Kristof Smeyers is a Research Fellow at the University of Louvain

"Smeyers carefully weaves the “big” themes of interdenominational conflict, questions of orthodoxy and proof, and debates on the meaning of bodily phenomena, with the “small” histories of individuals and communities into which apparently miraculous events had (generally unexpectedly) intruded."- Irish Theological QuarterlySmeyers demonstrates an assured control over his subject matter and skilfully articulates the complexities of stigmata’s symbolism in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Britain and Ireland. His study convincingly shows how stigmata not only informed modern denominational and national identities, but also how it became a means of wounding the belief systems of rivals, be they confessional opponents, national adversaries, or competing advocates of faith, science and reason. It also makes an important contribution to the growing historiography on modern supernatural phenomena.'Karl Bell, British Catholic History

• Introduction1 A Roman Catholic horror: stigmatic anxieties in the early nineteenth century2 Supernatural popery3 A corpus of bodies4 Bodily credentials5 Unhealthy religion6 Under the skin7 In defence of the supernatural8 Public knowledge and judgmentConclusion