Katia Rivas - stigmatist or hoax

[MarieT]

More recently, Fox Television showed a documentary featuring a woman named Katia Rivas in South America, who exhibited stigmata, and they actually filmed her undergoing the stigmata on cue.

But she was writhing around under bedcovers in ways that I felt suggested she might be inflicting her own wounds. The wounds were discrete, linear, slash-like marks; whereas, if they were the wounds of Christ they should be puncture wounds.

She also had scars from previous bouts that made the back of her hand look crisscrossed with marks as if from a series of cuts. In Skeptical Inquirer magazine I reproduced some of her wounds on myself, by cutting myself, showing that you can produce a small cross on the back of your hand. It was actually a very superficial cut, but you can get quite a bit of blood from that. Then you can transfer it, say, by pressing your thumb against the wound and turning your hand over and pressing your thumb against your palm. You now have a splotch of blood on the front and back of your hand that looks like a through-and-through wound.

Later, as was the case with Katia Rivas, the palm wound will be "miraculously" healed, because, of course, it was never there. And the superficial wound on the back of the hand will already begin to heal the next day. In studying her wounds, for example, I noticed that the wound on top of her foot was far out of alignment with the wound on the bottom of her foot. These kinds of anomalies make one suspicious that these are probably self-inflicted wounds.

sfd: You mentioned to me once before about "miraculous rose petals"...

JN: Yes, rose petals were also featured in that Fox special. But some years ago, I had an encounter when the TV show Oprah invited me to be on a special about miracles. I believe it was in 1993 or thereabouts.

After the show, I was sitting in a limousine with one of the Marian visionaries and some others who were on the show, waiting to go to the airport. She asked me if I had seen a "miracle rose petal". I had not, so she took one out of her purse, encased in a plastic envelope, and showed it to me. I held it up to the light and there was the face of Jesus.

I whipped out my lighted loop that I always carry with me and examined it. I persuaded her to let me borrow it, and later studied it under a stereo microscope.

Everywhere there were pictorial elements, they were linear, and there was damage to the rose petal there, as if one had taken a stylus and drawn it. I was able to duplicate that effect, and published in Skeptical Inquirer as, no doubt, another pious fraud. I thought little more of it, but they began to show up elsewhere. On the Fox program, the pictures looked much better, much more perfect. Other investigators showed that they were probably impressions from a religious medal. Still others have duplicated this with rubber stamps. In my opinion, 100% of these miracle rose petals are pious frauds.

from The Joe Nickell Files: Miracles
http://www.scifidimensions.com/Feb01/jnf_miracles.htm

[Denise]

She was undergoing stigmata on cue? What a laugh. As if God bends to our whims! Writhing under the covers? Watch the Myrna video documentary and notice the difference.

Good grief. Now that the documentary is the internet there will be stigmatists coming out of the woodwork and out from under rocks.

By the way, Rick emailed me and said he got a most beautiful email from Myrna.

Denise

[KevinSymonds]

Katia Rivas: Scam artist:

http://skepdic.com/rivas.html

http://www.randi.org/jr/7-30-1999.html

http://skepdic.com/rivasdocuments2.html

http://www.csicop.org/articles/19990729 ... index.html

http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/arch ... ul30ed.htm

http://skepdic.com/refuge/bunk9.html#stigmata

[MarieT]

Katia Rivas: Scam artist:

http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/arch ... ul30ed.htm

I didnt have time to read all the links so randomly clicked on this link you posted and its very supportive of her cause as authentic....sadly this site also supports medjugorje....so i wont give it much credence.

The first visionary placed under the "Foxscope" was Katya Rivas, a resident of Cochambamba, Bolivia,

For many years prior to traveling to Atlanta, she had been receiving locutions from Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, a spiritual phenomena that has been repeated very often in the last few decades throughout the world. But the difference between all the other messengers and Katya is the fact that she is the only one with the visible Stigmata.

There have been many who bore the "invisible Stigmata"

.... Katya's cause hasn't been introduced yet but what we saw signifies that she is special in God's eyes.

Add also to this that the Archbishop of the See of Cochabamba, Archbishop Rene Fernandez Apaza has already approved the visionary's experiences in the first stage.

Cochabamba sits high in the Andes in West Central Bolivia ....and was founded in 1574 as Villa de Oropeza and renamed Cochabamba in 1786. The See was established by a Bull from Pope Pius IX on June 25, 1847. That is an interesting date for June 25th is the date Our Lady first spoke to the visionaries of Medjugorje 134 years later and half way around the world. Once again, God chose a remote spot in the mountains. It follows the pattern of La Salette, Garabandal and Medjugorje to name a few.

The amazing thing is that FOX went in filming, assuming Katya would experience the Stigmata on Good Friday for, after all, that was the day Christ died on the Cross. To their surprise, it was a "no go" but they did not come away disappointed; rather their ambitions were anxious for Katya received a message from Jesus in which He affirmed the Stigmata would occur the day after His Feast of Corpus Christi.

It would be further proof of the Mystery of the Eucharist - Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.

True to His word, on June 7th this year the cameras were rolling as Katya slowly drifted into a perplexed anxiety and retired to her home chapel to pray, then to her bed where right before the world's eyes the miracle of the visible Stigmata appeared as Katya writhed in reverent agony for hours, often exhibiting signs of being near death.

All of this replicated the circumstances Our Savior experienced as He hung on the Cross. Blood began exuding from Katya's forehead first in accordance with what a crown of thorns would do to one's skull. Next her hands and feet began to show a cross and shortly after the cross gave way to larger wounds in which blood flowed from both her hands and feet.

A priest and doctor, as well as friends and producer Michael Willesee, Sr. were all in attendance during this miraculous phenomena. What struck us about the entire program was the reverence Mr. Willesee expressed for the event and he was careful to extract on a swab traces of her blood that would be tested and revealed live Wednesday during the program. He had earlier extracted blood samples to know Katya's blood type. The results showed the blood was indeed hers, but what truly amazed Willesee and others was when he visited her the following day on June 8th, she showed hardly any signs of wounds. No medical expert could explain it. All the wounds on her body had miraculously healed.

During his time with Katya in preparing this documentary and showing it last night another miracle happened; this one was with Willesee himself. Call it the miracle of the heart for, in his own words he became a believer. We don't know what his faith is or background. ..... but it was another example of God's graces working through signs and wonders.

[KevinSymonds]

Marie,
-I did a google search on this woman within the past month because I heard her name and wanted to check up on her. The links I provided were the major ones that I found and it is good to know both sides of the story, hence the 'pro' Rivas one.

-I know for a fact that Rick thinks this woman to be a fraud. He mentioned her recently in a newsletter if memory serves.

-KJS

[MarieT]

i recall that interview with mike willessee sr. (australian journo, used to work for A Current Affair if memory serves me correctly). That was many years ago, and i was wondering why she has resurfaced now.

My husband was watching a documentary on an overseas channel, and they had snippets of the willesee interview. Its very old media though....i wonder why its been rehashed? perhaps something new has come to light?

marie

[KevinSymonds]

Nothing new, just die-hard fans who won't give up the pursuit.

-KJS