By DEB PIROCH
Her name was “Veronica,” which literally means “true icon” or image from the Latin “vera” and Greek “eikon.” Is the mystery of the saint who wiped the sweat and blood from the sacred face of Christ perhaps just a literal translation of the service rendered?
We know very little about St. Veronica, except what has been passed down through tradition. She is not in the Bible. She is just famously mentioned in the Stations of the Cross. The stations were simply in early Christian times for pilgrims who wanted to walk in the steps of Jesus, and they developed further during the Middle Ages.
An apocryphal or invented “gospel” of Nicodemus, dating to the fourth century, mentions her and a legend associated with her, so one can surmise that the Church’s legend is likely true. Though not initially mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, by the eighth century the veil of Veronica was held in the Vatican, where it remained until the sixteenth-century sack of Rome. Disappearing for a time from history, it later reappeared again at St. Peter’s. So popular was the veil in the Middle Ages that many copies were made, until Pope Paul V ruled in 1616 that no more were allowed, followed by Pope Urban VIII stating in 1629 that any copies must be destroyed or returned to the Vatican. Three centuries earlier, Veronica even made an appearance in Dante’s Divine Comedy.
As for St. Veronica herself, we are told that she died in the first century after Christ. The veil in the hands of St. Peter’s is shown from a balcony on the fifth Sunday of Lent, the image having grown dark and become obscured over the centuries of time. It has never been subjected to any type of scientific evaluation or testing, unlike the famed Shroud of Turin.
A third image of Christ’s face also exists in Italy, which some say is a contender for Veronica’s veil, the image of Christ in Manoppello, Italy. Pope Benedict visited here to worship in 2006 but the Vatican has never issued a statement recognizing whether it believes this last image to be “the real thing” or not.
There are many key elements to Veronica’s story. She saw suffering and attempted to alleviate it. But in doing so, she reached for God, whom we are commanded to love and honor above all things in one of the two great Commandments of the Church. And how did Christ respond? In that split-second where He wiped His face with her veil and moved on, He miraculously left the sacred image of His holy face on her veil, rewarding her a thousand-fold for her gesture. In this way, He blessed and loved her as He loves us for our efforts, far more than we can ever deserve.
We do not know what happened after she witnessed Christ’s Way to Calvary. Some versions of her legend say she became a missionary in France, where she helped to evangelize, and some say she gave the veil to the third Pope for safekeeping, and still others say the veil came to Mary and the apostles. Some stories seem to think she is the woman mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (9:20-22) who had the “issue of blood,” and who believed she could be healed if she but “touched the hem of his garment.”
While the visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich are also in no way binding, these can be of devotional interest, exploring what she saw when contemplating St. Veronica:
“Seraphia was the name of the brave woman who thus dared to confront the enraged multitude; she was the wife of Sirach, one of the councilors belonging to the Temple, and was afterwards known by the name of Veronica, which name was given from the words vera icon (true portrait), to commemorate her brave conduct on this day. . . . Seraphia had prepared some excellent aromatic wine, which she piously intended to present to our Lord to refresh Him on His dolorous way to Calvary.
“She had been standing in the street for some time, and at last went back into the house to wait. She was, when I first saw her, enveloped in a long veil. . . . Those who were marching at the head of the procession tried to push her back; but she made her way through the mob, the soldiers, and the archers, reached Jesus, fell on her knees before Him, and presented the veil, saying at the same time, ‘Permit me to wipe the face of my Lord.’ Jesus took the veil in His left hand, wiped His bleeding face, and returned it with thanks. Seraphia kissed it, and put it under her cloak. The girl then timidly offered the wine, but the brutal soldiers would not allow Jesus to drink it.
“The suddenness of this courageous act of Seraphia had surprised the guards, and caused a momentary although unintentional halt, of which she had taken advantage to present the veil to her Divine Master. Both the Pharisees and the guards were greatly exasperated, not only by the sudden halt, but much more by the public testimony of veneration which was thus paid to Jesus, and they revenged themselves by striking and abusing Him, while Seraphia returned in haste to her house.”
After she left, Veronica discovered the image of our Lord. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich states further that she was a cousin of St. John the Baptist as their fathers were brothers, and that she was approximately five years older than the Blessed Virgin and had been at her wedding to St. Joseph. Finally, she was likewise related to the aged Simeon in the Temple, the same celebrated as prophetic in the Joyful Mysteries.
Another woman also had visions of St. Veronica, and her name was Sr. Marie of St. Peter, a discalced Carmelite who lived in nineteenth-century France. In 1834 she began to commune interiorly with God, and He made known to her that He was much offended by those who blaspheme and mock Him, who do not honor the name of God. He gave her to understand that her role was to make known the wish for reparation to our Lord and one way was through honoring His holy face, as St. Veronica had done. He showed her a vision of those who spat on His visage and covered it in muck, and then made it known, “I seek ‘Veronicas’ to console and adore my divine face which has few adorers,” thus doing the work of a “pious Veronica.”
She saw that just as St. Veronica had much courage, so also did Christ have much love for her. The holy nun’s visions occurred in two stages, and her prayerful reparations continued unabated, until she died of tuberculosis Good Friday, 1848, at 3 p.m. She had suffered greatly but gave of herself willingly as a victim, at 32 years old.
Sister created a chaplet built around Psalm 67. St. Athanasius reportedly stated that the Devil particularly hates Psalm 67, also used in Pope Leo XIII’s exorcism prayer: “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered: and let them that hate Him flee from before His Face.”
Let us conclude by honoring Christ, His visage, and our love for Him with Sr. Marie of St. Peter’s prayer:
“May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable, most incomprehensible and unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored, and glorified in Heaven, on earth and under the earth, by all the creatures of God and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.”
St. Veronica’s feast day is July 12.
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