Emphasis Preaching Journal

The story has been told repeatedly that some saints bore the very marks of the crucified Jesus on their own bodies. These are known as stigmata, and it is claimed their hands and feet are pierced as if by nails. Some have purported, also, to have been pierced on the right side as by a lance and may have the marks of the crown of thorns on their heads. It is said by some critics these marks come about by means of autosuggestion. Be that as it may, the first person in history to make this claim was Francis, the Saint of Assisi.