Sep 14, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min · 22 segments
Part two of our series on visionary, mystic, Servant of God, Therese Neumann. First, Alison reads an article about Therese from 1927. Next, Brother Richard and Timothy continue exploring the life of…
Tim RennerHostThe mystery of Therese, the miracle girl.
To the tiny Bavarian village of Connors Ruth, embedded in a low-lying valley between the towering peaks of the Fichtel Mountains, thousands of visitors are flocking to see a poor and simple German peasant girl called Therese Newman, and to witness the strange, inexplicable things which have happened to this frail and suffering young woman, called modern miracles.
Not all of the pilgrims who are streaming to the remote villages at the rate of 2,000 a day are drawn there by mere curiosity or religious zeal, urging them to see the girl whose unexplained powers have produced these strange phenomena.
There are among the visitors foremost representatives of modern science, eminent physicians, famous psychologists, renowned clerics, and historians all vainly trying to find some scientific explanation for the strange case of the stigmatic of Connors Ruth.
The phenomena which have made Therese Newman of worldwide interest for the past 12 months have baffled the international medical world.
They are many and of singularly mysterious character.
Four times she had been cured of dangerous diseases in a way which puzzled the attending physicians.
Four years ago she stopped taking solid food of any kind, and since last Christmas she has been refusing even liquid food, her only nourishment consisting since that time of a piece of holy wafer given to her daily in a spoonful of water.
In spite of this complete abstinence from food, her weight remains unchanged, 110 pounds.
On Easter Friday last year, the wounds of Christ appeared on the body of Therese Newman, the so-called stigmata, showing the marks of the cross on the hands and feet, the marks of the crown of thorns on the head, and the wound under the heart, inflicted upon the Savior by the spear of the Roman soldier.
Every Friday morning she goes into a trance which lasts until Friday evening.
During this time she passes through all the throes of the crucifixion, describes the tragedy of the Passion, quoting the various characters in the original tongue spoken 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, making exact distinction between the colloquial Aramaic of the common people and the literary Hebrew of the high priest Caiaphas.
While she is in trance the stigmata are bleeding profusely and tears of blood are streaming from her eyes.
At the end of the trance her frail body sinks back to the pillows of the bed like a corpse, but she recovers in a few hours and is again a normal young peasant girl until the next Friday, when the same long and painful trance begins anew with exactly the same inexplicable phenomena.
Two different commissions composed of noted German and Austrian physicians have examined Therese and made a thorough scientific study of the case without, however, coming to any conclusive result as to the scientific explanation of the many important details.
Therese was put under the constant surveillance of two physicians and four nuns, especially designated and sworn in by the Bishop of Bamberg, but weeks of such rigorous observation that even the holy wafer and the spoonful of water have been weighed and analyzed did not produce the slightest indication of a possible fraud.
Other physicians, famous professors of the most distinguished German universities, have been called to Connorsruth with the same negative result.
During the scientific research the physicians' commissions have carefully gathered every available detail about Therese Newman, her former life, the history of her mysterious ailments and cures, the possible origin of the stigmata, and the minutest details of her puzzling Friday trances.
These reports, data, and descriptions, while they fail to offer any satisfactory solution of what is called by the religious people of Bavaria the miracle of Connorsruth, tell the true story of the stigmatic girl.
A story replete with strange, mysterious details and fraught with facts which, whether one calls them supernatural or unintelligible, seem to be beyond the limits of present scientific understanding.
The mystery of Therese, the miracle girl.
To the tiny Bavarian village of Connors Ruth, embedded in a low-lying valley between the towering peaks of the Fichtel Mountains, thousands of visitors are flocking to see a poor and simple German peasant girl called Therese Newman, and to witness the strange, inexplicable things which have happened to this frail and suffering young woman, called modern miracles.
Not all of the pilgrims who are streaming to the remote villages at the rate of 2,000 a day are drawn there by mere curiosity or religious zeal, urging them to see the girl whose unexplained powers have produced these strange phenomena.
There are among the visitors foremost representatives of modern science, eminent physicians, famous psychologists, renowned clerics, and historians all vainly trying to find some scientific explanation for the strange case of the stigmatic of Connors Ruth.
The phenomena which have made Therese Newman of worldwide interest for the past 12 months have baffled the international medical world.
They are many and of singularly mysterious character.
Four times she had been cured of dangerous diseases in a way which puzzled the attending physicians.
Four years ago she stopped taking solid food of any kind, and since last Christmas she has been refusing even liquid food, her only nourishment consisting since that time of a piece of holy wafer given to her daily in a spoonful of water.
In spite of this complete abstinence from food, her weight remains unchanged, 110 pounds.
On Easter Friday last year, the wounds of Christ appeared on the body of Therese Newman, the so-called stigmata, showing the marks of the cross on the hands and feet, the marks of the crown of thorns on the head, and the wound under the heart, inflicted upon the Savior by the spear of the Roman soldier.
Every Friday morning she goes into a trance which lasts until Friday evening.
During this time she passes through all the throes of the crucifixion, describes the tragedy of the Passion, quoting the various characters in the original tongue spoken 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, making exact distinction between the colloquial Aramaic of the common people and the literary Hebrew of the high priest Caiaphas.
While she is in trance the stigmata are bleeding profusely and tears of blood are streaming from her eyes.
At the end of the trance her frail body sinks back to the pillows of the bed like a corpse, but she recovers in a few hours and is again a normal young peasant girl until the next Friday, when the same long and painful trance begins anew with exactly the same inexplicable phenomena.
Two different commissions composed of noted German and Austrian physicians have examined Therese and made a thorough scientific study of the case without, however, coming to any conclusive result as to the scientific explanation of the many important details.
Therese was put under the constant surveillance of two physicians and four nuns, especially designated and sworn in by the Bishop of Bamberg, but weeks of such rigorous observation that even the holy wafer and the spoonful of water have been weighed and analyzed did not produce the slightest indication of a possible fraud.
Other physicians, famous professors of the most distinguished German universities, have been called to Connorsruth with the same negative result.
During the scientific research the physicians' commissions have carefully gathered every available detail about Therese Newman, her former life, the history of her mysterious ailments and cures, the possible origin of the stigmata, and the minutest details of her puzzling Friday trances.
These reports, data, and descriptions, while they fail to offer any satisfactory solution of what is called by the religious people of Bavaria the miracle of Connorsruth, tell the true story of the stigmatic girl.
A story replete with strange, mysterious details and fraught with facts which, whether one calls them supernatural or unintelligible, seem to be beyond the limits of present scientific understanding.
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