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Veronica's Veil, known in Italian as the Volto Santo or Holy Face (but not to be confused with the carved crucifix Volto Santo of Lucca) is a legendary Christian relic. The faithful believe that Veronica from Jerusalem encountered Jesus along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Calvary. When she paused to wipe the sweat (Latin suda) off his face with her veil, his image was imprinted on the cloth. The event is commemorated by one of the Stations of the Cross. According to legend, Veronica later traveled to Rome to present the cloth to the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Legend has it that it had miraculous properties, being able to quench thirst, restore blindness, and sometimes even raise the dead.

Contents 1 Origin of the story 2 Provenance 3 Representative art 4 See also 5 Further reading 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

The story of Veronica and her veil does not occur in the Bible, though the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate" of the 4th century mentions a woman called Veronica who was cured by touching the hem of Jesus' cloak. The legend that Christ gave her a portrait of himself on a cloth, with which she later cured Tiberius, can be traced to the 6th century. The linking of this with the bearing of the cross in the Passion, and the miraculous appearance of the image only occurs from about 1300, in the work of Roger Argenteuil and others. Previously the portrait, like that of the Image of Edessa, with which it is surely connected, was considered a normal human production by an artist. It is also at this point that other depictions of the image change to include a crown of thorns, blood, and the expression of a man in pain.^[1]

According to the popular story, the name "Veronica" is a colloquial portmanteau of the Latin word Vera, meaning truth, and Greek Icon meaning "image"; the Veil of Veronica was therefore largely regarded in medieval times as "the true image", and the truthful representation of Jesus, preceding the Shroud of Turin.

However, this popular account is somewhat paradoxical, and has been contested. For one thing, the combination of Greek and Latin in one name would have been highly unlikely, especially at that time. The true etymology of the name Veronica is Macedonian, from the Greek Φερενικη, Ferenike (from which the name "Berenice" is also derived). Φερενικη translates approxiamately as "bringing victory", from φερω, to bring, and νικη, Nike, the (pagan) Greek goddess of victory. Finally, the stories about Veronica name her this before this occurrence took place, suggesting that she was not, in fact, named after the veil.

The white, diaphanous cloth that was venerated as the Veil of Veronica or Sudarium of Veronica during the middle ages reportedly measured about 6½ inches by 9½ inches and displayed the features of a bearded man with long hair and open eyes.

The devotion to the image appears to begin with Pope John VII (705-8), who was a Greek, and constructed a chapel or Oratory in Old St Peter's, where it was housed. ^[2]

In 1297, by order of Pope Boniface VIII, the image, now apparently in a Roman hospital, was moved to Saint Peter's, and until 1608 it was kept in the Vatican Basilica and is mentioned in Canto XXXI of Dante's "Paradise". On the occasion of the first Jubilee in 1300, the Veil of Veronica was publicly displayed and became one of the "Mirabilia Urbis" ("wonders of the City") for the pilgrims who visited Rome.

When the part of the Basilica housing the relic was remodeled in 1506, the veil disappeared.

Many artists of the time created reproductions of the Veil, but in 1616, Pope Paul V prohibited the manufacture of copies of Veronica's veil unless made by a canon of Saint Peter's Basilica. In 1629, Pope Urban VIII not only prohibited reproductions of Veronica's veil from being made, but also ordered the destruction of all existing copies. His edict declared that anyone who had access to a copy must bring it to the Vatican, under penalty of excommunication.

In 1999, Father Heinnrich Pfeiffer announced at a press conference in Rome that he had found the Veil (called Volto Santo) in a church of the Capuchin monastery, in the small village of Manoppello, Italy, where it had been since 1660. According to village stories, an anonymous pilgrim (perhaps an angel) arrived with the cloth inside a wrapped package, gave it to a local doctor, and then disappeared, never to be seen again. The cloth is made of a rare fiber called byssus, which is woven from the rock-clinging threads of ocean mussels. According to Paul Badde, the Vatican Correspondent for Die Welt, this is a kind of fabric which is usually only found in the graves of pharoahs. There are many pilgrims who visit the relic, dropping to their knees and then ascending a flight of steps to the relic's crypt, pausing on each step to pray. Some of them report that the face on the cloth seems to change expression, depending on how the light is hitting it.

