The Veil of Veronica, or Sudarium (Latin for sweat-cloth), often called simply "The Veronica" and 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 Catholic relic, which, according to legend, bears the likeness of the Face of Jesus not made by human hand (i.e. an Acheiropoieton).
The most recent version of the legend recounts that Saint 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 the Sixth Station of the Stations of the Cross. According to some versions, Veronica later traveled to Rome to present the cloth to the Roman Emperor Tiberius and the veil possesses miraculous properties, being able to quench thirst, cure blindness, and sometimes even raise the dead.
The story is not recorded in its present form until the Middle Ages and for this reason, is unlikely to be historical. Rather, its origins are more likely to be found in the story of the image of Jesus associated with the Eastern Church known as the Mandylion, coupled with the desire of the faithful be able to see the face of their Redeemer. During the fourteenth century it became a central icon in the Western Church – in the words of art historian Neil Macgregor – “From [the 14th Century] on, wherever the Roman Church went, the Veronica would go with it.”[1]
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There is no reference to the story of Veronica and her veil in the canonical Gospels. The closest is the miracle of the woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment (Luke 8:43-48); her name is later identified as Veronica by the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate". The story was later elaborated in the 11th century by adding that Christ gave her a portrait of himself on a cloth, with which she later cured Tiberius. The linking of this with the bearing of the cross in the Passion, and the miraculous appearance of the image was made by Roger d'Argenteuil's Bible in French in the 13th century,[2] and gained further popularity following the internationally popular work, Meditations on the life of Christ of about 1300 by a Pseudo-Bonaventuran author. 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,[3] and the image became very common throughout Catholic Europe, forming part of the Arma Christi, and with the meeting of Jesus and Veronica becoming one of the Stations of the Cross.
On the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem there is a small chapel, known as the Chapel of the Holy Face.[4] Traditionally, this is regarded as the home of St Veronica and site of the miracle.[5]
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, 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.[6]
While the story has no basis in written history prior to the Middle Ages, there is no doubt that there was a physical image displayed in Rome in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries which was known and venerated as the Veil of Veronica. The history of that image is however, somewhat problematic.
It has often been assumed that the Veronica was present in the old St Peter's in the papacy of John VII (705-8) as a chapel known as the Veronica chapel was built during his reign, and this seems to have been the assumption of later writers. This is far from certain however as mosaics which decorated that chapel do not refer to the Veronica story in any way. Furthermore, contemporaneous writers make no reference to the Veronica in this period. It would appear however that the Veronica was in place by 1011 when a scribe was identified as keeper of the cloth.[7]
However, firm recording of the Veronica only begins in 1199 when two pilgrims named Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis) and Gervase of Tilbury made two accounts at different times of a visit to Rome which made direct reference to the existence of the Veronica. Shortly after that, in 1207, the cloth became more prominent when it was publicly paraded and displayed by Pope Innocent III, who also granted indulgences to anyone praying before it. This parade, between St Peter's and The Santo Spirito Hospital, became an annual event and on one such occasion in 1300 Pope Boniface VIII, who had it translated to St. Peter's in 1297, was inspired to proclaim the first Jubilee in 1300. During this Jubilee the Veronica was publicly displayed and became one of the "Mirabilia Urbis" ("wonders of the City") for the pilgrims who visited Rome. For the next two hundred years the Veronica, retained at Old St Peter's, was regarded as the most precious of all Christian relics; there Pedro Tafur, a Spanish visitor in 1436, noted:
On the right hand is a pillar as high as a small tower, and in it is the holy Veronica. When it is to be exhibited an opening is made in the roof of the church and a wooden chest or cradle is let down, in which are two clerics, and when they have descended, the chest or cradle is drawn up, and they, with the greatest reverence, take out the Veronica and show it to the people, who make concourse there upon the appointed day. It happens often that the worshippers are in danger of their lives, so many are they and so great is the press.Pedro Tafur, Andanças e viajes.
