Editing Stigmata (section)

===Saint Francis of Assisi===
[[File:Giotto. Stigmatization of St Francis. 1295-1300. 314x162cm. Louvre, Paris.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (Giotto)|Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata]] by [[Giotto]]]]
[[File:El Greco - The Stigmatization of St Francis - WGA10562.jpg|thumb|St. [[Francis of Assisi]], by [[El Greco]]]]

St. [[Francis of Assisi]] is widely considered the first recorded stigmatic in Christian history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1163/whats-the-deal-with-stigmata |title=What's the deal with stigmata? |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=1998-02-20 |access-date=2012-02-27}}</ref> In 1224,<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Stigmatization |volume=25 |page=918 |first=Alexander |last=Macalister }}</ref> two years before his death, he embarked on a journey to [[La Verna|Mount La Verna]] for a forty-day fast. The legend states that one morning, near the feast of the [[Exaltation of the Cross]], a six-winged angel appeared to Francis while he prayed. As the angel approached, Francis could see that the angel was crucified. He was humbled by the sight, and his heart was filled with elation joined by pain and suffering. When the angel departed, Francis was left with wounds in his hands, feet, and side as if caused by the same lance that pierced Christ's side. The image of nails immediately appeared in his hands and feet, and the wound in his side often seeped blood.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/archive/stfrancis/stf_stigmata_of_st_francis.htm |title=Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi |publisher=Franciscan Friars T.O.R. |access-date=2012-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307093413/http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/archive/stfrancis/stf_stigmata_of_st_francis.htm |archive-date=2012-03-07 }}</ref> [[Pope Alexander IV]] and other witnesses declared that they had seen these marks both before and after his death.<ref name=EB1911/> In traditional artistic depictions of the incident, Francis is accompanied by a Franciscan brother.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=25151940 |title=Sasseta: crucifixion with St. Francis |journal=The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=46–49 |publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art |last1=Francis |first1=Henry S. |year=1963 }}</ref>

St. Francis' first biographer, [[Thomas of Celano]], reports the event in his 1230 ''First Life of St. Francis'':
<blockquote>
When the blessed servant of God saw these things he was filled with wonder, but he did not know what the vision meant. He rejoiced greatly in the benign and gracious expression with which he saw himself regarded by the seraph, whose beauty was indescribable; yet he was alarmed by the fact that the seraph was affixed to the cross and was suffering terribly. Thus Francis rose, one might say, sad and happy, joy and grief alternating in him. He wondered anxiously what this vision could mean, and his soul was uneasy as it searched for understanding. And as his understanding sought in vain for an explanation and his heart was filled with perplexity at the great novelty of this vision, the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet, just as he had seen them slightly earlier in the crucified man above him.

His wrists and feet seemed to be pierced by nails, with the heads of the nails appearing on his wrists and on the upper sides of his feet, the points appearing on the other side. The marks were round on the palm of each hand but elongated on the other side, and small pieces of flesh jutting out from the rest took on the appearance of the nail-ends, bent and driven back. In the same way the marks of nails were impressed on his feet and projected beyond the rest of the flesh. Moreover, his right side had a large wound as if it had been pierced with a spear, and it often bled so that his tunic and trousers were soaked with his sacred blood.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-lives.html |title=Medieval Sourcebook: Thomas of Celano: Lives of St. Francis |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=2012-02-27}}</ref>
</blockquote>

From the records of St. Francis' physical ailments and symptoms, Edward Frederick Hartung concluded in 1935 that he knew what health problems plagued St. Francis. Hartung believed that he had an eye ailment known as [[trachoma]] and [[Plasmodium malariae|quartan malaria]].<ref name="Hartung 1935">Hartung, Edward Frederick. (1935). "St. Francis and Medieval Medicine". ''Annals of Medical History'' 7: 85–91.</ref>

Quartan malaria infects the [[liver]], [[spleen]], and [[stomach]], causing the victim intense pain. One complication of quartan malaria occasionally seen around Francis' time is known as [[purpura]], a purple hemorrhage of blood into the skin. According to Hartung "If this were the case of St. Francis, he would have been afflicted by ''ecchymoses'', an exceedingly large ''purpura''. The purple spots of blood may have been punctured while in the wilderness and there appear as an open wound like that of Christ."<ref name="Hartung 1935"/><ref>{{Cite news
| issn = 0040-781X
| title = Medicine: St. Francis' Stigmata
| magazine = Time
| access-date = 2009-09-14
| date = 1935-03-11
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883261,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071116111728/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883261,00.html
| archive-date = November 16, 2007
}}</ref>

A later medical hypothesis was proposed in 1987 to explain the wounds, it claimed that St. Francis may have contracted [[leprosy]].<ref>Schazlein, Joanne; Sulmasy, Daniel P. (1987). ''The Diagnosis of St. Francis: Evidence for Leprosy''. Franciscan Studies 47: 181–217.</ref>