Louise Lateau

Louise Lateau, born 29 January 1850 at Bois-d'Haine, in Belgium, died on 25 August 1883 at Bois-d'Haine, was a stigmatist and mystic.

The case of Louise Lateau is one of the best documented of those who received the stigmata. She was famous in the 1860s because of her mystical trances and she was examined in the course of three years by more than a hundred doctors and two hundred theologians.

Life

The historian David Blackbourn has pointed out in his study, that in the life of Louise Lateau a number of features are found similar to other Mystics such as Anna Katharina Emmerick and to the experiences of visionaries such as Bernadette Soubirous and Catherine Labouré. All suffered similarly from harsh treatment, early separation from family or the loss of family members and in general, a life of dependency and poverty.

Louise Lateau’s father died when Louise was still a toddler. Her father died of smallpox ten weeks after her birth. Louise also contracted the disease and was saved with much difficulty. Her mother gave her out to work from her 11th year as a housemaid. Shortly thereafter, she was brought back again by her mother and had to work as a dressmaker. During a cholera-epidemic in Bois-D’Haine in 1866, the sixteen-year-old Louise Lateau nursed six of the epidemic victims. The following year she became seriously ill herself. The disease lasting until 1868. On April 15, 1868, she was so ill that she received the last rites. Ten days later she had her first experience of the stigmata.

The Stigmata

From 24 April 1868, pain recurred every Friday and blood began to flow from her left side and feet.; On 8 May, blood came from both hands as if from nail wounds; On 25 September, the stigmatism was completed by the appearance on the breast of four small spots of blood as if coming from four pinpricks to the heart. All these wounds appear without apparent cause on the night of Thursday to Friday and disappear the next night. It will do this every Friday until her death in 1883. For the rest of the week, Louise Lateau continues to work hard for her family.

Ecstasies

On July 17, 1868, the phenomenon of the bleeding of the stigmata is accompanied by an ecstasy, which returns every Friday in the form of a trance-like state, which lasts for a total of 8 hours. The first ecstasy took place in the morning at 6:00, after the distribution of Communion, a second occurred around 2 PM. During the ecstasy she was completely absorbed, She no longer had the slightest perception of events occurring in her surroundings. She could stay in contemplation for hours, usually her face expressed the joy but also the fear and sadness of the Passion of Christ. She changed position and was moving in the room. The Ecstasy ended after the mime of the Crucifixion and the Agony of Christ held in the parish church.

She was insensitive to pain and noises, but she could briefly exit the ecstasy, following a request of the parish priest of Bois-d'Haine or some clergymen. Louise kept in memory what she saw: visions of the passion of Christ, of the Virgin Mary and saints.

For the rest of the week, there is nothing but the very ordinary in the life of Louise Lateau. She continues to live with her mother and sisters and to work for her family. These phenomena however begin to be known and to attract attention especially as from 1871. She stops eating, drinking and even sleeping. The only food that she accepts is the Eucharistic bread received during daily Mass.

Ecclesiastical and Scientific Enquiries

At the end of the year 1868 the Bishop of Tournai, Gaspar-Joseph Labis, opened a canonical investigation. The commission was made up of clerics, a lay person who was the Minister of State (Adolphe Dechamps) and a physician (Dr. Lefebvre of the Catholic University of Louvain). It acknowledged the sincerity of the person and the authenticity of the facts and concluded that science could find no rational explanation to what had happened to Louise Lateau.

The Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium opened an investigation in 1874.

For 5 months, Louise Lateau agreed to submit to many experiments as appropriate by experts appointed by the Academy. The conclusions of the Commission were published in 1875: Their conclusion was that there was no deception in the stigma and the ecstasies. Doctor Warlomont suggested attributing these phenomena to some disease, perhaps to some order of neuroses. The abstention from food and the cessation of sleep were not medically attested by the commission. The latter had not been possible as they were unable to carry out permanent monitoring in the family home. Experts from the commission advocated an observation of several days in a hospital, but this was not done.

Food was however, found. According to skeptic Bergen Evans "Dr Warlomont, an uncouth and discourteous fellow who was sent to investigate her claims by the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, unexpectedly wrenching upon a cupboard in her room, found a cache of food, and got Miss Lateau to admit that, while she never slept, she was subject to nocturnal periods of forgetfulness."

Death

Louise died on August 25, 1883.

