The 15 Secret Tortures and Sufferings of Jesus

As we approach Good Friday, I keep encountering snippets of The Fifteen Secret Tortures and Sufferings of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As the title may imply, these are hidden sufferings that Our Lord is reported to have revealed to Sister Mary Magdalen of the Poor Clares. She had a deep desire to know something about the secret tortures which He endured the night before His death.

I wish to caveat immediately that these were private revelations that are never binding on the faithful. This means the faithful have the option to believe or not believe in this. There is a carefully researched and worded article from Ronald L. Conte Jr. refuting the validity of this revelation. 

So why do I share this?

The human mind cannot comprehend the true horror that is Good Friday. Snippets like private revelation and cinematic pieces like The Passion of the Christ begin to help us grasp that painful reality, but even then, we can't fully understand. These hidden sufferings, while perhaps not 100% doctrinal, at least place us in a place where we can begin to grasp the detailed and graphic horror that was Good Friday.

Our salvation came at a great cost. I believe that the Fifteen Secret Tortures are a start to begin my Good Friday meditations. No single work or quote can ever replace the words of sacred scripture or the magnitude of Christ's sacrifice, but perhaps these revelations can help us appreciate it more.

The Fifteen Secret Tortures

1. They fastened My feet with a rope and dragged Me over the stepping stones of the staircase, down into a filthy, nauseating cellar.
2. They took off My clothing and stung My body with iron joints.
3. They attached a rope around My body and pulled Me along on the ground, from end to end.
4. They hanged Me on a wooden piece with a slipknot until I slipped out and fell down. Overwhelmed by this torture, I wept bloody tears.
5. They tied Me to a post and pierced My body with various arms.
6. They struck Me with stones and burnt Me with blazing embers and torches.
7. They pierced Me with awls; sharp spears tore My skin, flesh, and arteries out of My body.
8. They tied Me to a post and made Me stand, barefoot, on an incandescent metal sheet.
9. They crowned Me with an iron crown and wrapped My eyes with the dirtiest possible rags.
10. They made Me sit on a chair covered with sharp pointed nails, causing deep wounds in My body.
11. They poured on My wounds liquid lead and resin and, after this torture, they pressed Me onto the nailed chair, so that the nails went deeper and deeper into My flesh.
12. For shame and affliction, they drove needles into the holes of My uprooted beard. Then they tied My hands behind My back and led Me walking out of prison with strikes and blows.
13. They threw Me upon a cross and attached Me so tightly that I could hardly breathe anymore.
14. They threw at My head as I lay on the earth, and they stepped on Me, hurting My breast. Then, taking a thorn from My crown, they drove it into My tongue.
15. They poured into My mouth the most immodest excretions, as they uttered the most infamous expressions about Me.

St. Alphonsus Liguori on The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ

"St. Ambrose, writing of the Passion of Our Lord, says that Jesus Christ has followers, but no equals. The saints have endeavored to imitate Jesus Christ in suffering, to render themselves like him; but who ever attained to equalling him in his sufferings? He truly suffered for us, more than all the penitents, all the anchorites, all the martyrs have suffered, because God laid upon him the weight of a rigorous satisfaction to the divine justice for all the sins of men: The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all [Isa. liii. 6]. And, as St. Peter writes, Jesus bore all our sins upon the cross, to pay our punishment with his most holy body: He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree [I Pet. ii. 24].

St. Thomas writes that Jesus Christ, in redeeming us, not only accomplished the virtue and infinite merit that belonged to his sufferings but chose to suffer a depth of pain that might be sufficient to satisfy abundantly and rigorously for all the sins of the human race. And St. Bonaventure writes: ‘He chose to suffer as much pain as if he himself had committed all our sins.’ God himself thought right to aggravate the pains of Jesus Christ, until they were equal to the entire payment of all our debts; and thus the prophecy of Isaias was fulfilled: The Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infirmity [Isa. liii. 10].

When we read the lives of the martyrs, it seems at first as if some of them had suffered pains more bitter than those of Jesus Christ; but St. Bonaventure says that the pains of no martyr could ever equal in acuteness the pains of our Saviour, which were more acute than all other pains. In like manner, St. Thomas writes that the sufferings of Christ were the most severe pains that can be felt in this present life. Upon which St. Laurence Justinian writes that in each of the torments which Our Lord endured, on account of the agony and intensity of the suffering, he suffered as much as all the tortures of martyrs. And all this was predicted by King David in a few words, when, speaking in the person of Christ, he said, Thy wrath is strong over Me; Thy terrors have troubled Me [Ps. lxxxvii. 8, 17].

Thus all the wrath of God, which he had conceived against our sins, poured itself out upon the person of Jesus Christ; and thus we must interpret what the Apostle said, He was made a curse for us [Gal. iii. 13]; that is, the object of all the curses deserved by our sins.”

May we truly reflect on the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ this Holy Week to better celebrate the joy of His resurrection!