Saint Veronica’s Veil in Rome

When you visit St. Peter’s Great Basilica in Rome and kneel before the high altar, you will be surrounded on all sides by mammoth piers that support the matchless dome of Michelangelo. These four piers are shrines, each of which contains one of the most treasured relics of Catholic Church.

The first of these relics is the lance of the soldier Longinus who pierced the side of Our Savior on the Cross. This was presented to Pope Innocent VIII by Pierre d’Aubusson, Grandmaster of the Knights of Rhodes who received it from the Turkish Sultan Bajazet. The second of these relics is the head of St. Andrew which was brought from Greece by Pope Pius II.

The third of these relics is a portion of the true Cross which was found in Jerusalem by St. Helena, who brought it to Rome.

The fourth and last of these precious relics is the miraculous veil of St. Veronica, which bears the impress of the countenance of our suffering Savior which remained after she had wiped Christ’s face on His sorrowful journey to Calvary. This last relic was placed in Rome by Pope John VII in 707, after which it was transferred to the Church of the Holy Ghost, and then carried back to St. Peter’s in 1440, where it rests to this day.

Above the piers containing these precious relics are four great medallions—each 28 feet in diameter—that represent the four Evangelists and Gospel writers Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Below these medallions are balconies, each with a niche containing giant statues representing St. Longinus with a spear, St. Andrew with a Cross, St. Helena with the cross of Christ, and St. Veronica holding her veil in her hands. This last relic is exhibited on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

The story of St. Veronica’s veil was preserved in old Latin, French, and German texts from the Middle Ages. There are numerous variations of the story in prose and verse, but the same general outline and spirit is followed in each narrative.

In each of them the Emperor Tiberius is still reigning in Rome, and is suffering from the grievous malady of leprosy. From his friends Titus and Vespasian, the Emperor has heard of Christ, and the wonderful miracles being wrought by Him. The desperate Emperor, thinking that this great Wonder-Working Physician is still alive in Judea, hopes to be cured by Him, and dispatches a trusty messenger to Pilate, who is the Roman governor in the province wherein Christ abides, with a request that he would at once send this great physician to Rome.

In all haste the Emperor’s messenger sets out from Rome, but only reaches Jerusalem in time to learn from Pilate that, on condemnation of the Jews, Christ has been crucified. However, while in the city the messenger hears the story of the woman who, by touching the hem of Christ’s garment was immediately healed of an issue of blood. At his request the woman, who is named Veronica, is brought before him, and to him she tells her story.

This story, taken from the Romance of the Holy Grail, was compiled in the seventh through the eighth century and was repeatedly edited in the ninth and subsequent centuries. And the story as told to the messenger by Veronica was as follows: Going her way through one of the narrow streets of Jerusalem, she met Christ carrying His cross on the steep road to Calvary, and taking pity on Him she gave Him her veil, which she was carrying, to wipe the sweat from His face. This He did, and when it was returned to her, she found, to her great astonishment, His features imprinted on it.

Her story ended and she accompanied the messenger from Paneas, the town in Judea where she lived, to Rome, bringing with her the Veil. She arrived in Rome, and was brought into the presence of Tiberius, the Emperor. She held up the Veil before him and, when he looked upon the countenance of our Savior Jesus Christ immortalized on Veronica’s cloth, he was immediately cured of his leprosy.

Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, “the Father of Church History,” tells us that when he was at Paneas, a tradition prevailed there that the woman who was healed by Christ of an issue of blood inhabited that town. Her house was still pointed out in the town, and there was there a remarkable memorial of the great grace she had obtained from Our Lord. Before the door of the house there was a brazen statue, representing a woman kneeling at the feet of the erect figure of a Man, whose hand was extended to her, while her hands were stretched out to Him in the manner of suppliant. Eusebius had seen this statue with his own eyes, and he remarks that it is not to be wondered at that one who had been lately a pagan, and had received such a benefit from the Savior, should show gratitude in the way of wiping his tortured face with her veil. This statue, however, may not be seen, as it was destroyed in the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate.

In the old Manuscripts of The Holy Grail, Saint Veronica is referred to under different names—Marie La Venissienne, Marie l’Egyptienne, Marie de la Venience, and others. The portrait on the Veil is often named La Veronique, that name being formed from the words Vera icon which mean “True picture”.

Gregorovius, in his History of Rome in the Middle Ages, says “There is a small literature relating to the Veil of Veronica,” and he refers to a great many writers, Italian and German, who have given information about it at different periods. “Roman tradition,” he says, “has continued the history of the Veil,” and asserts that, after the cure of Tiberius, Veronica remained in Rome in possession of her treasure, until, dying at a hundred years of age, she bequeathed it to Bishop Clement, whose successors carefully guarded the Relic till it was deposited by Pope Boniface IV in the Pantheon. Pope John VII had it removed to the chapel he had erected in Saint Peter’s about A. D. 707, and there had it enclosed in a marble shrine.

While Rome was under an Interdict in 1328 during the occupation of Lewis the Bavarian, most of the priests had left the city and the greater part of Rome’s churches were closed. During this time, the veil of Veronica was carefully hidden, only to be revealed 22 years later in the Jubilee year, 1350. This was done despite the city being in a state of utter desolation, for the churches and public buildings were in ruins. Yet this one solace remained to pilgrims, that all the place which had been hallowed by legend, and all the precious relics honored in the West, still survived, the most celebrated of which was the miraculous Veil of Veronica.

The Veil of Veronica Blessed Be the Holy Face of Jesus

By Cathal O’Byrne

One of the two original copies of Veronica’s Veil given to Venerable Leo Dupont by the Carmel of Tours, France in the 1860’s. They are kept at the Oratory in Tours, France.

St. Veronica with the Holy Kerchief, by Mattia Preti: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_Veronica#/media/File:Mattia_Preti_-_Santa_Veronica_con_il_velo.jpg

Tiberius - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius

The Veil of Veronica: https://www.martinians.org/history-of-the-veil