Stigmata: Fact or Faked?

Stigmata are marks, scars or sensations of pain that occur on the bodies of generally only devout Roman Catholics. These marks, scars or pain sensations appear on parts of the body that correspond to the wounds inflicted on Jesus Christ during his crucifixion. The most common areas of stigmatic infliction are the hands and feet, through which Christ was nailed to the cross, the head, where a Christ bore a crown of thorns, and the right side of the chest, where Christ was pierced while crucified.

Stigmata is viewed by Catholics as a great sign of piety and devotion to the Catholic faith. The stigmatics are believed to have been touched by the hand of the Almighty God. The first recorded stigmatic was St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century. There have since been over three hundred reported cases of stigmata, around 80% of those cases occurred in women.

The strange thing about stigmata is that, other than the areas of affliction upon stigmatics, there seems to be no uniform method of affliction. Some stigmata appears in the form of open wounds, burn marks or scratches, some only feel pain, in some cases blood just appears on their body in those areas. Others report shedding tears of blood as well.

Though believers of this phenomenon will argue that these wounds appear as an act of God, or due to the power of belief, many claims have been proven to be false. It has been alleged that St. Padre Pio, an Italian monk who became famous for his stigmata and was cannonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002, faked his stigmata by using carbolic acid to create and maintain the wounds in his hands and feet. Magdalena de la Cruz , Franciscan nun(1487–1560), admitted in a fit of severe illness that her stigmata was self inflicted, a sham. Maria de la Visitacion (1790-1877) of Argentina, was caught painting stigmatic wounds on her hands and feet. Another stigmatic seemingly only became afflicted when she was alone. These false reports of stigmata, however, only account for a handful of reported cases.

The question still remains, can absolute belief and devotion truly have an affect on the body enough to cause this phenomenon, or are people faking it? What do YOU think? Take the poll!