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| Marie Rose Ferron |
It does not matter if you believe or don't, but Stigmatists do fire the imagination. So I'm trying to write this little blog as neutral as possible because I think sometimes things are difficult to explain. Religion is something I struggle with and sometimes scientists can be arrogant in their own theories of what is or what is not. As priests were dogmatic about things in the middle ages; how do we know if some of our scientists are not as bigoted in their views. That is not to say all scientists are like this, but many might be different and dismissive in their opinions as middle-aged religious orders were about things. Therefore many scientists, like ancient priests, often insist on telling us that things are; when they might not be. There are millions of wondrous things to discover and many theories that will, one day, be blown out of the water.
So science aside for the moment; Stigmatists are people who bare the same wounds suffered by Christ during his crucifixion. These comprise of wounds to the wrists, where Christ had his arms raised and nailed to the cross - plus nail wounds to the feet. Also, there can be scars to the head, where the crown of thorns was placed, lacerations across the back and the scar in the ribs, from a stab wound of the spear that was thrust into Christ as he lay dying, nailed upon the cross.
It would be relatively easy for a determined person to find horrid and ghastly ways of imitating such wounds. No doubt, on some occasions, people do try.
This condition of Stigmata is found mainly in Roman Catholics and in eighty per cent of cases; suffered by women. It is said that the Vatican sends out agents across the world to examine such unexplainable cases. Many investigators are scientists that are still religious. It is believed that the vast majority of the time, the level headed priest can discover a hoax and most are explained away for one reason or another. Sometimes from self-infliction by a person mentally unstable.
The Roman Catholic church is evolving to discoveries of the new world and often finds itself in conflict with many issues. The last thing it wants is to go on a fool's errand and be seen to be tricked by unbalanced hoaxers.
However, now and then, even a level minded examiner, searching for hoaxes or trickery can come upon a composed person, or perhaps, seemingly so. For there occurs occasion when Vatican agents can find no rational explanation as to why such wounds occur. They can find no evidence of self-infliction and no reason as to why such wounds appear. This leads to speculation of supernatural, Godly or diabolical powers bringing about such phenomenon.
St Francis of Assisi was said to be a Stigmatist and it is believed he bore the wounds I speak of. Still, he lived in times when such things could be tricked or lied about. In his time, the church was executing innocent people for all sorts of things. If a person suffered epilepsy or Tourette's syndrome, they could be accused of being possessed and from this point subjected to torture for confession of treating with demonic forces etc. Wounds of a Stigmatist were conveniently placed - perhaps making them acceptable and not viewed in such dreadful ways.
Marie Rose Ferron was a young woman who raised such questions and she lived in the more enlightened times from 1902 to 1936 and died at the age of 33. She is often called the Little Rose and was an American-Canadian stigmatist. This fame comes from the wounds she bore and the time she lived in. I think this makes her interesting and I'm not dismissing her Stigmara, or believing either. I don't know what to make of this, except she is remarkable and interesting.
What makes Marie Rose Ferron compelling is the fact that she is someone close enough to our time, but just out of reach to be examined properly, having died in 1936. There are photographs of her, as above, and she would have been examined by reputable people of the Roman Catholic church during this time. She is a young woman that falls into the category of speculation where no one could find an earthly explanation for her stigmatist wounds. This caused her to be revered by some Roman Catholics.
She was born in Saint-Germain-de-Grantham, Quebec, as the tenth child of a large family which moved to Massachusetts 1906 and then to Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 1925, where she lived the rest of her life. Her stigmata (including a crown of thorns) were repeatedly photographed and she is considered the first American stigmatist.
Of course, there have been others like Anne Catherine Emmerick and Marie Rose Ferron and it is highly likely that there could be a rational explanation, but sometimes one can't be found, even by examiners who are trying to disprove such things. Marie Rose Ferron was one such case.
Had she lived in this same area of the world three hundred years earlier when the country was ruled by the Presbyterian fundamentalist orders of England and Scotland after the civil war, Marie Rose Ferron might have been subject to the more dreadful attentions of the witchfinder generals that were about in that day and age. Especially being Roman Catholic. After all, it is a region where the Salem witch trials were held.
