Herbert Thurston, S.J.’s “invaluable work of reference” (said the Times Literary Supplement in 1952) is back in print for Catholics crying out for guidance—and getting little—on such matters today. His topics? We’ll let all these major reviewers of his time, including the redoubtable London Tablet, outline them for you:
“One by one he examines the wonder of levitation, stigmata, telekinesis (movement of a body without material connection with the moving cause), luminous phenomena, human salamanders, to mention but a few. Even the ordinary ‘thriller fan’ will find plenty of stimulus.”—Irish Ecclesiastical Record
“A major section is concerned with stigmata. Is any subject more controversial?...This book certainly teaches us how very little we now know about what the human body can endure or do, and the effect of the mind upon it. What matters is sanctity. Thus the Holy See, when canonizing St. Gemma Galgani, explicitly denied that it was guaranteeing the phenomena she manifested as supernatural.”—C.C. Martindale, SJ
“Valuable source of information…covers the entire field of mystic experience…sound and scholarly…might prove disturbing.”—Catholic Library World
“There have been quite a few cases where the authorities have had to reprimand an ill-advised zeal for marvels which turned out to be entirely due to natural causes and even to fraud. This strange enthusiasm is even less understandable in a time like our own, which produces so much truly heroic sanctity.”—Author Hilda C. Graef, Books on Trial
Points of Interest, from Fr. Thurston
Why gullibility in these matters is no virtue
Ways to assess probable authentic divine manifestations (usually years and years after the fact)
St. Joseph of Copertino’s 35 foot levitation episode
True marvels of Catholic mysticism
Why some who seem authentically gifted have never been canonized, while most Saints have despite a lack of such episodes
Cures versus levitation: which is easier to judge real?
The curious cases of St. Francis, St. Teresa of Avila, and thenliving Padre Pio
St. Catherine of Siena’s story
Different kinds of stigmata _
Wounds on the hearts of a few authentic stigmatists, discovered after death
Fr. Thurston sees imposters in some “mystics” of their day
Apparent-stigmatists and “ecstatics” who fall away from the Faith
Why in beatification proceedings, heroic virtue takes precedence over “marvels”
An event in the Cure of Ars’ priesthood, when he was distributing Communion
Bodily elongation cases
Thoroughly discussed: “odor of sanctity” manifestations
More cases: incorrupt bodies… absence of rigor mortis… blood flowing from the dead
St. John Bosco feeds 300 boys with fewer than two-dozen rolls, but has rolls left over
Pope Pius IX’s warning about one case where he suspected diabolic influence
Notes the London Tablet in a featured review:
“Most of the strange physical manifestations popularly associated with mysticism are subjected to a searching examination….The Church has always been extremely reserved in her pronouncements on the origin of extraordinary phenomena. The learned Jesuit [Fr. Faber] should prove a great help to all who might at one time or another be confronted by such, and assist them to keep an open mind and avoid hasty judgments.”
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