The Shroud Codex - Jerome R. Corsi [17]
“Yes,” Morelli admitted. “It’s beginning to happen even in the hospital. Father Bartholomew has had to be restrained from walking on the hospital floor and offering to hear the confessions of the other patients on the floor. The doctors and nurses are concerned Father Bartholomew appears to be giving out medical advice, where he isn’t qualified.”
“I can appreciate the problem,” Castle acknowledged. He also realized how little Archbishop Duncan would like seeing the New York media turn Father Bartholomew into a freak sideshow that would draw a circus crowd. Besides, it wouldn’t be long before some smart lawyer caught on and convinced a patient to file a suit against the archdiocese for allowing a priest to give medical advice without possessing a license to practice medicine.
“But there’s more,” Morelli continued. “Father Bartholomew has begun to experience flashbacks.”
“What type of flashbacks?”
“Bartholomew reports that part of his after-life experience, or near-death experience, as you put it, was an instant where he felt he was actually standing at Golgotha with his mother, on the day Christ died.”
Listening, Castle showed no emotion. He calmly made additional notes in Bartholomew’s medical file.
“Archbishop Duncan told me Father Bartholomew has begun to manifest the stigmata,” Castle pressed forward. “What can you tell me about this?”
“The stigmata first appeared last Thursday, when Father Bartholomew was saying Mass,” Morelli explained. “I brought with me a few photographs that were taken at the hospital. The photos show the wounds Bartholomew suffered while saying Mass. The wounds bled quite heavily and Father Bartholomew collapsed unconscious at the altar.”
Castle sorted through the photographs of Bartholomew at the hospital. The wounds on his wrist were severe. Both wrists appeared to have been complete punctures, all the way through.
“The Catholic Church has had centuries of experience with people experiencing the stigmata,” Morelli explained. “The first was St. Francis of Assisi in La Verna, Italy, in 1224. Since then, we have documented maybe a thousand authentic cases. The most common wounds of Christ’s passion and death that manifest in Christian mystics are the nail wounds in the wrists from the crucifixion.”
Right,” Castle mused. “As I recall, Christ suffered five wounds on the cross—nail wounds on both wrists, both feet, and a spear wound in the side.”
“Yes,” Morelli affirmed. “In addition, there were the wounds from the scourging at the pillar and the crowning with thorns. These wounds rarely appear as stigmata.”
“Where does the word stigmata come from?”
“It dates back to St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians in the Acts of the Apostles,” Morelli answered. “St. Paul wrote, ‘I bear on my body the stigmata of Jesus.’ Stigmata is the plural of the Greek word stigma, which is translated as ‘mark’ or ‘brand,’ like one you might place on an animal, like cowboys brand cows.”
“Isn’t Father Bartholomew’s first name Paul?” Castle asked, sure he was right.
“Yes, it is,” Morelli noted. “St. Paul was a Jew who was also a Roman citizen. As a young man, he despised Christianity. He worked for the Romans and was known for brutally persecuting Christians prior to his conversion. His conversion came when he was blinded on the road to Damascus by a burst of light and a vision of the resurrected Jesus. As I’m sure you know, St. Paul is considered perhaps the most important early Christian missionary, credited with bringing Christianity to the Gentiles, even to Rome. According to tradition, he was beheaded by the emperor Nero after being imprisoned in Rome.”
“How about Bartholomew? Wasn’t Bartholomew one of the disciples of Jesus?”
“Yes, he was. He is counted among the twelve apostles of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He is also credited with having been present at the ascension of Jesus into Heaven following the resurrection. Tradition holds that Bartholomew traveled to India, where he took up a mission of preaching about Jesus.”
“How do the stigmata typically