The Beautiful, Lethal Hunger of ‘The Wonder’

Robert Hundley

In a 2004 essay, the late author Hilary Mantel regarded the story of Gemma Galgani, a 19th-century Italian mystic who refused foods, bore wounds on her arms and toes that she claimed were stigmata—a health care provider declared them to be self-inflicted with a stitching needle—and thought that enduring periods […]