ABSTRACT
Lauded as unique by Franciscan writers, the stigmata defined Francis as part of a narrative event and as an attribute. They were also extremely disquieting, making Francis both another Christ and an image of Christ. The insistence that the stigmata were miraculous and unprecedented provoked angry reactions. Some responses were focused on images, considered particularly problematic because of the perceived link between truth and representation. In this chapter, I investigate three miracle stories from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that focus on the depiction of stigmata in paintings of Saint Francis. They provide insights into the expectations that people had of images and of picturing the miraculous, allowing us to question the responses to the visual representation of stigmata.
