hoaxes. Some stigmatics marked themselves in attempt to suffer with Christ as a form of piety. Others marked themselves accidentally and their marks were noted as stigmata by witnesses. Often marks of human origin produced profound and genuine religious responses. Harrison also noted the male-to-female ratio of stigmatics, which for many centuries had been of the order of 7 to 1, had changed since the late 1800s to a ratio of 5 to 4. Appearance of stigmata frequently coincided with times when issues of authority loomed large in the Church. What was significant about stigmatics was not that they were predominantly men, but that they were non-ordained. Having stigmata gave them direct access to the body of Christ without requiring the permission of the Church through the Eucharist. Only in the last century have priests been stigmatised. One suggestion is that painful bruising syndrome may explain rare cases of non self-induced stigmata. Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell, who investigated recent cases of stigmata such as Katya Rivas, commented that they are indistinguishable from hoaxing. In 2002, a psychoanalytic study of stigmatic Therese Neumann suggested her stigmata resulted from post-traumatic stress symptoms expressed in unconscious self-mutilation through abnormal autosuggestibility. According to a study of the French theologian Joachim Bouflet, in the 21th-century there were 200 stigmatics all over the world. Most of them reached the third age without having particular health problems. The oldest stigmatic was Marie-July Jahenny who died in 1941 at the age of 91. As of 1997, the stigmatics who had been declared saints by the Roman Catholic Church were only 7. Non-Christian stigmata Among the Warao of the Orinoco Delta, a contemplator of tutelary spirits may mystically induce the development of "...(imagined) openings in the palms of his hands." Buddhist "stigmata" are regularly indicated in Buddhist art. Some spiritualist mediums have also produced stigmata. During the séances of German medium Maria Vollhardt, it was alleged that bleeding wounds appeared. However, Albert Moll, a psychiatrist, considered her phenomena to be fraudulent. Notable stigmatics References Further reading Biot, René. (1962). The Enigma of the Stigmata. Hawthorn Books. Carroll, Robert Todd. (2003). Stigmata. In The Skeptic's Dictionary. Wiley. Harrison, Ted. (1994). Stigmata: A Medieval Phenomenon in a Modern Age. St Martins Press. Mazzoni, Cristina. (1996). Saint Hysteria: Neurosis, Mysticism, and Gender in European Culture. Cornell University Press. Nickell, Joe. (1993). Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing