Lachapelle, Sofie "Between Miracle and Sickness: Louise Lateau and the Experience of Stigmata and Ecstasy

Lachapelle, Sofie "Between Miracle and Sickness: Louise Lateau and the Experience of Stigmata and Ecstasy" Configurations - Volume 12, Number 1, Winter 2004, pp. 77-105
The Johns Hopkins University Press


Excerpt
Configurations 12.1 (2004) 77-105
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Louise Lateau and the Experience of Stigmata and Ecstasy
Sofie Lachapelle


When, on the last Friday of April 1868, Louise Lateau began bleeding from the left side of her chest, the eighteen-year-old girl was advised by her local priest to keep quiet and forget about the wound. But the bleeding occurred again on the following Friday, this time accompanied by wounds on her feet. The third Friday, wounds appeared on both hands. This time, Lateau could no longer hide the blood; her secret was out. From Friday, July 17, thirteen weeks after the stigmata's first appearance, she experienced a state of ecstasy in which she witnessed scenes of the Passion and shared her savior's sufferings. On Friday, September 25, she developed stigmata on her head, small cuts forming a bloody crown. These awe-inspiring feats continued for months and years. Over time, Lateau's experiences intensified; she stopped reacting to either heat or cold, she stopped sleeping, and she began to refuse any food or water other than the daily communion. In the spring of 1873, she received her final mark: a large wound on her shoulder, recalling Jesus's burden when carrying his cross to Mount Golgotha. The wounds did not affect her daily life. Miraculously, it seemed, she was able to continue her work as a seamstress, participate in household activities, and walk to church every morning—at least until 1876, when, having grown visibly weaker, she was forced to renounce her daily visit to the village church. Her health declined, but she continued to exhibit marks of the passion every Friday. From 1879 onward she remained bedridden, until her death in 1883 at the significant age of thirty-three.1 [End Page...