Flora Cantábrica

TERESA NEUMANN, and THE STIGMATS. English.6.11.23.

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TERESA NEUMANN, and THE STIGMATS

THE STIGMATS

On the night from Thursday to Friday, from March 4 to 5, 1926, Teresa saw Christ kneeling in the Garden of Olives and heard him pray. Jesus looked at her fixedly and at that moment she felt in the region of her heart such sharp pain that she thought she was dying. At the same time, warm blood flowed from that area and continued to flow until noon on Friday. She had felt as if a sharp sword had pierced her heart.

On the night of Holy Thursday to Good Friday, from April 1 to 2 of that year, 1926, she relived her Passion from the Garden of Olives to the death of Jesus on the cross. That day the sores on the hands and feet appeared for the first time, but on the outside. Her parents saw them and got scared, calling Father Naber, who was also impressed. On Easter day, Teresa was radiant with happiness, seeing the risen Jesus.

On April 15, 1927, the sores also became visible on the inside of her hands and feet. The doctors tried with all possible means to try to cure them, but everything was useless. The more Dr. Seidl put ointments and bandages on her, the more pain she felt and her hands and feet swelled more; so that they ended up leaving her alone, because, without dressings, the sores did not swell or suppurate. To avoid people’s curiosity, she put on mittens or half gloves to hide the square-shaped sores. These sores persisted on her until the end of her life and could be seen on her deathbed.

Throughout 1927 she received the crown of thorns sores around her forehead on various occasions.

During Lent of 1928 she received the sore on her right back. On March 29, 1929, she received the scourging sores for the first time, which reproduced every year. To these sores must be added the tears of blood that she shed in ecstasy on Fridays; especially Lent. The medical examinations could not recognize any justifiable cause for these tears of blood, as there was no erosion in her eyes.

Many doctors and ecclesiastics came to her house to see her sores. Some came to believe that they were the product of hysteria. In 1928 Father Agostino Gemelli, a Franciscan, came to visit her as envoy of Pope Pius XI. He was a professor and rector of the Catholic University of Milan. His report was positive: I have carried out my investigations with the utmost care and I declare in the strongest possible terms that there is no trace of hysteria and that these states cannot be explained scientifically in a natural way10.

Father Naber himself had to deal with some negative publications. On one occasion he wrote an open letter to Dr. Joseph Eberle, editor of the Schönere Zukunft magazine in Vienna, responding to a published article, in which it was said that it was all hysteria. Father Naber wrote: Without hesitating for a single moment, I would be willing to give my life for the veracity of the extraordinary phenomena of Teresa Neumann as I have observed them and especially for the absence of food11.

Teresa experienced the pains of the Passion some 700 times in her life. Many Fridays thousands of people would file past her bed. Some Good Friday up to 10,000 people came. They went from 10 to 10 and only for one or two minutes to see her in ecstasy. After World War II, many American soldiers, even non-Catholics, came to see her and many converted.

Others, who could not visit her, wrote to her. She received hundreds of letters asking for prayers or advice and she personally read as many as she could, ensuring her prayers.