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InCatholictradition, theFive Holy Wounds, also known as theFive Sacred Wounds or theFive Precious Wounds, are the five piercing wounds thatJesus Christ suffered during hiscrucifixion. The wounds have been the focus of particular devotions, especially in the lateMiddle Ages, and have often been reflected in church music and art.
The five wounds comprised 1) the nail hole in his right hand, 2) the nail hole in his left hand, 3) the nail hole in his right foot, 4) the nail hole in his left foot, 5) the wound to his torso from the piercing ofthe spear. The wounds around Jesus' head from thecrown of thorns and the lash marks fromthe flagellation do not qualify as they did not occur on the cross.[citation needed]
The examination of the wounds by "Doubting Thomas" theApostle, reported only in the Gospel of John atJohn 20:24–29, was the focus of much commentary and often depicted in art, where the subject has the formal name of theIncredulity of Thomas.[citation needed]
According to the accounts of his crucifixion in theChristian gospels, in the course of hisPassion, Jesus suffered various wounds, such as those from the crown of thorns and from the scourging at the pillar. Medieval popular piety focused upon the five wounds associated directly with Christ's crucifixion: the nail wounds on his hands and feet and the wound from theHoly Lance which pierced his side.[citation needed]
The revival of religious life and the zealous activity ofBernard of Clairvaux andFrancis of Assisi in the 12th and 13th centuries, together with the enthusiasm ofthe Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, gave a rise in devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ.[5]
Many medieval prayers in honour of the Holy Wounds, including some attributed toClare of Assisi,[6] have been preserved.Mechtilde andGertrude of Helfta were devoted to the Holy Wounds, the latter reciting daily a prayer in honour of the 5466 wounds, which, according to a medieval tradition, were inflicted on Jesus during his Passion. In the fourteenth century it was customary in southern Germany to recite fifteen Pater Nosters each day (which thus amounted to 5,475 in the course of a year) in memory of the Holy Wounds.[citation needed]
There was, in the medieval Missals, a special Mass in honour of Christ's wounds, known as the Golden Mass. During its celebration five candles were always lit and it was popularly held that if anyone should say or hear it on five consecutive days they would never suffer the pains of hellfire.[5]
TheDominican Rosary also helped to promote devotion to the Holy Wounds, for while the fifty small beads refer to Mary, the five large beads and the corresponding Pater Nosters are intended to honour the Five Wounds of Christ. In some places it was customary to ring a bell at noon on Fridays to remind the faithful to recite five Paters and Aves in honour of the Holy Wounds.[5]
In his 1761 book,The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ,Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, founder of theRedemptorist Fathers, listed among various pious exercises theLittle Chaplet of the Five Wounds of Jesus Crucified.[7][8][9]
Liguori wrote the devotional as ameditation on the five piercing wounds that Christ suffered during his crucifixion.[10]
The "Chaplet of the Five Wounds" is aPassionistchaplet devoted to the Holy Wounds of Jesus, as a means to promote devotion to the Passion of Christ.[11]
The chaplet is due to Paul Aloysius, the sixth superior general of the Passionists. It was developed in Rome in 1821.[12] A corona of the Five Wounds was approved byPope Leo XII on August 11, 1823. It received a second approval in 1851.
The devotion also honors themystery of therisen Christ which has the marks of the Five Wounds.[13] This chaplet has 25 beads, grouped into five sets. TheGloria Patri is said on each bead.[13] At the end of each section of beads, aHail Mary in honor of thesorrows of Mary is said. At the end of the chaplet, three additional Hail Marys are said in honor of her tears. The blessing of the beads is reserved to the Passionists.[5]
TheChaplet of the Holy Wounds (or "Holy Wounds Rosary") was first introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by SisterMary Martha Chambon (March 6, 1841 – March 21, 1907), aRoman Catholic nun of the Monastery of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary inChambéry, France.[14][15]
Françoise Chambon was born March 6, 1841, to a poor farming family in the village of Croix Rouge, near Chambéry, in Savoy. Her first reported vision occurred when she was nine years old. As she was attendingGood Friday services with her godmother, in the parish church of Lémenc, Françoise saw the crucified Jesus covered in wounds and blood. She said that later that year, when she received First Communion, she saw the baby Jesus, who told her, "Child, my favorite, so it will be every time you go to Holy Communion."[16] She worked in the refectory at the boarding school.[17]
At the age of twenty-one, she joined theMonastery of the Visitation Order in Chambéry, France and was given her name Marie–Marthe.[18] She died on March 21, 1907;[17] the cause for herbeatification was introduced in 1937.
Mary Martha Chambon began to report visions of Jesus in 1866, telling her to contemplate the Holy Wounds.[19] The mother superior kept a chronicle of her life which was published in 1923 and sold widely. The next year theVatican granted anindulgence to those who said the following prayer, based on her reported visions: "Eternal Father I offer the wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to heal those of our souls."[19]
She reported that Jesus asked her to unite her sufferings with his in theRosary of the Holy Wounds as anAct of Reparation for the sins of the world.[18] She reported that Jesus told her that "[w]hen you offer My Holy Wounds for sinners, you must not forget to do so for the souls in Purgatory, as there are but few who think of their relief... The Holy Wounds are the treasure of treasures for the souls inPurgatory."
