Finale Ligure

1 November 2025

 

Testimony about the Stigmata of Father Tomislav Vlašić

As a doctor, I followed Father Tomislav Vlašić throughout the whole period of one and a half years during which he had the stigmata. I visited him and cared for him almost daily, witnessing the developments in person. Initially, Father Tomislav felt intense pain on the right side of the chest, where the last rib is located. He said that he felt as if a lance were piercing him from the rib to the heart. That pain was so intense and continuous that no pain reliever could ease it; also, it did not follow any pathological pattern I know of. It was impossible to touch him; even the touch of his clothes on his skin was unbearable for him. I noticed many times that when his eyes were closed and I held my hand close to him, without touching, he would feel pain. He had not experienced a blow, he had no other symptoms, and all organs were functioning normally. The blood tests did not show any variation either. Nevertheless, although I was not able to make a diagnosis, neither he nor I, nor any of us, ever considered that it could be a sign of the stigmata. I attempted, without success, to keep the pain under control and to understand what the cause might be, also consulting other colleagues. As time passed, the pain became increasingly intense and continued day and night without pause, and in the place where it had begun, a 4 cm haematoma and swelling appeared. It looked as if the skin were going to open up, yet this never occurred. The wrists and feet also became swollen so that he often had difficulty walking, and he always had difficulty taking objects with his hands.

Despite all this, Father Tomislav tried to live a normal life and to hide the intensity of the pain from those who met him. He appeared serene, balanced, and attentive to the needs of others. He was ready to listen and docile to every attempt to cure him, as he was deeply rooted in the will of God and the love of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Whenever I asked him how he felt, he did not hide from me, sincerely and humanly revealing his state, the intensity of the pain, the fatigue it caused him to bear it, the discouragement that sometimes overcame him, the inner battle, yet always adding, “My spirit is in peace, and I immerse myself in the silence of God where He reveals Himself to me.” And he communicated to me this peace every time I met and visited him, every time he wanted to share with me also what God revealed to him, when the pain forced him to remain silent. He always said that, in this period, he was going through a time of great personal purification, which removed all the crusts from his soul, that God was transforming his mind, and that he was grateful for all of it. I, too, every time I left his house, regardless of whether he had spoken to me or not, experienced a process of inner purification, which, over the last one and a half years, purified my mind, helped me walk towards God, and healed the wounds of my soul.

At Easter 2025, the pain further increased, and it was hard for me to watch his great suffering without being able to help relieve his pain. I bear testimony to how the pain often intensified on Friday afternoons around 3 p.m., and on important Marian solemnities. On those occasions, he was forced to remain in bed in a darkened room. The body, particularly the left leg and foot, showed visible muscular spasms, and the feet and wrists became even more swollen. His heart rate, kidney function, and blood pressure were normal, but he had difficulty breathing and could not speak.

I was beside him a few times in those moments, and I felt as if I were at the foot of Christ’s Cross. In the final time, he could no longer speak, walk, or eat, for the pain was too strong. He could not sleep, and no medication ever showed any effect against this either. As a doctor, I could only recognise that I was witnessing a phenomenon that was following no medical explanation, and admit that I was powerless, as was any kind of therapy. On the other hand, his balance, clear mind, docility, faith, selflessness, humanity, and the simplicity with which he allowed me to witness what he went through, his humility and spirituality, led me to exclude a hysterical phenomenon. As time passed, Jesus Himself revealed that Father Tomislav’s pain was a sign of the stigmata (in this case, invisible)[1] of our Lord Jesus Christ, who asked him to bear them as a gift of love for the salvation of humanity.

After offering to Jesus, through Mary’s Immaculate Heart, his whole life, Father Tomislav also accepted this final sacrifice out of love for every soul. He went through it in secrecy, with humility, faith, simplicity, meekness, and gratitude, with great humanity and deep love for God and each of His children. He was not proud, he did not boast about it or display it, and he was truly astounded by himself. Increasingly thin as a skeleton and silent, consumed by the pain, Father Tomislav still communicated the vibration of Life, which is the Trinitarian Love. My memory of him is not linked to what he said or did, but to the vibration that he emanated: the vibration of a person who had stripped himself of every thought to know the thoughts of God and His Love; the vibration of a person whose strength of the soul gave way to the beauty, strength, light, and warmth with which the Holy Spirit fills the human spirit if the person allows it.

Through Father Tomislav, I acknowledged that all of this can be transmitted even without words, even in the midst of intense pain and spiritual battles, even when barely clothed, with a catheter, an infusion, in a comatose state, and in agony. Based on everything I experienced and observed, I have no doubt that he bore the stigmata of the Passion of Jesus Christ, and I freely and conscientiously take responsibility for what I said.

                                                                                                                                  Luisa Pirelli, M.D.

[1] The “invisible stigmata“ are a mystical phenomenon in which an individual feels the physical pain of the Passion of Christ, but without the presence of visible wounds on the body, though perceived with great intensity. Therefore, they involve only inner and physical suffering, without any visible manifestation on the body. The pain is experienced as a spiritual gift, a way of participating in Jesus’ Passion.

This was experienced by various saints, such as Saint Catherine of Siena, who asked God to make her stigmata invisible. Saint Padre Pio also experienced both the visible and the invisible stigmata, describing them as acute and persistent pain.