CHAPTER XIII

On the Sacred Stigmata

§1. Francis the angelic man was accustomed never to shun the opportunity to do good; rather like the heavenly spirits on Jacob's ladder, he either ascended to God or descended to his neighbor. For the time granted him for meriting he had prudently learned to divide in such a way that he would spend a part of it doing something valuable for his neighbors and the other part he would dedicate to the peaceful ecstasy of contemplative prayer.

Thus when according to the demands of place and time he had expended energy for the salvation of others, leaving behind the noisy crowds, he sought out secret places of solitude and quiet in order to spend time with the Lord more freely; and he would cleanse himself of whatever dust that he carried as a result of his time in public.

Two years before his death, under the guidance of divine providence, now worn out by his many labors, he was led to a high place which is called Mount Alverna [LaVerna]. There according to his usual practice he had begun a forty day fast in honor of St. Michael the Archangel.

Gifted more than usual with the sweetness of heavenly contemplation and on fire with a more ardent flame of heavenly desires, he began to experience more abundantly the gifts of heavenly grace. He was carried on high not as a curious searcher into majesty who is overcome by its glory, but as a faithful and prudent servant (Prov. 25:27), searching for God's will and pleasure to which he wished to conform himself with the greatest ardor.

§2. Through a divine inspiration it was granted him that in the opening of the book of the Gospels there would be revealed to him by Christ that which would be most acceptable to God in him and from him. So, after praying with great devotion, he had his companion, also a holy man devoted to God, open in the name of the Trinity the book of the Gospels which he had taken from the altar. Truly since in opening the book three times he always came upon the Lord's passion, the man filled with God understood that just as he had imitated Christ in the actions of his life, thus he would have to be conformed to him in the afflictions and pains of his passion before leaving this world. And although because of the great austerity of his past life and the continuous carrying of the Lord's cross he was already terribly weakened in his body, still he was not terrified but was inspired even more to endure martyrdom. The flame of love for the good Jesus had so become in him like lamps of fire and flames that many waters could not extinguished that love of his that was so powerful (Cant. 8:6-7).

§3. Francis therefore was being carried aloft to God by the seraphic ardor of his desires and by reason of his loving compassion was being transformed into him who because of his excessive love (Eph. 2:4) chose to be crucified. One morning near the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross [Sept. 14] while he was praying on the mountainside, he saw a Seraph with six splendid and fiery wings descend from the heights of heaven. It came in swift flight and stood still in the air near where Francis stood. There appeared between his wings the image of a crucified man, with his hands and feet extended like a cross. Two wings were elevated about his head, and two were extended for flight while two others covered his entire body [cf. Is. 6:1-3].

Upon seeing this, Francis was stunned and his heart was beset with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced on the one hand over the loving look with which Christ under the appearance of the Seraph seemed to be staring at him, but seeing that he was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword (Lk. 2:35) of compassionate sorrow.

Francis was lost in admiration at the sight of this unfathomable vision, knowing that the agony of the passion was in no way compatible with the quality of immortality that belongs to the spirit of the Seraph. He understood from this, as God revealed to him, that God in his providence had granted him this vision so that the friend of Christ might know in advance that he was to be transformed totally into a likeness of the crucified Christ not through a martyrdom of the flesh but through the fire of his soul.

When the vision disappeared there was left in his heart a wonderful ardor, but in his flesh there was left an impression that was no less marvelous. For immediately there began to appear on his hands and feet the impressions of the nails just as he had seen on that image of the crucified a short while before. His hands and feet seemed to be pierced in the center with nails with the heads of the nails in the palms of his hands and the upper side of his feet, while their points protruded on the other side. The heads of the nails in the hands and feet were round and black while their points were oblong and bent back as if hammered. They stuck out from the surrounding flesh and extended beyond it. His right side as if pierced by a lance was marked with a reddish wound which because it often emitted his holy blood left his religious habit and trousers with wet stains.

§4. Seeing that the stigmata so richly impressed upon his flesh could not escape the detection of his close companions, the servant of Christ still feared making public this mystery of the Lord. He thus struggled with doubt and hesitation about whether he should tell what he had seen or keep it as a secret to himself. He called together some of his brothers and speaking in general terms he presented his doubt to them and sought their advice.

One of the brothers, enlightened [=illuminatus] by grace and by name [i.e. Brother Illuminatus] discerning that Francis had some kind of a remarkable experience because he still seemed to be somewhat dazed, said to the holy man: "Brother, you should know that it is not for you alone but also for others that at times divine mysteries are revealed to you. It seems then that you should fear lest you should keep secret that which you have received for the advantage of many other people and thus you come to be judged as blameworthy for burying your talent."

Moved by this advice the holy man, although in similar situations he would say, "This secret is my own," nevertheless with fear and trepidation, gave an account of the vision adding that the one who had appeared to him had told him some things which as long as he lived he was never to reveal to any other person. This forces us to believe then that what had been told him by the holy Seraph which appeared to him miraculously on the cross were so secret that perhaps men are not permitted to speak of them (2 Cor. 12:4).

§5. Therefore when the true love of Christ transformed the lover into his own image and when the forty days that he had decided to spend in solitude had come to an end, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel now at hand, Francis the heavenly man descended from the mountain bearing with him the image of the Crucified not in tablets of stone or wood carved by the hand of a craftsman, but engraved by the finger of the living God (Ex. 31:18) in the members of his body. And because it is good to keep hidden the secret of the King (Tob. 12:7), Francis, aware of his royal secret, tried his best to hide those sacred stigmata. In truth because it is God's privilege to reveal for his own glory the great things he has done, the Lord himself who had secretly impressed those sacred imprints on Francis publicly worked through them certain miracles so that the hidden and marvelous power of the stigmata might be made manifest by the clarity of visible signs.

[Translated by Fr. Joseph Doino, O.F.M. of the Franciscan Institute.  October, 1987]