Therese Neumann
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Therese Neumann (1898–1962) was a German Catholic mystic and stigmatic. She was born on Good Friday, April 8, 1898, in the village of Konnersreuth in Bavaria, where she lived all her life and where she died on September 18, 1962. She was born into a large family with little income.
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[edit] Ailments
On March 10 of 1918, Therese was partially paralyzed after falling off of a stool while attending to a fire in her uncle's barn.[1] Therese sustained more falls and injuries during this period. After one particular fall Therese lost much of her eyesight. In 1919, Therese was blinded completely. Bedridden, she developed horrible bed sores that sometimes exposed bone.[2] On April 29, 1923 Therese of Lisieux was beatified in Rome. Therese had been praying novenas in advance of this day. At the moment of beatification, Therese had her sight completely restored.[3] On May 17, 1925 Therese of Lisieux was fully canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church. Therese Neumann says the saint called to her and then cured her of her paralysis and bed sores[4].
On November 7, 1925 Therese became sick again, and on November 13 was diagnosed with appendicitis. While prepared for surgery, Therese convulsed violently and stared at the ceiling finally saying, "Yes." Therese asked her family to take her to the church to pray immediately. She had been cured of all traces of appendicitis.[5]
[edit] Stigmata
On the first Friday of Lent on March 5, 1926, the first stigmata or sacred wounds of Christ appeared slightly above her heart. She kept it secret, confident it would be healed. This wound is believed to represent the spot where Longinus speared Jesus Christ while on the cross. During this day she had a vision of Jesus at Mount Olivet with three Apostles.[6]
March 12, the second Friday of Lent, Therese bled again from the wound above her heart. This was accompanied with the same vision at Mt. Olivet, along with the crowning of thorns. At this time she confided in her sister about the wounds.
March 19, the third Friday of Lent, Therese bled yet again from the wound above her heart.
March 26, the fourth Friday of Lent, Therese bled from her wound again followed by a vision of Christ bearing the cross and his fall. During the vision she developed a wound on her left hand. Therese no longer could keep this a secret, as she was bleeding through her clothing.
By Good Friday Therese had experienced the entire Passion of Christ in her visions. On Good Friday Therese experienced the worst portion of her suffering. She now had wounds on her hands and feet which bled profusely, accompanied with blood pouring from her eyes and down her cheeks.
Her parish priest Fr. Josef Naber was summoned to give Therese her Last Rites, and by three o'clock Therese was near death. By 4 o'clock, her condition improved and she was in good health. After being given a bath, the wounds on her feet and hands were observed.
On Easter Sunday Therese had yet another vision, this time of the resurrection of Christ. For several consecutive Fridays, Therese would experience the Passion of Christ, suffering in her own body all his historic agonies.
On Friday, November 5, 1926 Therese had 9 wounds open on her head as well as wounds on her back and shoulders. This marked the completion of her wounds of Christ, they never went away and were found on her body at death.
[edit] Inedia
From the years of 1922 until her death in 1962, Therese is said to have consumed no food other than The Holy Eucharist. And from 1926 until death she drank no water.[7] This phenomenon is commonly referred to as Inedia.
In July 1927 a medical doctor and four Fransciscan nurses kept a watch on her 24 hours a day for a two-week period. They confirmed that she had consumed nothing except for one consecrated host a day, and had suffered no ill effects, loss of weight, or dehydration. Urine testing two weeks after daily surveillance was dropped indicated, however, that she may have begun eating and drinking normally[1].
During some of her Friday trances, she would utter phrases identified by scholars as ancient Aramaic. Therese was also said to have been able to understand Hebrew, Greek, and Latin[8]
[edit] Miscellaneous
During the Third Reich, Therese was the target of ridicule and defamation, as the Nazis knew about her dissenting views and feared her growing popularity[citation needed]. She was, however, never physically harmed.
Paramahansa Yogananda visited her and wrote about her case in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946. He wrote an entire chapter, Therese Neumann, The Catholic Stigmatist of Bavaria, which reverently gives a vivid first-hand description of one of her Friday Passion trances.
On September 18, 1962, Therese died from cardiac arrest, after having suffered from Angina Pectoris for some time.
The Catholic Church has confirmed neither her inedia nor her stigmata and has in the past discouraged pilgrimages to Konnersreuth. The "Resl", as she is colloquially known, nonetheless attained a place in popular piety — a petition asking for her beatification was signed by 40,000 people. In 2005, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg, formally opened the proceedings for her beatification.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Vogl, p. 2
- ^ Vogl, 3
- ^ Vogl, p. 4
- ^ Vogl, p. 4,5
- ^ Vogl, pp. 5, 6
- ^ Vogl, p. 7
- ^ Vogl, p. 17
- ^ Vogl, pp. 48,49
[edit] Further reading
- Therese Neumann A Stigmatist of Our Days, by Friedrich Ritter von Lama
- Further Chronicles of Therese Neumann, by Friedrich Ritter von Lama
- Life and Death of Therese Neumann, Mystic and Stigmatist, by Albert Vogl
- Mystical Phenomena in the Life of Threresa Neumann, by Most Reverend Josef Teodorowicz translated by Rev. Rudolph Kraus, Ph.D., S.T.D.
- The Story of Theresa Neumann, by Albert Paul Schimberg
- The Case of Therese Neumann, by Hilda C. Graef
- The Visions of Therese Neumann, by Johannes Steiner
- Theresa Neumann: A Portrait Based on Authentic Accounts, Journals and Documents, by Johannes Steiner
- What about Therese Neumann: A concise background for and analysis of the critical reception accorded Hilda C. Graef's the case of Therese Neumann, by Leonard J. Fick