After the Sack of Rome in 1527, some writers recorded that the veil had been destroyed: Messer Unbano to the Duchess of Urbino say that the Veronica was stolen and passed around the taverns of Rome.[8] Other writers however, testify to its continuing presence in the Vatican and one witness to the sacking states that the Veronica was not found by the looters.[9]
Many artists of the time created reproductions of the Veronica, again suggesting its survival, but in 1616, Pope Paul V prohibited the manufacture of further copies unless made by a canon of Saint Peter's Basilica. In 1629, Pope Urban VIII not only prohibited reproductions of the Veronica 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.
After that the Veronica disappears almost entirely from public view, and its subsequent history is unrecorded. As there is no conclusive evidence that it ever left St Peter's, the possibility exists that it remains there to this day; this would be consistent with such limited information as the Vatican has provided in recent centuries.
There are at least six images in existence which bear a marked resemblance to each other and which are claimed to be the original Veil, a direct copy of it or, in two cases, the Mandylion. Each member of this group is enclosed in an elaborate outer frame with a gilded metal sheet (or riza in Russian) within, in which is cut an aperture where the face appears; at the lower extreme of the face there are three points which correspond to the shape of the hair and beard.
There is certainly an image kept in St Peter’s Basilica which purports to be the same Veronica as was revered in the Middle Ages. This image is stored in the chapel which lies behind the balcony in the south west pier which supports the dome.
Very few inspections are recorded in modern times and there are no detailed photographs. The most detailed recorded inspection of the 20th century occurred in 1907 when Jesuit art historian Joseph Wilpert was allowed to remove two plates of glass to inspect the image. He commented that he saw only "a square piece of light coloured material, somewhat faded through age, which bear two faint rust-brown stains, connected one to the other".[10]
Nevertheless, the face is still displayed each year on the occasion of the 5th Sunday of Lent, Passion Sunday. The blessing takes place after the traditional Vespers at 5.00 pm. There is a short procession within the basilica, accompanied by the Roman litany. A bell rings and three canons carry the heavy frame out on the balcony above the statue of St. Veronica holding the veil.[11] From this limited view no image is discernible and it is only possible to see the shape of the inner frame.
This is an important copy of the Veronica, identified by the signature of P. Strozzi in the right hand corner of the inner frame. He was the secretary of Pope Paul V, and a man referred to by Vatican notary Jacopo Grimaldi as making a series of six meticulous copies of the veil in 1617.[12]
The outside of the frame is relatively modern, while the inner frame is roughly made and corresponds to the cut-out pattern of earlier copies. The face within is very unclear, more a series of blotches in which only the bare elements of a nose, eyes and mouth can be identified. This argues for the authenticity of the copy as there is clearly no attempt at artistic enhancement. Furthermore, the fact of its being copied from the Vatican copy after the Sack of Rome in 1527 suggests that the original image may have survived that event.
It is kept in the Schatzkammer of Sacred and Secular Treasurers of the Habsburg dynasty in the Hofburg Palace, Vienna.
This relic was acquired by Pope Nicholas V from relatives of the Byzantine Emperor in 1453. This veil was given by a Vatican cardinal to a Spanish priest, Mosen Pedro Mena, who took it to Alicante, in southern 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 judgment 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.[13]
The cathedral of Jaén has a copy of the Veronica which probably dates from the fourteenth century and originates in Siena. It is kept in a shrine by the high altar and is annually exhibited to the people on Good Friday and on the Feast of the Assumption. Known as the Santo Rostro, it was acquired by Bishop Nicholas de Biedma in the 14th Century.[14]
Kept in the modest Church of St Bartholomew of The Armenians, Genoa, it was given in the 14th century to the Doge Leonardo Montaldo by the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaeologus.
The image was studied in detail in 1969 by Colette Dufour Bozzo, who dated the outer frame to the late 14th Century,[15] while the inner frame and the image itself are believed to have originated earlier. Bozzo found that the image was imprinted on a cloth that had been pasted onto a wooden board.[16] The similarity of the image with the Veil of Veronica suggests a link between the two traditions.
