He was bound in a bag, thrown in a ditch and beaten some more. 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 began to observe 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.