Fr. Zlatko Sudac was born on January 24, 1971 and is from Krk island in Croatia. He began studying for the priesthood in 1993, after completing his mandatory military service in the Yugoslav army. He was ordained a priest on June 29, 1998 and is a diocesan priest for the diocese of Krk, Croatia. He has one sister, who is married and has three children.

Fr. Sudac received the stigmata in the form of a cross on his forehead in May 1999, on the Friday after the beatification of Padre Pio. After he received the cross, he was sent to the Gemelli Clinic in Rome to be investigated. The exhaustive investigation concluded that Fr. Sudac's cross was not of human origin, i.e. that it was formed in a way that medical science could not explain. Fr. Sudac received the stigmata on his wrists, feet and side on October 4, 2000, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, who was the first person in the history of the Church to receive the stigmata.

Fr Sudac's mystical gifts include reading of the heart, which aides him during Confession. "Before the phenomenon of stigmatization, I had gifts like the gift of tongues, the gift of healing, the gift of counsel, and slowly the gift of knowledge came also. After the stigmatization, I received many other gifts. Some of these gifts overwhelmed me very much. And so I needed some time to get accustomed to what was happening. By this I refer specifically to the gifts of levitation, bilocation, illumination, and the knowledge of upcoming events - the knowledge about the near future, especially about future dangers."

In an interview, Fr. Sudac said he visited Medjugorje three times. "Those were unforgettable experiences. It is a holy place of prayer, silence and conversion of heart."

Source: St. Jerome Croatian Church.