This image was kept in Rome’s church of S. Silvestro until 1870 and is now kept in the Matilda chapel in the Vatican. It is housed in a Baroque frame donated by one Sister Dionora Chiarucci in 1623.[17] The earliest evidence of its existence is 1517 when the nuns were forbidden to exhibit it to avoid competition with the Veronica. Like the Genoa image, it is painted on board and therefore is likely to be a copy.
It was exhibited at Germany’s Expo 2000 in the pavilion of the Holy See.
In 1999, Father Heinnrich Pfeiffer announced at a press conference in Rome that he had found the Veil in a church of the Capuchin monastery, in the small village of Manoppello, Italy, where it had been since 1660. Professor Pfeiffer had in fact been promoting this image for many years before.[18]
According to local tradition, an anonymous pilgrim arrived in 1508 with the cloth inside a wrapped package. The pilgrim gave it to Dr. Giacomo Antonio Leonelli, who was sitting on a bench in front of the church. The doctor went into the church and opened the parcel containing the Veil. At once he went out of the church but he did not find the bearer of the packet. The Veil was owned by the Leonelli family until 1608. Pancrazio Petrucci, a soldier married to a female member of the family, Marzia Leonelli, stole the Veil from his father-in-law’s house. A few years later, Marzia sold it for 400 scudi to Doctor Donato Antonio De Fabritiis to pay a ransom demand for her husband who was then a prisoner in Chieti. The Veil was given by De Fabritiis to the Capuchins who still hold it today. This history was documented by Father Donato da Bomba in his “Relatione historica” following researches started in 1640.
Professor Pfeiffer claims that the image is the Veronica itself, which he suggests was stolen from the Vatican during rebuilding that took place in 1506, before the Sack of Rome. He further suggests it is the cloth placed over Jesus' face in the tomb and the image was a by-product of the forces unleashed by the resurrection, forces he also believes formed the image on the Shroud of Turin. Additionally he has suggested a history of the veil going back to the first Century. His narrative though is unsupported by evidence and is indistinguishable from fiction. There is no official evidence connecting the cloth with Rome. However, some have observed bits of glass embedded in the cloth, suggesting a connection between it and its former glass container in St. Peters, said to be smashed open when the cloth was stolen. Nevertheless, the cloth has received much publicity in recent years and Pope Benedict XVI visited the veil on 1 September 2006.
The cloth is made of a rare fiber called byssus, which is linen woven from a fine, yellowish flax referred to as sea silk, and used by ancient Egyptians and Hebrews.[19] 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 Egyptian pharaohs.[20]
Some feel that, despite claims of divine origins, the face on the veil at Manoppello conforms in appearance to the characteristics of a man-made image. 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 imperfectly 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. However, some features, such as the crooked nose, might show the beaten, bruised and human Christ that people would expect to see in an actual divine image.
Indeed, it is far from certain that the face depicted has any connection with Jesus at all - one writer suggests that it is in fact a lost self portrait by artist Albrecht Dürer (article).
A further objection, advanced by Ian Wilson, is that because the image does not bear a familial resemblance to known copies (see above), it cannot be the version of the Veronica that was venerated in the Middle Ages.[18] However, author Paul Badde in his 2010 book The Face of God, shows that Wilson's claim is incorrect. He shows illustrations of images made prior to 1608 of an openned eyed and open mouthed man just like the Manoppello image. After, 1608 most copies of the image changed to show closed eyes and a closed mouth. Badde contends that around this time is when the true image was stolen from the Vatican while it was to be moved to a new chapel which was under construction. Badde also points out that the original case with broken glass is on display at the Vatican museum and that it had glass on both sides. Only the image of Manoppello is visible from both sides of the cloth, thus the original case must have contained a cloth visible from both sides.[21]
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. Another (Type III), common in the Philippines shows Christ's face three times with hair down to the shoulder and with the Crown of Thorns.
