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Stigmata is a 1999 film directed by Rupert Wainwright
Rupert Wainwright

Rupert Wainwright is an English film director and television director, writer, and actor.Wainwright was born in Cotswolds, UK and started his film career in the 1980s as an actor....
 and starring Patricia Arquette
Patricia Arquette

Patricia T. Arquette is an United Statesn actor, currently starring in the supernatural drama Medium ....
 and Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel James Byrne is a Golden Globe Awards-winning, Emmy Awards- and Tony Award-nominated Irish people actor, film director, Academy Award-nominated film producer, and writer, as well as a Grammy-nominated audiobook narrator....
.

film follows the conflict between Frankie (Arquette), an atheist Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania with a population of 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is 2,462,571....
 hairdresser who exhibits true stigmata
Stigmata

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. The term originates from the line at the end of Paul of Tarsus's Letter to the Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the st?gmata of Jesus" - stigmata is the plural of the Greek_language word st???a, st?gma,...
 and Father Andrew Kiernan (Byrne), a former scientist and ordained Jesuit priest
Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
 who, as part of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, investigates miracle
Miracle

File:Folio 171r - The Raising of Lazarus.jpgA miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker....
s for the Vatican
Roman Curia

The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Roman Catholic Church, together with the Pope....
. Kiernan soon discovers that the stigmata stems from the spirit of Father Paulo Alameida, who was excommunicated
Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means putting [someone] out of full communion....
 for his discovery of a lost Gospel
Gospel

In Christianity, a gospel is generally one of the first four books of the New Testament that describe the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus....
 challenging the very foundations of Catholicism
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
 by suggesting that Jesus Christ did not want churches built to worship God
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
.






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Stigmata is a 1999 film directed by Rupert Wainwright
Rupert Wainwright

Rupert Wainwright is an English film director and television director, writer, and actor.Wainwright was born in Cotswolds, UK and started his film career in the 1980s as an actor....
 and starring Patricia Arquette
Patricia Arquette

Patricia T. Arquette is an United Statesn actor, currently starring in the supernatural drama Medium ....
 and Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel James Byrne is a Golden Globe Awards-winning, Emmy Awards- and Tony Award-nominated Irish people actor, film director, Academy Award-nominated film producer, and writer, as well as a Grammy-nominated audiobook narrator....
.

Synopsis

The film follows the conflict between Frankie (Arquette), an atheist Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania with a population of 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is 2,462,571....
 hairdresser who exhibits true stigmata
Stigmata

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. The term originates from the line at the end of Paul of Tarsus's Letter to the Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the st?gmata of Jesus" - stigmata is the plural of the Greek_language word st???a, st?gma,...
 and Father Andrew Kiernan (Byrne), a former scientist and ordained Jesuit priest
Priest

A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities....
 who, as part of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, investigates miracle
Miracle

File:Folio 171r - The Raising of Lazarus.jpgA miracle is a sensibly perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle-worker....
s for the Vatican
Roman Curia

The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Roman Catholic Church, together with the Pope....
. Kiernan soon discovers that the stigmata stems from the spirit of Father Paulo Alameida, who was excommunicated
Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means putting [someone] out of full communion....
 for his discovery of a lost Gospel
Gospel

In Christianity, a gospel is generally one of the first four books of the New Testament that describe the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus....
 challenging the very foundations of Catholicism
Catholicism

Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its Theology and doctrines, its Catholic liturgy, Ethics, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
 by suggesting that Jesus Christ did not want churches built to worship God
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
. When a powerful Vatican cleric, Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior Ecclesiology official, usually a Bishop , of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope....
 Daniel Houseman (Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce is a Wales award-winning theatre and film actor/singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and marrying Irish actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s....
), attempts to have Frankie silenced, she and Kiernan go on the run.

The movie is loosely based on the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and a verse therein (77: Jesus
Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
 said: I am the light that is over them all. I am the All; the All has come forth from me, and the All has attained unto me. Split a piece of wood and I am there. Raise up the stone, an ye shall find me there.) ; a document which the Vatican and most other Christians have declared as being the product of a heretical
Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
 Gnostic group.

Controversy

The film was controversial for its characterization of Vatican senior clergy as ruthlessly attempting to kill an innocent woman. Also controversial was the blossoming romance between the two main characters - one of whom is a priest. Another factor was the special effects, which appeared to make the manifestation of The Holy Stigmata border on demonic possession
Demonic possession

Demonic possession is often the term used to describe the control over a human form by Satan himself or one of his assigned advocates. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include: erased memories or personalities, convulsions, ?fits? and fainting as if one were dying....
. Even the pictorial image on the promotional one sheet
One sheet

In the entertainment industry, a one-sheet or one sheet is a single document that summarizes a product for publicity and sales....
 owes much to the one used for the film The Exorcist
The Exorcist (film)

The Exorcist is a 1973 in film United States horror film, adapted from the 1971 The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl, and her mother?s desperate attempts to win back her daughter through an exorcism conducted by two priests....
, another film about possession by the Devil.

Reception

Stigmata premiered at the box office in the number one position, earning $18.3 million in its first weekend, becoming the first film in five weekends to outgross The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It tells the story of Cole Sear, a troubled, isolated boy who claims to be able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist who tries to help him....
 at the box office. All in all, in the United States, "Stigmata" earned $50,046,268. Arquette was nominated for a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for her role in the film.

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