Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis

STIGMATA OF ST. FRANCIS  -- September 17th

 

Sept. 17th is a special day for Franciscans as we celebrate the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis.  This day, this feast is a testimony to the power of prayer in the life of St. Francis.   You might say it is testimony to the longing of St. Francis' heart to mirror the love of Jesus in his very own life.    In 1224, on the Mount of  LaVerna, while at prayer,  St. Francis' body was imprinted with the marks of Jesus' wounds.   What is remarkable about this grace in St. Francis' life was how it fulfilled what our Franciscan tradition says was a LIFETIME PRAYER for St. Francis:  

 

"Lord, I ask of you two graces before I die: that I may love others with the depth of love you had for us in dying on the cross for us and that I may experience in my own body some of the pain that you experienced in dying on the cross for us."

 

St. Bonaventure tells us of this moment in Francis' life in his Minor Legend: 

 

Two years before Francis, the faithful servant of Christ, gave his soul back to God, he was alone on the top of Mt. Alverna.  There he had begun a fast of forty days in honor of the Archangel Michael and was immersed more deeply than usual in the delights of heavenly contemplation.  His soul became aglow with the ardor of fervent longing for heaven as he experienced within himself the operations of grace.

 

As he was drawn aloft through ardent longing for God one morning near the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and was praying on the mountainside, he saw what appeared as a seraph with six bright wings gleaming like a fire descending from the heights of heaven.  As this figure approached in swift flight and came near the man of God it appeared not only winged but also crucified.  The sight of it amazed Francis and his soul experienced joy mingled with pain.  He was delighted with the sight of Christ appearing to him so graciously and intimately and yet the awe-inspiring vision of Christ nailed to the cross aroused in his soul a joy of compassionate love.

 

When the vision vanished after a mysterious and intimate conversation it left Francis aglow with seraphic love in his soul.  Externally, however, it left marks on his body like those of the Crucified as if the impression of a seal had been left on heated wax.  The figures of the nails appeared immediately on his hands and feet.  The heads of the nails were inside his hands but on top of his feet with their points extending through to the opposite side.  His right side too showed a blood-red wound as if it had been pierced by a lance, and blood flowed frequently from it.

 

Because of this new and astounding miracle unheard of in times past, Francis came down from the mountain a new man adorned with the sacred stigmata, bearing in his body the image of the Crucified not made by a craftsman in wood or stone, but fashioned in his members by the hand of the living God.