Saint Catherine of Siena receives the Stigmata
Saint Catherine of Siena receives the Stigmata Whenever Catherine of Siena went anywhere, she drew people to herself.
She radiated such a strong spirituality that people wanted to follow her example. She went to Pisa in response to an invitation she received. She spent a great deal of time at a little church called St. Christina.
One day, after having received Our Lord Jesus in the Eucharist, she meditated on the crucifix on the altar.
She was there for some time when she felt a strange sensation overcoming her. She felt herself coming closer and closer to the Crucified Christ. Then, in an instant, Catherine of Siena saw flames shoot out from the five Wounds of Jesus and penetrate her body, in her hands, her feet and her side.
Blessed Raymond of Capua was in the chapel when it happened.
In his words, she was transfigured into the Image of Jesus Christ. He had just finished celebrating Mass for Catherine of Siena and her companions when she went into ecstasy, "her soul separating as much as it could from the body."
They saw her body, which had been prostrate on the floor, rise. Mid-air, she kneeled, her face aglow with the fire of Jesus' Love inside of her.
Then with a tremor, her body fell in a heap onto the floor. Her companions waited for her words, as she came out of the rapture. It was her practice, always, to share what the Lord had told her or what had transpired during an ecstasy. This time, however, it was different. Catherine awoke after a few moments, and went directly to Raymond.
"Father, I must tell you, that by His Mercy, I now bear the Stigmata of the Lord Jesus in my body," "I saw our Lord fastened to the Cross, coming down upon me in a blaze of light. With that, as my spirit leaped to meet its Creator, this poor body was pulled upright. Then I saw, springing from the marks on His Most Sacred Wounds, five blood-red rays coming down upon me, directed towards my hands and feet and heart. Realizing the meaning of this mystery, I promptly cried out: `Ah, Lord, my God, I implore You not to let the marks show outwardly on my body.[1]'1 Whilst these words were still on my lips, before the rays had reached me, their blood-red color changed to radiant brightness, and it was in the form of clearest light they fell upon the five parts of my body - hands, feet and heart."
Although Raymond continued asking her if she did not mean the wound was in her side, she insistently repeated over and over again, no, it was in her heart. Raymond writes of the excruciating pain she suffered bearing the Precious Wounds of our Lord Jesus. Although Catherine had known pain all her life, this so debilitated her, she was in a coma for a week. Fearing she was dying, all her friends, including Raymond, prayed night and day. Not able to stir from her bed, feeling all the torture of Christ's Wounds cruelly rubbing against the blunt hard nails, she, too, was sure she was dying. Nothing helped to alleviate the agony and exhaustion that were companions of the Stigmata.
Catherine of Siena returned home from Pisa but this did not improve her condition. Her mornings were pure hell for her, as she tried to get up from bed, having had barely an hour's sleep the night before. Only the loving support of her friends in the Mantellate, and the eyes of her heart focused solely on the Eucharist, gave Catherine the strength to painfully rise from bed.
Feeling some relief from the pain, Catherine of Siena consoled Raymond, "The Lord has heard your prayers, and it is now my soul which is afflicted with suffering; but as for my body, these wounds no longer cause it pain, but rather lend it force and vigor. I can feel strength flowing into me from those wounds which at first only added to my sufferings." 
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