The Chaplet of the Holy Wounds is prayed on a standard five decaderosary.[20] This chaplet was approved for theOrder of the Visitation of Holy Mary in 1912, and was authorized for allCatholic Church by Decree of theCongregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on March 23, 1999.[17]
One method of praying the chaplet consists of three prayers that are said on specific portions of the rosary beads as follows:[21]
TheFirst Thursdays Devotion, also called the Act of Reparation to the Wounds of Jesus and to the Holy Eucharist, had its origin in theapparitions of Christ atBalazar,Portugal, reported byAlexandrina Maria da Costa in the 20th century.[citation needed]
In hisencyclical letter of 2024,Dilexit nos,Pope Francis suggests that devotion to theSacred Heart of Jesus emerged over time from a spirituality in the earlier centuries of the church which saw Jesus' wounded side "as a fountain of grace and a summons to a deep and loving encounter". In the same document he also affirms the observation made byPope John Paul II that devotion to the Sacred Heart is part of the permanent endowment of Christian spirituality, because "throughout her history ... since the beginning, the Church has looked to the heart of Christ pierced on the Cross”.[22]
As early as 1139Afonso I of Portugal put the emblem of the Five Holy Wounds on his coat of arms as king of Portugal.[citation needed]
TheCross of Jerusalem, or "Crusaders' Cross", remembers the Five Holy Wounds through its five crosses. The Holy Wounds have been used as a symbol ofChristianity. Participants in theCrusades would often wear theJerusalem cross, an emblem representing the Holy Wounds; a version is still in use today in theflag of Georgia. The "Five Wounds" was the emblem of the "Pilgrimage of Grace", a northern Englishrebellion in response toHenry VIII'sDissolution of the Monasteries.[citation needed]
Prior to its modern association with theoccult, thepentagram was used as a symbol for the Holy Wounds. The pentagram plays an important symbolic role in the 14th-century English poemSir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which the symbol decorates the shield of the hero,Gawain. Theunnamed poet credits the symbol's origin to KingSolomon, and explains that each of the five interconnected points represents a virtue tied to a group of five: Gawain is perfect in hisfive senses and five fingers, faithful to the Five Wounds of Christ, takes courage from thefive joys thatMary had of Jesus, and exemplifies the five virtues ofknighthood.[23]
Whenconsecrating analtar a number of Christian churchesanoint it in five places, indicative of the Five Holy Wounds.Eastern Orthodoxchurches will sometimes have five domes on them, symbolizing the Five Holy Wounds, along with the alternate symbolism of Christ and theFour Evangelists.[citation needed]
The medieval poemSalve mundi salutare (also known as theRhythmica oratio) was formerly ascribed toBonaventure orBernard of Clairvaux,[24] but now is thought more likely to have been written by the Cistercian abbotArnulf of Leuven (d. 1250). A lengthy meditation upon the Passion of Christ, it is composed of seven parts, each pertaining to one of the members of Christ's crucified body.[25] Popular in the 17th-century, it was arranged as a cycle of seven cantatas in 1680 byDieterich Buxtehude. His 1680Membra Jesu Nostri is divided into seven parts, each addressed to a different member of Christ's crucified body: feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart, and head framed by selected Old Testament verses containing prefigurements.[citation needed]
The cantata has come down to us more widely known as the hymnO Sacred Head Surrounded named for the closing stanza of a poem addressed to Christ's head which begins "Salve caput cruentatum." Translated by Lutheran hymnistPaul Gerhardt,Johann Sebastian Bach arranged the melody and used five stanzas of the hymn in his "St Matthew Passion".Franz Liszt included an arrangement of this hymn at the sixth station, Saint Veronica wipes the Holy Face, in hisVia crucis (Stations of the Cross).[citation needed]
In art the subject ofDoubting Thomas, or theIncredulity of Saint Thomas, has been common since at least the early 6th century, when it appears in themosaics at theBasilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo inRavenna,[26] and on theMonza ampullae. Among the most famous examples are the sculpted pair ofChrist and St. Thomas byAndrea del Verrocchio (1467–1483) for theOrsanmichele inFlorence andThe Incredulity of Saint Thomas byCaravaggio, now inPotsdam.[citation needed]
In the later Middle Ages Jesus with one side of his robe pulled back, displaying the wound in his side and his other four wounds (called theostentatio vulnerum, "display of the wounds"), was taken from images with the Doubting Thomas and turned into a pose adopted by Jesus alone, who often places his own fingers into the wound in his side. This form became a common feature of single iconic figures of Jesus and subjects such as theLast Judgement (whereBamberg Cathedral has an early example of about 1235),Christ in Majesty, theMan of Sorrows and Christ with theArma Christi, and was used to emphasize Christ's suffering as well as the fact of his Resurrection.[27]
Devotional art focused on the side wound was also widespread; some books of prayers from late-medieval Germany, for instance, would display the side wound surrounded by text specifying its exact dimensions.[citation needed]
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