St. Francis, the Stigmata, and La Verna

 by Bret Thoman, OFS

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Summer 2024 Digital Issue #112)

On Friday, January 5, 2024, at the Tuscan Sanctuary of La Verna, the Franciscan Family officially opened the VIII Centenary of the Stigmata of St. Francis, with an event entitled “From the wounds to new life.” Eight centuries ago this year, up on the same mountain, on September 17, 1224, he received the stigmata; that is, the wounds of Christ were revealed on his hands, feet, and side.

The Seraph-Christ seen by St. Francis when he received the stigmata.

Some years earlier, while preaching at a castle in San Leo, a nobleman named Count Orlando of Chiusi was so enflamed by Francis’s words that he felt inspired to offer him part of the mountain towering over his own castle in Chiusi. Francis went to La Verna and was immediately drawn to the mountain’s biting cold, rugged harshness, and austere beauty. It was the perfect site for penance, prayer, and contemplation.

Francis returned to La Verna five more times. The last time, two years before his death, the pivotal moment took place. He was on retreat, fasting and praying a forty-day lent in honor of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14) and St. Michael the Archangel (September 29).

According to the Third Consideration on the Stigmata, within the Little Flowers of St. Francis (the Fioretti), Francis prayed for two graces: to feel in his body the pain which Jesus felt during his Passion and to know in his heart the love which Jesus felt for all humanity.

St. Bonaventure described the event in detail.

The cross at La Verna

On a certain morning about the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, while Francis was praying on the mountainside, he saw a Seraph having six wings, fiery as well as brilliant, descend from the grandeur of heaven. And when in swift flight, it had arrived at a spot in the air near the man of God, there appeared between the wings the likeness of a man crucified, with his hands and feet extended in the form of a cross and fastened to a cross…. As the vision was disappearing, it left in his heart a marvelous fire and imprinted in his flesh a likeness of signs no less marvelous. For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet just as he had seen a little before in the figure of he man crucified. (Major Life, 13)

For the last two years of his life, Francis was marked by Christ’s wounds. He was united to the cross of Christ. The Incarnation of Christ, the “masterpiece” of God’s creation, indeed, the whole purpose of creation (in the words of later theologian, John Duns Scotus) culminated in the Passion and crucifixion as the highest expression of God’s love, charity, and mission.

The mystery of what happened on Mt. La Verna is something for us to reflect and meditate on. Ultimately, there is something greater than the wounds of Christ, which St. Francis shared in; for the cross is merely the pathway to the Resurrection. Without the cross there is no Resurrection; unless Christ comes down in the world, there is no way for us to go up to Heaven.

In the end, then, suffering does not have the final word: the Resurrection does. By embracing the cross, Christ shows us the way. And Francis, in receiving Christ’s wounds, gives us an example to follow.