Some feel that despite claims of divine origins, the face on the veil at Manoppello is very obviously a man-made image^{[citation needed]}. Stylistically it is similar to images dating to the late middle ages or early renaissance; typical of representations of the human form from this period, it is naïvely-executed, with numerous stylised features, showing that the artist either did not understand, or did not wish to comply with the basic principles of proportion that apply to realistic renderings of the human form. Pope Benedict XVI visited the veil of Manoppello on September 1, 2006.

In an alternative Spanish tradition, the existence of more than one relic would be possible because, according to legend, Veronica folded the veil twice before drying Christ's face. The veil took an image of his face on the four layers of the veil, so four relics exist.

• St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy
• Jaén Cathedral, Jaén, Spain
• Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, Paris, France
• Monastery of the Holy Face, Alicante, Spain.

This latter relic was acquired by Pope Nicholas V from relatives of the Byzantium Emperor in 1453. This veil was given by a Vatican cardinal to a Spanish priest, Mosen Pedro Mena, who took it to Alicante in souther Spain, where it arrived in 1489, at the same time as a severe drought. Carried in a procession on 17 March by an Alicante priest, Father Villafranca, a tear sprang from the eye of the face of Christ on the veil and rain began to fall. The relic is now housed in the Monastery of the Holy Face (Monasterio de la Santa Faz), on the outskirts of Alicante, in a chapel built in 1611 and decorated between 1677 and 1680 by the sculptor José Vilanova, the gilder Pere Joan Valero and the painter Juan Conchillos. The chapel is decorated with paintings depicting the miraculous termination of the drought, local personalities associated with the founding of the chapel and religious themes of judgement and salvation. The Monastery was extensively restored between 2003-6, together with the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas and the Basilica of St Mary in the city centre, and the three buildings housed an exhibition in 2006 about the relic under the name of The Face of Eternity. ^[3]

Veronica and the Veil (by Francesco Mochi in 1629-1632) is the theme of one of the four greater-than-life statues at the crossing of St. Peter's Basilica; each statue supposedly representing a relic of veneration intended to be held in a chapel below each pillar.

Claude Mellan, the leading French engraver of the 17th century, produced a famous engraving of the Veil of Veronica in 1649; it consists of a single spiralling line, starting at the tip of Jesus's nose.

There are two main traditions for the iconography of the face depicted on the veil. One tradition (Type I), common in Italian art, shows the face of Christ as full-bearded, in pain, scourged and perhaps crowned with thorns. Another (Type II), common in Russian and Spanish art, shows Christ's face more often in repose, hair extending to shoulder length and a bifurcated beard, often surrounded by a halo quartered in a cross.

Type I:

Holy Face Giambono, fifteenth century. Civic Museum, Pavia, Italy.

Veronica's veil Domenico Fetti, circa 1620.

Holy Face held by two angels Juan Sánchez Cotan, 1620-1625. Monastery of Cartuja, Granada.

Holy Face Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco). Convent of Capuchin Nuns, Toledo.

Veronica's Veil Francisco de Zubarán, sevententh century. Parish Church of St Peter, Seville.

Type II:

Diptych of Saint Veronica with Christ and the Virgin Mary Bernardo Martorelli, fifteenth century. Museum of Mallorca.

Sudarium of Saint Veronica Claude Mellan, 1649.

Holy Face, anon., early seventeenth century. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Holy Face Simon Ushakov, 1678. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Miracle of the tear Juan Conchillos, 1680. Lady Chapel of the Monastery of the Holy Face, Alicante.

Miracle of the three faces Juan de Miranda, 1767. Alicante Ayuntamiento.

Saint Veronica Antonio Castillo Lastrucci, 1946. Basilica of St Mary, Alicante.

• Relics attributed to Jesus
• Shroud of Turin
• Sudarium of Oviedo
• Image of Edessa

• Janice Bennett, Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo, New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. ISBN 0-9705682-0-7
• Joan Carroll Cruz, OCDS, Miraculous Images of Our Lord. ISBN 0-89555-496-8

1. ^ G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, pp. 78-9, ISBN 853313245
2. ^ G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, p 173, ISBN 853313245
3. ^ Visitor's Guide to the Exposición La Luz de las Imagenes - La Faz de la Eternidad, Alicante 2006.

1. ^ G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, pp. 78-9, ISBN 853313245
2. ^ G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, p 173, ISBN 853313245
3. ^ Visitor's Guide to the Exposición La Luz de las Imagenes - La Faz de la Eternidad, Alicante 2006.

• Relics of the Passion, 2005 History Channel documentary
• "St. Veronica and the Volto Santo"
• "Saint Veronica" - Catholic Encyclopedia
• The Abruzzi - Website of Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge