Saint Veronica | |
|---|---|
 Saint Veronica, byHans Memling, c. 1470. | |
| Born | 1st centuryAD Caesarea Philippi orJerusalem,Judea |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church,Eastern Orthodox Church,Anglican Communion |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Feast | July 12[1] |
| Attributes | Cloth that bears the image of Christ's face |
| Patronage | images; laundry workers, pictures, photos, photographers,[2]Santa Veronica, San Pablo City,Laguna province |
Saint Veronica, also known asBerenike,[3] was a widow fromJerusalem who lived in the 1st centuryAD, according to extra-biblical Christian traditions.[4]Apocryphal texts relate how Veronica was moved with sympathy seeingJesus carrying the cross to Calvary and gave him her veil so that he could wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offer, and when he returned the veil theimage of his face was miraculously captured on it. The resulting relic became known as theVeil of Veronica.[5][6][7]
The story of Veronica is celebrated in the sixthStation of the Cross inAnglican, Catholic, andWestern Orthodox churches.[4][8][9] A celebrated saint in many pious Christian countries, the 17th-centuryActa Sanctorum published by theBollandists listed her feast under July 12,[10] but the GermanJesuit scholar Joseph Braun cited her commemoration inFesti Marianni on January 13.
There is no reference to the story of Veronica and her veil in thecanonical gospels. The closest isthe miracle of the unnamed woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’s garment.[11] The apocryphalGospel of Nicodemus gives her name as Berenikē or Beronike (Koine Greek:Βερενίκη). The name Veronica is a Latinisation of thisancient Macedonian name. 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 the EmperorTiberius. The linking of this with the bearing of the cross in the Passion occurs only around 1380 in the internationally popular bookMeditations on the Life of Christ.[12]
At some point a relic became associated with the story.Pedro Tafur, a Spanish knight visiting Rome in 1436, describes the following in the Church of St. Peter in his 1454 travel account:[13]
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 worshipers are in danger of their lives, so many are they and so great is the press.
However, he does not say specifically that he witnessed for himself this exhibition of the relic.
Some academic sources suggest a different origin for the legend of St. Veronica: that the cloth bearing an image of Jesus's face was known in Latin as thevera icon ("true image"), and that this name for the relic was misinterpreted as the name of a saint. TheCatholic Encyclopedia of 1913 writes:[14]
The belief in the existence of authentic images of Christ is connected with the old legend of KingAbgar of Edessa and the apocryphal writing known as theMors Pilati [Wikidata] ("the Death ofPilate"). To distinguish at Rome the oldest and best known of these images it was called thevera icon (true image), which in the common tongue soon became"Veronica".It is thus designated in severalmedieval texts mentioned by theBollandists (e.g. an old Missal of Augsburg has a Mass"De S. Veronica seu Vultus Domini" –"Saint Veronica, or the Face of the Lord"), andMatthew of Westminster speaks of the imprint of the image of the Savior which is called Veronica:"Effigies Domenici vultus quae Veronica nuncupatur" –"effigy of the face of the Lord which is called a Veronica". By degrees, popular imagination mistook this word for the name of a person and attached thereto several legends which vary according to the country. [translations in italics added]
The reference to Abgar is related to a similar legend in theEastern Church, theImage of Edessa or Mandylion.
TheEncyclopædia Britannica says this about the legend:[15]
Eusebius in hisHistoria Ecclesiastica (vii 18) tells how atCaesarea Philippi lived thewoman whom Christ healed of an issue of blood (Matthew 9:20–22). Legend was not long in providing the woman of the Gospel with a name. In the West she was identified withMartha of Bethany; in the East she was called Berenike, or Beronike, the name appearing in as early a work as the"Acta Pilati", the most ancient form of which goes back to the fourth century. The fanciful derivation of the name Veronica from the words Vera Icon (eikon) "true image" dates back to the"Otia Imperialia" (iii 25) ofGervase of Tilbury (fl. 1211), who says:"Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera" (translated: "The Veronica is, therefore, a true picture of the Lord.")
Veronica was mentioned in the reportedvisions of Jesus byMarie of St Peter, aCarmelite nun who lived inTours, France, and started thedevotion to theHoly Face of Jesus. In 1844, Sister Marie reported that in a vision, she saw Veronica wiping away the spit and mud from the face of Jesus with her veil on the way to Calvary. She said that sacrilegious and blasphemous acts today are adding to the spit and mud that Veronica wiped away that day. According to Marie of St Peter, in her visions, Jesus told her that he desired devotion to His Holy Face inreparation forsacrilege andblasphemy.Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ are thus compared to Veronica wiping the face of Jesus.[16][17]
The Devotion to theHoly Face of Jesus was eventually approved byPope Leo XIII in 1885. Veronica is commemorated on 12 July.
Saint Veronica is the patron of the Frenchmulquiniers whose representations they celebrated semi-annually (summer andwinter) as in many piousChristian countries. She is also the patron saint of photographers, and laundry workers.
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This tradition began most prominently with St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) and spread to other churches in the medieval period. It is also observed by a growing number of Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutherans. It is most commonly done during Lent, especially on Good Friday.
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