LATEAU, LOUISE. — Mystic, stigmatized, b. at Bois d'Hainc (Belgium) Jan. 29, 1850, d. there Aug. 25, 1883. Daughter of very poor peasants, she showed from childhood great spirit of sacrifice (she cared for the plague-stricken during the epidemic of 1866) and love of suffering. At 16 she joined the Third Order of St. Francis.
After being twice cured of mortal illnesses, she received the first bloody stigmata on Apr. 24, 1868, which recurred uninterruptedly every Friday until two years before her death, accompanied by long ecstasies (from June 17, 1868) during which, in complete anesthesia, she witnessed the Passion of Jesus and spoke with the Virgin and the saints. From 1875 the pains of the stigmata became so severe that she could no longer rise from her bed; from 1871 she lived in absolute seclusion, taking only daily Communion. L. also had the gift of prophecy and for a long time was subject to diabolical obsessions.
Her case was studied by various physicians (among them R. Virchow) and was the subject of discussions at the Académie Royale de médecine de Belgique between Drs. F. Lefebvre, her defender (who published L. L., étude médicale, 2nd ed., Louvain 1873), and Warlomont, her opponent (cf. Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de médecine de Belgique, 9 [1876]).