Séamus Mulholland OFM, "The Stigmata and the Song: A Reflection on St Francis at San Damiano 1225" (September 17, 2025, Franciscanpublishing.com).
In the autumn of 1225, as the golden light of October filtered through the olive groves surrounding the poor convent of San Damiano, Francis of Assisi arrived seeking refuge not from the world, but from the overwhelming burden of his own flesh. For a full year now, the sacred wounds had marked his hands, feet, and side—the Stigmata that had transformed him at La Verna from a mystic into a living crucifix. Yet these marks of divine favour had become instruments of exquisite torment, weakening his already frail body and adding layers of physical anguish to a frame already broken by years of zealous asceticism and creeping illness.
Read the article here.