On March 5, 2009, the Vatican gave a negative answer to an enquiry wishing to further the cause for her possible beatification.

Documents

• Maria Didry and A. Wallemacq, Belgian Mystic of the Nineteenth Century: Louise Lateau of Bois d’Haine, 1850-83, London, 1931. (in English)
• David Blackbourn: Marpingen – Das deutsche Lourdes in der Bismarkzeit, Historische Beiträge des Landesarchivs Saarbrücken, Band 6, Saarbrücken 2007,

- (Marpingen - the German Lourdes in the Bismarck era,) Historical Contributions of the Provincial Archives, Volume 6, Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-9808556-8-6 (in German)

• Die Stigmatisirten des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts: Anna Katharina Emmerich, Maria von Mörl, Domenica Lazzari, Juliana Weiskircher, Josepha Kümi, Bertina Bonquisson, Bernarda vom Krenze, Maria Rosa Adriani, Maria Cherubina, Clara vom heiligen Franziskus, Louise Lateau, Hesena von Rosawatta, Margaretha Bays und Esperanza von Jesu nach authentischen Quellen.

- (The Stigmatists of the nineteenth century: Anne Catherine Emmerich, Maria von Mörl, Domenica Lazzari, Juliana Weiskircher (Walker), Josepha Kümi, Bertina Bonquisson, Bernarda vom Krenze, Maria Rosa Adriani, Maria Cherubina, Clara the Franciscan, Louise Lateau, Hesena von Rosawatta, Margaretha Bays and Esperanza of Jesus according to Authentic Sources.) Manz, Regensburg 1877. (in German)

• Paul Majunke: Louise Lateau, ihr Wunderleben und ihre Bedeutung im deutschen Kirchenkonflikte.

- (Louise Lateau, her Miracle Life and her Importance in the German Church Conflicts.) Germania, Berlin, 1875. (in German)

The following are in French:

• August Rohling: Louise Lateau: la stigmatisée de Bois-d'Haine; d'après des sources authentiques, médicales et théologiques.

- (Louise Lateau:the Stigmatist of Bois-d’Haine'; from authentic medical and theological sources.) Closson, Brussels 1874. (in French)

• Henri van Looy: Biographie de Louise Lateau, la stigmatisée de Bois-d'Haine: d'après les documents authentiques.

- (Biography of Louise Lateau, the Stgmatist of Bois- d'Haine: from the authentic documents.) Casterman, Tournai 1879. (in French)

• Louise Lateau de Bois d’Haine. Sa vie. - Ses extases. - Ses stigmates. Etude médicale par le Dr F. Lefebvre.

- (Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine, her life, her Ecstasies, her Stigmata. Medical Study by Dr. F. Lefebvre.) Louvain, Ch. Peeters, editor. 1870 (Second Edition 1873). 395 pages.

• Antoine Imbert-Gourbeyre, Louise Lateau de Bois d'Haine, Paris, Victor Palmé, 1873.
• Louise Lateau. Rapport médical sur la stigmatisée de Bois d’Haine, fait à l’Académie royale de médecine de Belgique au nom d’une commission, par le Dr Warlomont,

- (Louise Lateau. Medical Report on the stigmatist of Bois d'Haine made by the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, in the name of a commission led by Dr Warlomont.) Brussels, C. Mucquardt, 1875 (Paris, J. P. Baillière et fils, 1875), 195 p. [BNF M-36446].

• Armand Thiéry, Nouvelle biographie de Louise Lateau d’après des documents authentiques,

- (New Biography of Louise Lateau taken from Authentic Documents.) (3 vol.), Louvain, 1915-1921.

• Fr. Izard (tr.), La Stigmatisée belge : la servante de Dieu, Louise Lateau de Bois d’Haine,

- (The Belgian Stigmatist: the Servant of God Louise Lateau of Bois d'Haine.) Louvain, 1947.

• Pierre Guelff, Curieuse histoire d'une stigmatisée,

- (Curious Story of a Stigmatiste.) Jourdan 2011

Further reading

• Bergen Evans. (1955). The Spoor of Spooks: And Other Nonsense. Purnell.
• Ian Wilson. (1989). Stigmata: An Investigation Into the Mysterious Appearance of Christ's Wounds in Hundreds of People from Medieval Italy to Modern. HarperCollins Publishers.