Although I now live in Rimini, a pleasant seaside town, I grew up in a small town in a lesser-known part of Romagna, the hilly region bordering Tuscany. Here, piadina is thicker and many recipes blend Romagna and Tuscan traditions.

Well, this village is about 25 kilometers as the crow flies from the Franciscan Sanctuary of La Verna, although the road to get there isn't the most convenient. Some even set out to attend Christmas Eve Mass: after all, the place is extraordinarily beautiful and exudes harmony, peace, and intense spiritual energy.

Why am I telling you this? Because on the very site where the Sanctuary of La Verna stands today, Saint Francis of Assisi resisted the devil and received the stigmata in 1224. Even today, it is possible to visit the cave where the Saint retreated to pray: a place of pilgrimage and profound devotion.

What are stigmata and why are they so important?

In Catholic thought, the stigmata can only be understood in light of the Passion of Christ, that is, the sufferings that Jesus freely accepted for the redemption of the world: the agony in the Garden of Olives, the Flagellation, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion, and death on Calvary. For this reason, the stigmata are considered a mysterious participation in the signs of the Lord's Passion and primarily concern the wounds of the hands, feet, side, and sometimes even the forehead.

From a Catholic perspective, however, they are never interpreted as a spectacular or simply miraculous phenomenon. Their deepest meaning is spiritual: they express a special union with the crucified Christ. In some souls, God allows this interior participation in Jesus' Passion to manifest itself physically as well, as a sign of a particularly intense conformation to his sacrifice.

The Church teaches that the center of faith is not the stigmata, but Jesus Christ, dead and risen. Therefore, a person does not become a saint simply by receiving the stigmata; on the contrary, when they are authentic, they represent an extraordinary sign of a holiness already rooted in love, humility, obedience, and participation in the Lord's Cross. In other words, the stigmata do not replace the Gospel, but forcefully recall its deepest heart.

From this perspective, the stigmata are closely linked to the Passion because they express the saint's participation in Christ's redemptive offering. They add nothing to the infinite value of Jesus' sacrifice, which is perfect and sufficient, but they demonstrate how a soul can be associated in a wholly exceptional way with the mystery of the Cross. This is the profound meaning of St. Paul's words: to experience within oneself communion with Christ's sufferings.

For Catholic sensibilities, therefore, the stigmata call us to contemplate the Passion, to conversion of heart, to penance, and to crucified love. They are not a privilege granted to amaze, but a rare gift through which, in the lives of the saints, the faithful are invited to return to Christ, who suffers and gives himself for the salvation of the world.

The stigmatized Saints in the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church preserves an ancient, rare, yet profoundly significant tradition of saints who received the gift of the stigmata. This spiritual phenomenon has always aroused great interest, devotion, and even curiosity.

According to Catholic tradition, there are eight saints who have received recognized physical stigmata. This series begins with Saint Francis of Assisi, who received them in 1224, and concludes with Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, known to all as Padre Pio, whose stigmata appeared in 1918.

These figures are well-known and the object of great devotion among the faithful. Among them are six women, a practice that has achieved remarkable gender equality, including the most famous, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Rita of Cascia.

This is a reliable list:

1. Saint Francis of Assisi

• Place of the stigmata: Monte della Verna
• Year of the stigmata: 1224
• Year of canonization: 1228
• Canonizing Pope: Gregory IX
• He is the first and most famous stigmatic saint in Catholic tradition. He received the stigmata during a mystical experience on Mount La Verna, while immersed in prayer and contemplation of Christ's Passion. In him, the stigmata represent the sign of full conformity to the crucified Christ.

2. Saint Catherine of Siena

• Place of the stigmata: Pisa, church of Santa Cristina
• Year of the stigmata: 1375
• Year of canonization: 1461
• Canonizing Pope: Pius II
• A Dominican mystic and a major figure in the 14th-century Church, she received the stigmata in Pisa. According to tradition, they were initially invisible. Her life was marked by intense prayer, penance, charity, and a prominent role in the ecclesiastical and political life of her time.

3. Saint Rita of Cascia

• Place of the stigmata: Cascia
• Year of the stigmata: 1432
• Year of canonization: 1900
• Canonizing Pope: Leo XIII
• A beloved saint among Christians, she is especially associated with the thorn wound on her forehead, received during meditation on the Passion. Rather than widespread stigmata across her body, her case is traditionally described as a painful and permanent mark, associated with Christ's crown of thorns.

4. Saint Catherine de' Ricci

• Place of the stigmata: Prato
• Year of the stigmata: 1542
• Year of canonization: 1746
• Canonizing Pope: Benedict XIV
• A Dominican nun, she experienced profound mystical experiences combined with contemplation of the Passion of Christ. Her stigmata were part of a life marked by ecstasies, visions, and extraordinary spiritual intensity. She is one of the great mystical figures of 16th-century Italy.

5. Saint Veronica Giuliani

• Place of the stigmata: Città di Castello
• Year of the stigmata: 1697
• Year of canonization: 1839
• Canonizing Pope: Gregory XVI
• A Capuchin Poor Clare, she was one of the most intense mystics of Baroque spirituality. Her interior experience was profoundly centered on the Passion of Christ, and the stigmata were one of the most well-known aspects of her ascetic and contemplative life.

6. Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified Baouardy

• Place of the stigmata: Marseille
• Year of the Stigmata: circa 1865–1866
• Year of canonization: 2015
• Canonizing Pope: Francis
• A Palestinian Discalced Carmelite nun, also known as Mariam Baouardy or the Little Arab, lived a life marked by humility, ecstasy, and mystical phenomena. Her stigmata occurred in the years preceding her final entry into Carmel. Her figure is among the most fascinating in 19th-century Catholic mysticism.

7. Saint Gemma Galgani

• Place of the stigmata: Lucca
• Year of the stigmata: 1899
• Year of canonization: 1940
• Canonizing Pope: Pius XII
• A young lay mystic, she experienced a profound inner union with the Passion of Christ. The stigmata appeared especially at particular moments in her spiritual life. She remains today among the most renowned Catholic mystics of the 19th and 20th centuries.

8. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

• Place of the stigmata: San Giovanni Rotondo
• Year of the stigmata: 1918
• Year of canonization: 2002
• Canonizing Pope: John Paul II
• A Capuchin and a great confessor, he is the most famous stigmatic saint of the contemporary age. The visible and permanent stigmata appeared in 1918 and remained with him for much of his life. His fame for sanctity spread throughout the world even during his lifetime.

Saint Francis, the choice, the stigmata

In the summer of 1224, weakened by illness and a life of penance, Saint Francis of Assisi retreated to Mount La Verna for a long period of prayer and fasting. He died two years later, in 1226. There he experienced a profound spiritual trial, interpreted by tradition as an attack or temptation from the devil. He emerged from that experience transformed, to the point of receiving the gift of the stigmata.

The spirituality of Saint Francis was born from a profound relationship with the Gospel, which he considered not merely a text to be read, but a word to be lived concretely in one's life. For the Saint of Assisi, the Gospel became a daily guide, a model for life, and a source of inner transformation. This connection between Francis and the Word of Christ is also represented in the miniature "The Gospel and Saint Francis: the Word Becomes Life," which visually expresses how Scripture can be transformed into lived experience.

👉 Discover the work: The Gospel and Saint Francis: The Word Becomes Life

A particularly clear formula, reported in Franciscan sources and also taken up by more recent studies, states that "on the sacred mountain of La Verna," while receiving the stigmata, Francis "had to suffer temptations and tribulations from demons," to the point that he was no longer able to display his usual joy. He himself confided to his companion that, if the friars knew how much he suffered from those afflictions, they would have had compassion for him.

During his retreat at La Verna, Saint Francis had a vision of a crucified seraph and, through this mystical experience, received the stigmata, the visible signs of Christ's Passion.

This episode, one of the most intense moments of medieval Christian spirituality, has been depicted in numerous miniatures and works of art. Among these, the depiction of the Stigmatization of Saint Francis stands out, now reproduced in an artistic print embellished with the hand-applied 23-karat gold and a handcrafted gilded frame.

👉 Discover the work: The Stigmatization of Saint Francis

According to tradition, it was a moment marked both by joy and pain: joy at the loving encounter with Christ, pain at the contemplation of his crucifixion. When the vision faded, it left Francis with a profound spiritual fervor and, on his body, the marks of the nails in his hands and feet, as well as the wound in his side.

This episode, handed down by Saint Bonaventure in the Legenda Maior, represents one of the peaks of Franciscan spirituality and, even today, constitutes the heart of the message of La Verna.

Works dedicated to Saint Francis

On Mount La Verna, a place of silence, penance, and contemplation, Saint Francis of Assisi experienced one of the highest and most mysterious moments of his spiritual experience. According to Franciscan tradition, in 1224 he retreated to this place for a prolonged period of prayer and fasting, observing Lent in honor of Saint Michael the Archangel. It was not simply a period of meditation, but a true interior journey, marked by asceticism, spiritual struggle, and the desire to unite ever more deeply with the crucified Christ.

Indeed, the sources depict Francis immersed in an intense trial, marked by tribulations and temptations, in a context that symbolically recalls the figure of Saint Michael, defender against evil. It was precisely within this experience of purification, while meditating on the Passion of the Lord, that the Saint had a vision of the crucified seraph and received the stigmata, an extraordinary sign of his conformity to Christ.

La Verna thus becomes, in Christian memory and Franciscan spirituality, the place where combat and contemplation, suffering and love, trial and transfiguration meet. Here Francis appears both as a man of spiritual struggle and a man of peace, close to Saint Michael in his resistance to the devil and close to Christ in his participation in the mystery of the Cross. For this reason, the Sanctuary of La Verna continues to be a destination of pilgrimage, meditation, and profound devotion.

As a testimony to the spiritual and artistic strength of this episode, we have in our catalogue two limited series prints taken from miniatures depicting significant moments in the life of the Saint:

• The stigmatization of Saint Francis, which represents the mystical moment that took place on Mount La Verna.
• The Gospel and Saint Francis: the Word becomes Life, an image that expresses the profound bond between the Saint and the evangelical message.

These are works designed for those who wish to bring an image of great devotional intensity into their home, study, or place of prayer.