A victim soul is a concept in Catholic theology with pre-Christian roots, however it is not an official term in the Roman Catholic Church.[1] The concept is described by one theologian as a soul or person "chosen by God to suffer more than most people during life, and who generously accepts the suffering in union with the Savior and after the example of Christ's own Passion and Death."[2]
In Judeo-Christian thought, the concept of one being suffering in the place of another has a long history. One early and well-known example of this is the scapegoat ritual of Yom Kippur, described in Leviticus chapter 16. Christian tradition tends to interpret the scapegoat practice as a prefigurement of Christ's atonement through his own suffering and death.[3] The concept of the victim soul builds on this, bolstered by such New Testament passages as Christ's declaration that "If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.",[4] and St. Paul's statement that "I find joy in the sufferings I endure for [Paul's fellow Christians]. In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body, the Church."[5]
The Catholic priest I. Duffner notes that Victim Souls usually offer themselves to God of behalf of needy souls rather than as a pure offering of sacrifice to God for God's own sake; that a true Victim Soul is one who has responded to an invitation from God to take on this role, rather than one who seeks the role of their own will; and that the kind of person who can fulfil the role must be living a holy life closely patterned on Jesus Christ. Such souls are permitted to share, to some degree, in the suferings endured by Jesus Christ. They experience both mental and physical suffering: such persons are often contradicted, persecuted, ridiculed or humiliated, and may also experience visible or hidden stigmata. Catholics who might be recognised as fulfilling such a role include St Therese of Lisieux, Marie de Vallées, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, St Faustina Kowalska, and Berthe Petit. Such souls also seem to be subject to more and greater temptations than average Christians, as might be seen in the cases of St Faustina, St Margaret Mary of Cartons, St Veronica Giuliani, T Josefa Menéndez, and St John Vianney.[6]