Other phenomena

Most, if not all, cases of stigmata appear during trance. During trance, the stigmatic is detached from the world around them and absorbed in their emotional participation in the sufferings of Christ.

Stigmata are usually accompanied by other supernatural phenomena, including the gift of prophecy and healing, bilocation (being in two places at once), levitation, and very often inedia (the ability to go without food). An example of the latter is Angela of Foligno (1250–1309), who supposedly went without food for twelve years. Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1381) is also said to have given up bread, subsisting solely on wafers, cold water, and bitter herbs, which she sucked and spat out or swallowed and vomited. In January 1380, she abstained from water as penance for the crisis in the Church in Italy.