Holy Face of Jesus

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Secondo Pia's negative of the image on the Shroud of Turin.
Secondo Pia's negative of the image on the Shroud of Turin.

The Holy Face of Jesus is a specific image which some faithful Roman Catholics believe to be the face of Jesus Christ. It is associated with a specific medal worn by some Roman Catholics and is also one of the Catholic devotions.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Holy Face of Jesus is used in conjunction with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ with specific institutions whose focus is such reparations, e.g. the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face. In his address to this Congregation, Pope John Paul II referred to such Acts of Reparation as the "unceasing effort to stand beside the endless crosses on which the Son of God continues to be crucified".[1]

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[edit] The images

The Holy Face image used today is based on the Shroud of Turin which the faithful assume to be the burial cloth of Jesus. It is different from the likeness of Jesus on the Veil of Veronica, although the veil image had earlier been used in devotions. Since the Holy Face image is said to have been obtained from the burial cloth of Jesus, it is assumed to be a post-crucifixion image. However, the likeness on the Veil of Veronica is by definition pre-crucifixion, for it is assumed to have been imprinted when Saint Veronica encountered Jesus in Jerusalem along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Calvary.

Although the Shroud of Turin has been publicly displayed by Roman Catholics at least since the 16th century (and perhaps before) the faint image of the Holy Face on it can not be clearly seen with the naked eye and was only observed with the advent of photography. In 1898, amateur Italian photographer Secondo Pia was startled by the negative of the image in his darkroom as he was developing the first photograph of the shroud. The happenstance by which Secondo Pia received the King’s approval to attempt the first photograph of the Shroud for an exhibition was unusual in its own right. And Pia later said that on the evening of May 28th, 1898 he almost dropped and broke the photographic plate in the darkroom from the shock of seeing the image of a face on the Shroud (for the first time ever) that could not have been clearly observed with the naked eye.

Hence devotions to the Holy Face prior to that year relied on earlier images, based on paintings of the Veil of Veronica.

[edit] The visions

Sister Marie of St Peter
Sister Marie of St Peter

The devotions to the Holy Face of Jesus involve two European nuns, both named after Saint Mary but who lived almost one hundred years apart. Both nuns reported visions of Jesus and Mary. The first nun was called Sister Marie of St Peter from Tours France and lived in the 1840s. The second nun was called Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli and lived in the 1930s in Milan Italy.

In 1843, the first nun, Sister Marie of St Peter, who was a Carmelite nun in Tours France, reported a vision in which Jesus spoke to her. She later reported further visions and conversations with Jesus and the Virgin Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in His Passion.

According to Sister Marie of St Peter, in 1844 she had a vision in which Jesus told her: "Oh if you only knew what great merit you acquire by saying even once, Admirable is the Name of God, in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy." Her visions reportedly included the words to a specific prayer as an Act of Reparation to Jesus Christ which came to be known as The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer). This prayer and the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus started to spread among Roman Catholics in France as of 1844.

[edit] Early devotions

Venerable Leo Dupont, Apostle of the Holy Face
Venerable Leo Dupont, Apostle of the Holy Face

The Venerable Leo Dupont was a religious man from a noble family who had moved to Tours. In 1849 he had started the nightly Eucharistic Adoration movement in Tours, from where it spread within France. He later came to be known as the “Holy Man of Tours”. Upon hearing of Sister Marie of St Peter’s reported visions, he started to burn a vigil lamp continuously before a picture of the Holy Face of Jesus, but at that time he used an image based on the Veil of Veronica.

Dupont prayed for and promoted the case for a devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus for around 30 years. But the documents pertaining to the life of sister Marie of St. Peter and the devotion were kept by the Church and not released. Yet Dupont persisted. Eventually, in 1874 Charles-Théodore Colet was appointed as the new Archbishop of Tours. Archbishop Colet examined the documents and in 1876 gave permission for them to be published and the devotion encouraged, shortly before Dupont died. The Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. Dupont was thereafter at times referred to as the Apostle of the Holy Face.

Saint Therese of Lisieux was also a French nun who received the Carmelite habit in 1889 and later became known by the religious name "St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face". She was introduced to the Holy Face devotion through her blood sister Pauline, Sister Agnes of Jesus. Saint Therese wrote many prayers to express the devotion to the Holy Face. She wrote the words “Make me resemble you, Jesus!” on a small card and attached a stamp of the Holy Face to it. She pinned the prayer in a small container over her heart since at that time the Holy Face Medal did not exist. In August 1895, in her “Canticle to the Holy Face” she wrote: “Jesus, Your ineffable image is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth. My love discovers the charms of Your Face adorned with tears. I smile through my own tears when I contemplate Your sorrows”. Her poems and prayers helped spread the devotion to the Holy Face.

[edit] The Holy Face medal

Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli
Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli

Over 90 years after the first reported visions of Jesus by Sister Marie of St Peter in Tours France, other Holy Face visions were reported in Italy. On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli, who was born near Milan Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her: “I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me”.

Further reported visions of Jesus and Mary urged Sister Maria Pierina to make a medal with the Holy Face of Jesus. This became known as the Holy Face Medal. On one side the medal bears a replica of the Holy Shroud of Turin and an inscription based on Psalm 66:2: "Illumina, Domine, vultum tuum super nos", i.e. "May, O Lord, the light of Thy countenance shine upon us". On the other side of the medal, there is an image of a radiant Sacred Host, the monogram of the Holy Name ("IHS"), and the inscription "Mane nobiscum, Domine" i.e. "Stay with us, O Lord".

In another vision, Sister Maria Pierina reported that Jesus told her: “Every time my Face is contemplated I will pour out my love into the heart of those persons, and by means of my Holy Face the salvation of many souls will be obtained”. She further reported that Jesus wanted a special Feast on the day before Ash Wednesday in honor of His Holy Face, to be preceded by a Novena (9 days) of prayers.

Decades earlier, Sister Marie of St Peter had referred to a Holy Face Coin, writing that Jesus told her:

"As in a kingdom they can procure all that is desired with a coin stamped with the King's effigy, so in the Kingdom of Heaven they will obtain all they desire with the precious coin of My Holy Face."[2]

After some effort Sister Maria Pierina managed to obtain permission to cast the medal and its use started to grow in Italy. As the second world war started, many soldiers and sailors were given a Holy Face Medal as a means of protection. Sister Maria Pierina herself died in 1945 at the end of the war.

[edit] Vatican approval

The first medal of the Holy Face was offered to Pope Pius XII who approved the devotion and the medal. In 1958, he formally declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics.

On the occasion of the 100th year of Secondo Pia's (May 28th 1898) first photograph of the Shroud of Turin, on Sunday May 24th 1998 Pope John Paul II visited the Turin Cathedral. In his address on that day, he said:

"the Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin"
"it is an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age."[3]

The Holy Face devotion and the Holy Face Medal have now spread among Roman Catholics worldwide, with organizations such as the Holy Face Association.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Vatican archives http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20001021_riparatrici_en.html
  2. ^ Catholic Tradition on the Holy Face Medal: http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/golden-arrow.htm#ABOUT
  3. ^ Pope John Paul II's Address of May 24 1998 in Turin http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/travels/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_24051998_sindone_en.html

[edit] References

[edit] External links

The Holy Face Association:http://www.holyface.com/

The Holy Face at the Catholic Tradition: http://www.catholictradition.org/Christ/holy-face.htm

Holy Face Devotion in the UK: http://www.holyface.org.uk

St. Therese of Lisieux and the Holy Face of Jesus: http://www.thereseoflisieux.org/the-holy-face-of-jesus/