DIVINE GIFT

2024

Air Dry Clay

on cypress wood base

380(W) x 230(D) x 490(H) mm

The artwork commemorates the 800th anniversary of the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi in 1224. Saint Francis was the first recorded person to receive these mystical marks—the stigmata—five sacred wounds that mirror the suffering of Christ.

The artwork aims to capture the divine moment when Saint Francis received the stigmata. As he knelt in prayer on Mount La Verna during the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, he had a vision. According to St. Bonaventure, a seraph with six wings of fire, enveloping a crucified figure, descended from the heights of heaven.

The stigmata were not mere wounds; they were love letters etched upon his soul—an ineffable union with the Crucified One. In the artwork, St. Francis is depicted in a posture of surrender, embracing the divine gift and union with Christ. The seraph’s light pierces and marks his body, creating a divine paradox of suffering and joy.

Through the stigmata, we are invited to contemplate the five holy wounds of Christ. While our Lord suffered greatly physically—the wounds in His hands and feet—the wound to His chest after His death on the cross—the lance that pierced His heart—was the most “painful.” It memorialized the agonizing emotional wounds from rejection, abandonment, and betrayal by His disciples and people.

In our own lives, emotional wounds often prove the most unbearable and perplexing. Sometimes, there is no answer to the question of “why?” Yet, we are reminded to see with our hearts and trust that all wounds—physical, emotional, and spiritual—amidst trials and suffering are hidden gifts from God. These gifts of wounds allow us to extend forgiveness, so as to be forgiven, and we open ourselves to His healing of our hearts, to grow closer to the Lord.