Feast Of The Stigmata Of Saint Francis Of Assisi - 17 September

Quoted from groups.google.com [1]:

Francis imitated Christ so perfectly that towards the end of his life

our Lord wished to point him out to the world as the faithful imitator

of the Crucified, by imprinting His five wounds upon his body.

Two years before his death, when, according to his custom, Francis had

repaired to Mt. La Verna to spend the 40 days preceding the feast of

St. Michael the Archangel in prayer and fasting, this wonderful event

took place. St. Bonaventure gives the following account of it:

"Francis was raised to God in the ardor of his seraphic love, wholly

transformed by sweet compassion into Him, who, of His exceeding

charity, was pleased to be crucified for us. On the morning of the

feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, as he was praying in a

secret and solitary place on the mountain, Francis beheld a seraph

with six wings all afire, descending to him from the heights of

heaven. As the seraph flew with great swiftness towards the man of

God, there appeared amid the wings the form of one crucified, with his

hands and feet stretched out and fixed to the cross. Two wings rose

above the head, two were stretched forth in flight, and two veiled the

whole body.

"Francis wondered greatly at the appearance of so novel and marvelous

a vision. But knowing that the weakness of suffering could nowise be

reconciled with the immortality of the seraphic spirit, he understood

the vision as a revelation of the Lord and that it was being presented

to his eyes by Divine Providence so that the friend of Christ might be

transformed into Christ crucified, not through martyrdom of the flesh,

but through a spiritual holocaust.

"The vision, disappearing, left behind it a marvelous fire in the

heart of Francis, and no less wonderful token impressed on his flesh.

For there began immediately to appear in his hands and in his feet

something like nails as he had just seen them in the vision of the

Crucified. The heads of the nails in the hands and feet were round and

black, and the points were somewhat long and bent, as if they had been

turned back. On the right side, as if it had been pierced by a lance,

was the mark of a red wound, from which blood often flowed and stained

his tunic."

Thus far the account of St. Bonaventure. Although St. Francis strove

in every way to conceal the marvelous marks which until then no man

had seen, he was not able to keep them a complete secret from the

brethren. After his death they were carefully examined, and they were

attested by an ecclesiastical decree. To commemorate the importance of

the five wounds, Pope Benedict XI instituted a special feast which is

celebrated on September 17th, not only by all branches of the

Franciscan Order, but also in the Roman missal and breviary.

[1] https://groups.google.com/g/alt.religion.christian.catholic/c/m6wzn-oEUmk?pli=1