mata in 1224. In the solitude of Monte Alverno, a part of the Apennines bestowed on him by Count Orlando, of Cortona, and a favorite place of retirement, he thrice opened the Scriptures where they detail the passion of the Lord. This was interpreted to mean that in some way he was to be brought into mysterious conformity with the death of the Redeemer. While praying, he experienced a most passionate desire to be crucified with Christ, and saw, or imagined he saw, a seraph with six wings; two were arched over the head, two veiled the body, and two were stretched for flight. Amid these wings appeared the likeness of the Crucified. Joy filled the soul of Francis, but grief also pierced his heart like a sword. The vision vanished, but left him in an indescribable condition of delight and awe. His body, like wax exhibiting the impression of the seal, now showed the stigmata. Each hand and foot was pierced in the middle by a nail. The heads of the nails, round and black like nails of iron, were on the palms of the hands and fore part of the feet. The points of the nails, which appeared on the other side, were bent backward on the wounds they had made. Though somewhat movable, they could not be drawn out. St. Clare tried, but failed, to do it after his death. From a deep-red wound of three fingers' breadth in his left side, as if he had been pierced by a lance, the sacred blood then and frequently afterward flowed upon his tunic. These wounds never gangrened nor suppurated, nor did he try to heal them. Hands and feet could be used as aforetime, but walking became so difficult that on subsequent journeys he usually rode on horseback. Countless miracles were ascribed to these wounds. Fifty Franciscan brethren declared that they had seen them at one and the same time. Pope Alexander IV publicly affirmed that he too had seen them with his own eyes.
Christine de Stumbele, born near Cologne in 1242, and a hysterical, epileptic, and erotic woman, not only bore the five wounds on Good-Friday, but also the crown of thorns on Tuesday of Passion Week, and the bloody sweat on Holy Thursday. The details of her experiences, as given by Dr. William A. Hammond in his work on "Nervous Derangement," are what the English would call decidedly "nasty." Besides, she avowed possession and torment by a devil, which is not at all unlikely, in view of her filthy and degraded habits. Yet she is now honored as a saint by the majority of the Roman Catholic Church in that section of Europe.
Veronica Giuliani, a capuchin nun who died at Città di Castello in 1727, in an ecstasy prayed that she might be crucified with her Saviour, and saw five brilliant flaming rays issue from his wounds. Four represented the nails, and the fifth the lance. Heart, hands, and feet were simultaneously pierced, water and
