February 19 1999
Centuries later, Louise Lateau frequently and spontaneously bled from her left side, her hands and her feet, matching Christ's wounds on the cross.
Beginning in August 1868, a professor from the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine observed Lateau's bleeding. He tested her physical responsiveness by pricking her with pins, piercing her with a penknife and shocking her with electricity. Her lack of response was one piece of evidence leading him to conclude the wounds were of supernatural origin.
Physical torment is a recurring Christian theme. The stories of Codratus and Lateau are among dozens that Sandra Zimdars-Swartz can recite.
Last fall, the professor of religious studies talked about the meaning of Christian pain in the University of Kansas Humanities Lecture Series.
In an age of aspirin, anesthesia and antidepressants, suffering pain is out of fashion, she says. Some Christians prefer to focus elsewhere, such as on life's joys or helping the needy. Nevertheless, she believes that bearing witness to pain has its uses.
Christians who watched Codratus reconnected vividly with the torments Christ suffered and so reaffirmed their faith, she says.
Stories told about such martyrs after their martyrdom also served as warnings to potential copycats. Some martyr tales depict Christians who give in to their torturers, denying their faith and damning themselves to Hell.
The spectacle of the suffering Christian may be important in eras when faith has grown lukewarm, the KU scholar says. Tens of thousands of European Catholics believed Lateau was atoning for the sins of a generation stuck on the power of reason and material goods.
Public suffering also may serve a social function among Christians.
Zimdars-Swartz once visited a healing site where a statue of the Virgin Mary had been erected. A small woman carried a disabled child, his arms and legs nothing more than lifeless sticks, up to the statue.
Zimdars-Swartz says, "We all caught our breath. The woman was literally bringing her burden to Mary. Then she walked to the back of the crowd. People came up and chatted. She found a very sympathetic and supportive community."
Suffering ordinarily tends to isolate people because of the human instinct to avoid pain. Nevertheless, pain displayed in a public and spiritualized context -- whether that be a Native American sun dance, a Christian martyrdom or a healing site -- can do the opposite.
By creating community, it can lend meaning to otherwise meaningless suffering.
Column by Roger Martin