

 Countless miracles were ascribed to these wounds. Fifty Fran- 

 ciscan brethren declared that they had seen them at one and the 

 same time. Pope Alexander IV publicly affirmed that he too had 

 seen them with his own eyes. 



Christine de Stumbele, born near Cologne in 1242, and a hys- 

 terical, epileptic, and erotic woman, not only bore the five wounds 

 on Good-Friday, but also the crown of thorns on Tuesday of Pas- 

 sion Week, and the bloody sweat on Holy Thursday. The details 

 of her experiences, as given by Dr. William A. Hammond in his 

 work on " Nervous Derangement," are what the English would 

 call decidedly " nasty." Besides, she avowed possession and tor- 

 ment by a devil, which is not at all unlikely, in view of her filthy 

 and degraded habits. Yet she is now honored as a saint by the 

 majority of the Roman Catholic Church in that section of 

 Europe. 



Veronica Giuliani, a capuchin nun who died at Citt^ di Cas- 

 tello in 1727, in an ecstasy prayed that she might be crucified with 

 her Saviour, and saw five brilliant flaming rays issue from his 

 wounds. Four represented the nails, and the fifth the lance. 

 Heart, hands, and feet were simultaneously pierced, water and 



