Veronica: Vera Icona (True Image - Latin)
The Veil of Veronica has an interesting story behind it. The veil is one of the four principal relics of the Passion said to have been preserved in Saint Peter's basilica in Rome. It is a cloth believed to be miraculously imprinted with the image of Christ. According to the legend, a pious woman from Jerusalem who encountered Christ on his way to Calvary was deeply moved by His suffering. Looking into his face pouring with sweat and blood, she wiped it with her veil - and found his portrait imprinted on the cloth when she got it back.
The white, almost transparent veil measures about 6.5 by 9.5 inches and bears dark red features of a bearded man with long hair and open eyes. The face on the veil is that of a young man who has suffered greatly. He looks tired. The marks of blows that have struck him are clear: bruises and other scars on the forehead, clotted blood on his nose, one pupil slightly dilated. Yet, in spite of the evident signs of suffering and pain, the look is that of a serene man enduring his suffering with patience.
It is now said that the Veil has miraculous properties. It has been rumoured to quench thirst, let the blind see, cure leprosy and even raise the dead. Although the Veil of Veronica is supported as a true relic by the Catholic Church, one of the few people whom was allowed to examine it claimed it was just "a square piece of light coloured material, somewhat faded through age, which bear two faint rust-brown stains, connected one to the other".
When the part of the Basilica containing the relic was scheduled to be taken down for remodeling, the relic disappeared overnight. In 1616, Pope Paul V prohibited copies of Veronica's veil not made by a canon of St. Peter's Basilica. Next, Urban VIII (Pope from 1623 to 1644) not only prohibited reproductions of Veronica's veil, but also ordered all existing copies to be destroyed. These actions suggest that the precious relic wasn't in the Vatican anymore.
In fact, all the copies made after this period showed the image of Christ with his eyes closed, though earlier images show Christ with his eyes open.
Almost four centuries after the mysterious disappearance from the Vatican of the legendary veil of Veronica - with which Jesus is said to have wiped his face on the road to Calvary - German Jesuit Fr Heinrich Pfeiffer claims to have rediscovered it. Fr Pfeiffer, a professor of Christian Art History at the Pontifical Gregorian University, says he found the relic in the Abbey of Monoppello, Italy, high in the Apennine Mountains.
Many believe that the veil never existed, others believe that the veil in the Basilica is a copy of the original. Many other theories suurond the veil, is the real veil in the vatican archives? Was the veil stolen? Did Pfeiffer recently find the actual veil hidden in the abbey of Monoppello.
What are YOUR theories on the Veil of Veronica?
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