Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Holy Wounds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Five Holy Wounds or Five Sacred Wounds of Christ were the five piercing wounds inflicted upon Jesus during his crucifixion. Two of them would be found either through the hands or the lower wrists between the radius and ulna, where the nails of the cross-beam of the cross on which Jesus was crucified were inserted. Two would have been through the feet where a single nail passed through both to the vertical beam, or through the heels. These are not explicitly mentioned in any canonical gospel until the Resurrection, although John states that no bones were broken. The final wound was in the side of the body, where, according to the New Testament, the body was lanced in order to check that Jesus was dead. The Gospel of John states that blood and water poured out of this wound (John 19:34).
People who have spectacularly exhibited the Holy Wounds are called stigmatics.
The Holy Wounds have often been used as a symbol of Christianity. Participants in the Crusades would often wear the Jerusalem cross, an emblem representing the Holy Wounds; a version is still in use today in the flag of Georgia.
The Five Wounds was the emblem of the "Pilgrimage of Grace", a northern English rebellion in response to Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.