Rome: Antonio Ruffini the man with the gift of the stigmata

Antonio Ruffini was born in Rome in 1907 on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. He was named in honor of Saint Anthony, the eldest of three boys and lived in a devoted family with a very caring attitude towards the poor. His mother died when Antonio was very young. Antonio only had an elementary school but, from an early age, he prayed with the heart rather than with books. He had his first vision of Jesus and Mary when he was 17. He saved his money and went to Africa as a lay missionary. He stayed for a year visiting all the villages, entering the huts to take care of the sick and baptize infants. He has returned to Africa a few more times and seemed to have the gift of xenoglossia, which is the ability to speak and understand foreign languages ​​without ever having studied them. He even knew the dialects of the various tribes. He was also a healer in Africa. He would ask people questions about their ailments and then God would heal them with the herbal remedies that Antonio would find, boil and distribute. He didn't know what he was doing: it was all instinctive. The word soon spread to other villages.

The manifestation of the bloody stigmata in Antonio Ruffini took place on August 12, 1951 while returning from work as a representative of a company that wrapped the paper, along the Via Appia, from Rome to Terracina, on an old car. It was very hot and Ruffini was seized with an unbearable thirst. After stopping the car, he went in search of a fountain which he found shortly thereafter. Suddenly, he saw a woman in the fountain, barefoot, covered in a black cloak, which she believed was a local farmer, also came to drink. As soon as he arrived, he said, “Drink if you're thirsty! And he added: "How did you get hurt? "Ruffini, who approached his hands like a cup to drink a sip of water, saw that the water had changed to blood. Seeing this, Ruffini, without understanding what was going on, turned to the lady. She smiled at him and immediately started talking to him about God and his love for men. He was surprised to hear his truly sublime words and in particular those sacrifices postponements of the Cross.

When the vision disappeared, Ruffini, moved and happy, went to the car, but when he tried to leave, he noticed that on the back and with the palms of his hands open large bubbles of reddish blood appeared scattered as if bleeding. A few days later, he was suddenly awakened in the night by a loud sound of wind and rain and got up to close the window. But he saw with amazement that the sky was full of stars and the night was silent. He noticed that even the weather at his feet a little humidity, something unusual and he noticed with surprise, that wounds like those in his hand had appeared on his back and on the soles of his feet. From that moment, Antonio Ruffini has been given completely to men, to charity, to the sick and to the spiritual assistance of humanity.

Antonio Ruffini had the stigmata in his hands for over 40 years. They passed through his palms and were examined by doctors, who could not offer any rational explanation. Despite the fact that the wounds passed clear in his hands, they never get infected. The venerable Pope Pius XII authorized the blessing of a chapel on the place where Ruffini received the stigmata on the Via Appia and Father Tomaselli, the miraculous, wrote a booklet about him. Riffuni is also said to have had the gift of bilocation. . After receiving the stigmata, Antonio became a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and made a vow of obedience. He was a very humble man. Every time someone asked to see the stigmata, he murmured a short prayer, kissed the crucifix, took off his gloves and said: “Here they are. Jesus gave me these wounds and, if he wishes, he can take them away. "

Ruffini on the Pope

Some years ago Father Kramer wrote these comments about Antonio Ruffini: “I myself have known Ruffini for many years. In the early 90s, Ruffini was asked in vain in his home: "Is John Paul II the Pope who will do the consecration of Russia?" He replied, "No, it's not John Paul. It will not even be his immediate successor, but the next one. It is he who will consecrate Russia. "

Antonio Ruffini died at the age of 92 and even in his deathbed he vehemently stated that the wounds in his hands, similar to what Christ had to leave the nails for the crucifixion, were "Gift of God.