Impression of St Francis stigmatta


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On September 17, the Franciscan family remembers the gift granted by God to Saint Francis of Assisi on the Mount Della Verna in 1224: the reception of the stigmata with which Christ was configured.

Since Francis begged to follow him, Our Lord granted the Grace of printing the seal of his wounds on the body of Francis. In the early hours of September 14, 1224, feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, San Francisco prayed: “My Lord Jesus Christ, two graces I ask you before I die: the first, to feel the pain in my soul and in my body that You endured in the hour of your passion; the second, to feel in my heart that extraordinary love of which you were inflamed, to gladly endure such a great passion for us sinners”. Francis saw an angel with six wings of flame.

A burning devoured his soul and body, leaving with painful wounds in the feet, hands and side. A effluent of blood ran down his left side. He opened his robe, feeling a deep pain that reached his heart, and discovered a spear wound. Love had transformed him into the Beloved, because one becomes what he loves.

Francis suffered the last 3 years of his life a little from the pain that Jesus Christ felt during his saving Passion, but at the same time he felt the joy of loving like Him, to the extreme. Benedict XI granted the Franciscan Order to celebrate every year, on September 17, the memory of this fact proved by various testimonies. With this grace that we celebrate today, God presents Francis of Assisi as a role model of Christian life.

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