ABSTRACT
The display of stigmata in images was subject to scrutiny, debate, controversy, and censorship. Conversely, when stigmata were described or discussed in texts their visual qualities could be emphasized using multiple strategies. This chapter explores ways in which texts brought visuality to bear on contemporary understandings of female stigmatics, arguing that an emphasis on the visual and the use of comparisons and juxtapositions with visual art were crucial elements in the formulation, interrogation, and understanding of stigmatic identity, genuine or fraudulent. Ways of construing stigmata in textual material were related to the variety of stigmatic experience, the diversity of the physical appearance of the stigmata, and the number of stigmatics as well as understandings of images and image making.
