Stigmata starring Patricia Arquette (Movie)

Stigmata starring Patricia Arquette

Stigmata starring Patricia Arquette is a 1999 American supernatural horror film directed by Rupert Wainwright. Patricia takes on the role of an atheist hairdresser from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who is afflicted with the stigmata. She experiences this after acquiring a rosary formerly owned by a deceased Italian priest who himself suffered from the phenomenon. Gabriel Byrne plays a Vatican official who investigates her case, and Jonathan Pryce plays a corrupt Catholic Church official.

Horror Scene

While bathing, Frankie is attacked by an unseen force and receives two deep wounds on her wrists. The doctors are unable to find the cause while treating the wounds. Frankie asks a priest whether or not he is Andrew Kiernan. The priest says he is Father Derning. Just then the lights in the train flash, and Frankie is whipped from behind by an unseen force. While Frankie is hospitalised again, the priest sends security tapes showing the attack to the Vatican, and Andrew is sent to investigate.

Experiencing the Stigmata

Andrew interviews Frankie, believing her wounds may also be stigmata. When she tells him she is an atheist, Andrew explains that stigmata only occurs to the deeply devoted. Those who get the stigmata are struck with the five wounds that Jesus received during the crucifixion. Frankie begins to research on her own what the cause could be. Her head begins to bleed – the third stigmata wound caused by the Crown of Thorns. Frankie runs home where Andrew is waiting, and then runs into an alley. As Andrew pursues her, Frankie smashes a glass bottle and uses the shards to carve symbols on the hood of a car. When Andrew approaches her, she yells at him in another language.

Translating Aramaic

Andrew takes Frankie to Father Derning’s church, and the Vatican translates what she was yelling in Aramaic. The next morning, Andrew returns to her apartment to find her writing on the wall, now covered in Aramaic. Frankie talks in a male voice, speaking Italian. Wounds appear in her feet, the fourth wound of stigmata. Andrew emails photographs of Frankie’s apartment wall to the Vatican, where Brother Delmonico recognises the words and deletes the pictures. He tells Andrew that the words are from a document which the church found that appears to be an entirely new gospel. Father Dario shows the pictures to Cardinal Daniel Houseman, who also recognises them. Delmonico phones Marion Petrocelli and tells him that the missing gospel has been found in Pittsburgh.

The Lost Gospel of Thomas

Andrew goes to Frankie’s apartment to find the wall she wrote on painted over, and Frankie attempts to seduce him. When Andrew rejects her, she attacks him and denounces his beliefs in a male voice, ending with Frankie levitating off the bed, crying tears of blood. Houseman and Dario arrive with Derning and take Frankie to another church, sending Andrew to Derning’s. At Derning’s church, Andrew meets Petrocelli.

Petrocelli tells Andrew an important message. The words that Frankie has been writing came from a document that was found outside of Jerusalem. They believe the document to be a gospel in the exact words of Jesus. Petrocelli, Delmonico and Alameida were assigned to translate the document, but Houseman ordered them to stop. Alameida refused and stole the document to continue translating it alone. After all, he has been ex-communicated by Houseman so why not?

Alameida’s Mission

Petrocelli tells Andrew that the document was Jesus telling his disciples that the Kingdom of God is in all of us and not confined to churches. Petrocelli tells Andrew that Alameida suffered from stigmata. Andrew races to the church where Frankie is, while Houseman and Dario attempt to perform an exorcism on Frankie. Frankie shouts at them in a male voice, and Houseman attempts to strangle her. Andrew prevents Houseman from strangling Frankie, then offers to be Alameida’s messenger. He believes that Frankie is possessed by Alameida’s spirit.

Meanwhile, the room is set on fire. He walks unharmed through the fire to retrieve Frankie, bidding Alameida’s spirit to depart in peace. Some time later, Andrew returns to Belo Quinto and finds the original documents for the lost gospel in Alameida’s church.

Text describes the discovery of the Gospel of St Thomas, believed to be the close to the actual words of Jesus stating that the Catholic Church refuses to recognise the document as a gospel and considers it heresy.

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