Stigmata - the medical explanation.?

Question

What is the medical explanation of stigmata such as Padre Pio bore on his body.
No religious cranks please, rational explanations only.
Thank you.

My understanding of the crucification of Jesus was that he was nailed through the palms yet tied by the wrists to the cross to prolong his agony.

Answer 1

There have been historical stigmatics that were known to have faked wounds, such as Magdalena de la Cruz (1487–1560), who admitted the fraud.

Similarly self-inflicted wounds can be associated with certain mental illnesses. Some people who fake stigmata suffer from Munchausen syndrome which is characterized by an intense desire for attention. People with Munchausen hurt themselves or fake an illness hoping to end up in a hospital where they can be given attention and care.

Skeptics also point out that stigmata have appeared on hands in some cases, wrists in others, and the lance wound has appeared on different sides of the body. This suggests some form of internally generated phenomena, based on the victim's own imagination and subjective in character, rather than something of external divine origin. It is unknown, either through the gospels or other historical accounts, whether crucifixion involved nails being driven through the hands, or wrists, or what side the lance pierced Christ's body, and this would appear to be reflected in the inconsistent placement of stigmatists' wounds. However Roman Crucifixions involved the nails driven through the ulna and radias gap, being just medial to the wrist.

It should be noted, however, that many stigmatics have wounds piercing the palms of their hands, may be associated with the common conception of Christ hanging on the cross (this is visible in much of Christian imagery. Many studies have suggested, however, that it would have been impossible for Jesus to have been suspended on the cross by his hands - it would have been a physical impossibility for the hands to support the entire weight of the body without breaking through the fragile bones in the human hand. These studies further suggest that Christ's arms would have to have been nailed to the cross by his wrists in order to be able to support the weight. A new study and documentary called "Quest for Truth: The Crucifixion" on the National Geographic Channel has shown that a person can be suspended by the wrists. However, the study also claims the palms are a likely place for the nails to be driven, as it would cause the maximum amount of pain and trauma, and the victim would be tied to the cross to support the weight.

Some studies, however, suggest that if a foot-stool were placed on the cross, as depicted in Christian imagery, the body would be able to be supported.

Similarly, no case of stigmata is known to have occurred before the thirteenth century, when the crucified Jesus became a standard icon of Christianity in the west.

Some believe that the condition can be explained by 'frontier science' such as with the unexplained phenomena of the mind exerting physical effects on the body.There have been claims that non-religious people under deep hypnosis, when told that they had a crown of thorns on their heads cutting into their flesh (in the manner similar to Christ), have had bleeding welts appear on their foreheads even when nothing had come into contact with the skin. Thus if this is true, the effects have been inflicted by the mind onto the body. Other accounts of this strong mind-body connection have been observed and documented in experiments such as the case in which heart disease patients were administered a placebo pill, but told that it was a new 'super-medicine', and their conditions noticeably improved. It is thought by some that the deep trance-like state which deeply religious people claim to go into mimics this type of hypnosis, and the extremely strong and vivid impressions of the wounds and suffering are somehow transmitted from the mind to the body. This also fits with the fact that stigmata was first observed at around the time when graphic detail of the crucifixion started to appear in Christian art, making the wounds and suffering easier to comprehend and imagine in the minds of observers of the art.

Psychosomatic explanation

In his paper Hospitality and Pain, iconoclastic Christian theologian Ivan Illich touches on the phenomenon of stigmata with characteristic terseness: "Compassion with Christ... is faith so strong and so deeply incarnate that it leads to the individual embodiment of the contemplated pain." His thesis is that stigmata result from exceptional poignancy of religious faith and desire to associate oneself with the suffering Messiah.

Answer 2

I don't know if any scientific tests have ever been done. With that being in mind I'd guess it is psychosomatic, or a physical manifestation caused from a mental or psychological basis. Stigmatas only seem to happen to Catholics, why is that? If it is truly a miracle, than other Christians, or even non-Christians should have them. Only Catholics believe them possible. And as another person stated, the nails would have had to have done through the wrists, not the palms, the palms never would have supported the weight. So if a believer thinks it as palms, not realizing it would have had to have been wrists, the blood appears in the palms. Seems mental to me.

Answer 3

Self-inflicted injuries, either because of A) the desire to trick others into believing "religious" claims, B) a need for sympathy and attention, C) the desire to feel pain, often due to repressed sexual guilt, D) an attempt to control the pain inflicted by an abusive person in the patient's life.
In all cases, the first priority is to find out what the patient believes about the injuries and to keep the patient under supervision. If it is a case of trickery--disturbed though that is--these people are not normally suicidal. They're just willing to be untruthful in an extreme way. The second level of danger is a person who self-hurts for control. This will be an abused person, possibly in need of a radical change in living situation, i.e. to get away from an abusive parent, spouse, family member or partner.
The third level of danger is a person who self-hurts and claims not to know how the injuries are happening. Usually, the only choice for helping this type of patient is hospitalization and full-time supervision.

Answer 4

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RE:
Stigmata - the medical explanation.?
What is the medical explanation of stigmata such as Padre Pio bore on his body.
No religious cranks please, rational explanations only.
Thank you.

Answer 5

Somebody cut their hand.

Really, stigmata is so easy to fake for even a mildly incompetent magician, why assume there must be a supernatural explanation?

Answer 6

The odd thing is, Jesus (and everyone else crucified at the time) was nailed through the wrists, not the hands... yest stigmata usually appear in the hands... go figure

Answer 7

I don't know who Padre Pio is, but I can easily give myself a stigmata, so I can't say I think it's miraculous.

Answer 8

As far as I can tell, every well-researched case was the result of self-inflicted wounds. Nothing too mysterious- except whether they were intentional fraud or the result fo a disorder of some sort. Even one of the well-known Stigmatists was observed covertly causing his wounds and keeping them 'fresh'.

Answer 9

Well since it seems that he never left them examine them, it is hard to tell. But the ones that are examined have all been self inflicted fakes.

http://skeptically.org/skeptics/id2.html

Answer 10

It seems silly and much less conceivable that your mind can create actual wounds. That's pseudoscience right there