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Therese Neumann (1898–1962) was a German Catholic mystic and stigmatic. She was born on Good Friday, April 8, 1898, in the village of Konnersreuth in Bavaria, where she lived all her life and where she died on September 18, 1962. She is said to have been part of many miracles and to have survived on nothing but the Eucharist from 1926 until 1962.
At the age of 20, she became blind and paralyzed. In 1923 she regained her sight, attributing this to a miracle and prayers to St. Therese of Lisieux. Later, her limbs instantly healed. In 1923, Therese began to drink only liquids and four years later stopped consuming them entirely. In July 1927 a medical doctor and four Fransciscan nurses kept a watch on her 24 hours a day for a two-week period. They confirmed that she had consumed nothing except for one consecrated host a day, and had suffered no ill effects, loss of weight, or dehydration. Urine testing two weeks after daily surveillance was dropped indicated, however, that she may have begun eating and drinking normally*.
In 1926, stigmata or sacred wounds of Christ appeared on her head, breast, hands, and feet. Every Friday, she would experience the Passion of Christ, suffering in her own body all his historic agonies. During her Friday trances, she would utter phrases identified by scholars as ancient Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek. During the Third Reich, Therese was the target of ridicule and defamation, as the Nazis knew about her dissenting views and feared her growing popularity. She was, however, never physically harmed.
Paramahansa Yogananda visited her and wrote about her case in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946. He wrote an entire chapter, Therese Neumann, The Catholic Stigmatist of Bavaria, which reverently gives a vivid first-hand description of one of her Friday Passion trances.
On September 18, 1962, Therese died from cardiac arrest, after having suffered from Angina Pectoris for some time.
The Catholic Church has confirmed neither her inedia nor her stigmata and has in the past discouraged pilgrimages to Konnersreuth. The "Resl", as she is colloquially known, nonetheless attained a place in popular piety — a petition asking for her beatification was signed by 40,000 people. In 2005, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg, formally opened the proceedings for her beatification.
Further reading
- Therese Neumann A Stigmatist of Our Days, by Friedrich Ritter von Lama
- Further Chronicles of Therese Neumann, by Friedrich Ritter von Lama
- Life and Death of Therese Neumann, Mystic and Stigmatist, by Albert Vogl
- Mystical Phenomena in the Life of Threresa Neumann, by Most Reverend Josef Teodorowicz translated by Rev. Rudolph Kraus, Ph.D., S.T.D.
- The Story of Theresa Neumann, by Albert Paul Schimberg
- The Case of Therese Neumann, by Hilda C. Graef
- The Visions of Therese Neumann, by Johannes Steiner
- Theresa Neumann: A Portrait Based on Authentic Accounts, Journals and Documents, by Johannes Steiner
External links
Christian mystics | German religious figures | Natives of Bavaria | Roman Catholic Church in Germany | Stigmatics
"Therese Neumann"