Resl Von Konnersreuth

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

Notable

German stigmatic, after a recurring illness left her partially blind, deaf, paralyzed, and seeing visions of the Passion of Christ. She reportedly lived without food from 4/29/1923 until her death. Doctors, ecclesiastics and civil authorizes examined her stringently, even putting her in quarantine for 15 days, July 14 to 28, 1927, because medical authorities said that a human could live no more than 11 days without eating or drinking. During those days, she took three communion hosts each day, washed down with three cubic centimeters of water. She entered the confinement weighing 110 lbs, and left weighing 100 lbs. She had stigmata on her hands, feet, and left side. Every Friday, she relived the Passion of Christ. She had the gift of bilocation, appearing to people while she was physically confined to her bed. During her lifetime, 700 books were devoted entirely to her and ten times as many articles. Like all the stigmatic mystics, she was attacked principally by theologians. Declared a fraud, it was said the blood that flowed from her wounds actually was her own menstrual blood, and it was said that she had an illegitimate child, as well as whatever other defamation could be contrived. Nonetheless, those who were able to be near her, left transfixed. Therese Neumann died on 18 September 1962. The Roman Catholic Church has neither confirmed nor denied the inedia (from which she suffered according to her critics), nor her stigmata. 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 Vatican proceedings for her beatification. Link to Wikipedia biography