Veil of Veronica
Anonymous; French
19th century
12.3 x 8.2 cm
credit: From the collection and courtesy of Pierluigi Stradella

TWO INSEPARABLE DEVOTIONS

This 19th century French holy card depicts an unusual paring of the Veil of Veronica with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Neither Veronica nor her veil is mentioned in any of the canonical gospels. Luke 8:43-48 reports only that an unnamed woman is healed by touching Jesus’ garment on his way to Calvary. The name Veronica first appears in the Gospel of Nicodemus, an early 4th century apocryphal text. In this account of the Passion, “a certain woman named Veronica, crying out from afar off said: I had an issue of blood and touched the hem of his garment, and the flowing of my blood was stayed which I had twelve years.” This account is further embellished in an appendix to an 11th century manuscript of the Gospel of Nicodemus which purports to be letters written by Pilate to the Roman Emperor Tiberius (42 BC–37 AD) , known as the “Paradosis of Pilate.” Here it is recorded that

Veronica said When my Lord went about preaching, and I was unwillingly deprived of his presence, I desired to have his picture painted for me….And when I was taking the canvas to the painter to be painted, my Lord met me and asked wither I was going. And when I had made known to him the cause of my journey, He asked me for the canvas, and gave it back to me printed with likeness of his venerable face. Therefore, if thy…will look upon the sight of this, he will straightway enjoy the benefit of health.

A fourth version, superseding the older forms of this legend, grew up in 14th century France and German, and recounts that Veronica encountered Jesus along the Via Dolorosa. When she wiped the sweat off his face with her veil, his image was imprinted on the cloth as seen on this holy card.

The existence of the actual Veil of Veronica or Sudarium (Latin for sweat-cloth) has its own legendary history. There is a cryptic suggestion that the veil was housed in the old St. Peter’s during the papacy of John VII (d. 872). The first firm documentation occurs in late 12th century separate accounts by two British pilgrims to Rome, Gerald de Barri (ca. 1146– 1223) and Gervase of Tilbury (ca. 1150–1228), which make direct reference to the existence of the veil. In 1207, the cloth was publicly paraded by Pope Innocent III (ca.1160–1216), and in 1300 Pope Boniface VIII (ca. 1235–1303) proclaimed its first Jubilee, during which the veil was displayed.

When the mutinous troops of Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) sacked Rome in 1527 there were reports that the veil had been destroyed or stolen by looters. Since then the Vatican has been circumspect about its existence. The last detailed inspection of what purports to this relic housed in St. Peter’s Basilca was in 1907 by Jesuit art historian Joseph Wilpert (1857–1944). He wrote 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.”

Other institutions claiming to house the veil or a copy made from the original include the Hofburg Palace, Vienna; Monastery of the Holy Face, Alicante, Spain; the Jaén Cathedral, Jaén, Spain; the Church of St Bartholomew of the Armenians, Genoa; and the Capuchin monastery, Manoppello, Italy.

The reverse of this card professes that these two devotions are united in Jesus’ love and pain.

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