A Human Mystery...!

'STIGMATA'...One of the most rare human mystery an unresolved religious phenomenon. The word stigmata comes from the Greek term stigma, which means "mark." In Christianity, it is believed that some people develop wounds on each hand & feet just like those received by Jesus when he was crucified. It is believed that these marks are signs from God that the person suffering from them is holy. Some stigmatics feel the pain of wounds with no external marks, these are referred to as 'Invisible Stigmata'. In other cases, stigmata are accompanied by extreme pain. Some stigmatics' wounds do not appear to clot, and stay fresh and uninfected, the blood from the wounds is said, in some cases, to have a pleasant, perfumed odor.

Saint Francis (1182-1226), founder of the Franciscan order of monks, is the first person recorded to have shown stigmata . The feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis is kept on 17 September. An Italian preist, Padre Pio (1887-1968) is one of a famous 'stigmatic'. It is said that Padre Pio bore the perfume smelling wounds for about 50 yrs and surprisingly the wound began healing and all evidence of the wounds disappeared days before he died. On June 16, 2002, Padre Pio is canonized by Pope John Paul and became St.Padre Pio.

There are lots of scepticism on the authencity of stigmatic wounds. Interestingly no case of stigmata is known to have occurred before the thirteenth century, when the crucified Jesus became a standard icon of Christianity in the west. But so far more than 300 people claim to have suffered the stigmata.The bizarre phenomena of the stigmata remain unexplainable any time soon, as those who suffer from it are still few and far between. The stigmata remains one of the strangest and most frightening phenomena noted in the annals of the paranormal.

Courtesy by wikipedia.