By the Publisher,
Love One Another! 7/2006 → Catholic Church
All indications point to the fact that the Shroud of Manoppello
(otherwise known as “Veronica”) originated in Jerusalem.
Scholars claim that the cloth bears the imprint of Christ’s
face at the moment of His Resurrec-tion. It is probable that both
the Veil and the Shroud of Turin made their way to Edessa in Cappadocia
(modern-day Turkey) and remained there until the fifth century
The oldest legend (the so-called Cumulia legend) dates from the
sixth century. It tells of an image of Christ’s face which
reached Constantinople in 574 AD from the small town of Cumulia
near Edessa. A sixth century manuscript found in Tbilisi relates
that after Jesus ascended into heaven, Our Blessed Mother kept an
image of her Son on a napkin that had come from His tomb. The image
was a gift from God the Father Himself, that she might pray while
gazing on her Beloved Son’s face.
Another
legend tells of Abgar, ruler of Edessa, who, having contracted leprosy,
sent for Jesus, begging Him to come to Edessa and heal him. Jesus
did not come but sent along instead a letter and a napkin bearing
the image of His face. Upon gazing on the Holy Image of Jesus imprinted
on the cloth, Abgar was completely healed of his leprosy.
The legend surrounding Saint Veronica (the woman who wiped
Jesus’ face with her veil while He was on His way to Calvary)
is of comparatively more recent provenance; most likely it dates
from the Middle Ages. The legend represents yet another attempt
to explain the existence of this marvelous image. In fact, the Veil
bears no trace of blood and no woman by the name of Veronica ever
existed. It is important to note that “Veronica” is
merely a descriptive term for Jesus’ burial cloth. “Veronica”
is a colloquial portmanteau of the Latin and Greek words “vera
eikon” – which means “true image.”
The Veil reached Rome in the eighth century and reposed in St Veronica’s
Chapel at St Peter’s Basilica. In the year 753, according
to the papal annals, Pope Stefan II led a solemn procession, barefoot,
bearing high the Face of Christ. The relic was called “the
first icon,” “the Shroud of Cumulia,” and “the
Mandylion of Edessa.” Since no human hand was believed to
have painted the image, it was called “acheiropoietos.”
Without doubt, it was the best known relic in St Peter’s Basilica.
“Veronica” drew huge crowds of pilgrims to Rome. The
pilgrims could be readily recognized by the small pictures they
carried of the Holy Face. In 1208 Pope Innocent III introduced the
custom of leading a solemn procession with the “Veronica”
on the first Sunday after Epiphany. Starting from the Basilica in
the Vatican and ending at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia,
the ceremony culminated in the distribution of alms: three denarii
each for the poorest of Rome’s inhabitants (for bread, wine,
and meat).
The Vita Nuova of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) tells of people thronging
to catch a glimpse of Christ’s face on St Veronica’s
veil. The Divine Comedy also makes frequent reference to the Veil.
That the cloth reveals the face of God is always stressed. Crowning
the Divine Comedy is the scene in which the pilgrim stands before
God in heaven. God first reveals Himself in an aura of incredible
light. From the center of this light emerges the face of Christ.
(It was this very scene that inspired our new Pope Benedict XVI
to write his first encyclical, God is Love.) The great Italian poet
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) also makes mention of the Holy Face
on Veronica’s veil in his Familiari Canzoniere. Saint Brigit
of Sweden, who took part in the Jubilee Year ceremonies of 1350,
likewise remarks on the True Face of Christ imprinted on Veronica’s
veil.
Testifying to the great importance of this relic is the fact that
construction of the new St Peter’s Basilica began (in 1506)
with the raising of a prodigious column on the spot where the old
cornerstone had lain. It was into this column that the Vatican’s
most important repository – the one reserved for the “true
image of Christ” – was built. To this day, the column,
named after Saint Veronica of Jerusalem, bears the inscription in
Latin, “ Pope Urban VIII built and embellished this place
in the Jubilee Year of 1525 for the fitting veneration of the Savior’s
majestic image as imprinted on the Veil of Veronica.”
Art historian Dr Heinrich Pfeiffer of Gregorian University has
devoted many years to the study of “Veronica.” After
carefully examining Christianity’s most ancient artifacts,
he is convinced that the Face of Manoppello served as the prototype
for centuries of representation of Christ’s face. Pfeiffer’s
research was prompted by the pioneering efforts of German Trappist
nun and icon expert Blandina Paschalis Schlömer. Years of painstaking
study had enabled her to show that the Face of Manoppello and the
Face of Turin constituted a perfect match.
Until the sixteenth century every official copy of “Veronica”
bears the same face of Jesus. We see Jesus’ head and neck,
hair, sparse beard and prominent nose. His ears are covered and
his eyes are open. All the great masters of Europe tried their hand
at rendering the image: Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Robert Camping,
Andrea Mantegna and Dirk Bouts. Until the early seventeenth century,
every great artist portrayed Christ with His eyes open after the
model of the Holy Face of Manoppello. Even in the years 1618 and
1620, the frontispiece of the published editions of Opusculum de
Sacrosanto Veronicae Sudario (a detailed inventory of the treasures
of St Peter’s Basilica compiled on the Pope’s orders
by notary Giacomo Grimaldi) shows the Holy Face of Veronica’s
veil exactly as depicted heretofore. By contrast, the 1635 edition
of the Opusculum shows a completely different portrait of Christ
– with His eyes closed.
A remarkable change took place in the depiction of Christ’s
face after Pope Urban VIII dedicated the newly rebuilt Basilica
of St Peter’s in 1626. The living face of Christ was replaced
by portraits of the dead Christ with closed eyes. This signaled
a revolution in Christian iconography. It is around this time, supposes
Paul Badde in his book The Holy Face: The Veil of Manoppello, that
the real “Veronica” was stolen from St Peter’s
Basilica and replaced by one bearing an image of the dead Christ..
News of the veil’s disappearance began to spread in early
1616. Pope Paul V is thought to have been the last to hold the real
artifact in his hands during the solemn procession of January 25,
1606. But was it the real veil? It was in 1617 that Paul V forbade
the making of any copies of “Veronica” without the consent
and authorization of the Vatican.
Some historians surmise that the theft of the veil had occurred
much earlier. When the armies of Charles V took Rome on May 14,
1527, Urban V wrote to the Princess of Orvieto informing her that
five hundred men had been killed before the altar of the Basilica.
The holy relics had been scattered and a good many destroyed by
fire. Other scholars such as German historians Gustaw Groysen and
Ludwig von Pastor in their History of the Popes claim that, after
being stolen, “Veronica” made the rounds of various
Roman taverns. Apparently no one realized it was the true relic.
In 1528, Pope Clement VII issued a special decree that all stolen
relics were to be returned to the Basilica. In a solemn procession
held on November 26, 1528, the recovered relics were transposed
from the Church of St Mark to the Vatican. Among the many artifacts
returned at that time it would not have been difficult to plant
a false veil. However, we have no way of knowing for sure if the
real Veil disappeared from St Peter’s during the taking of
Rome in 1527 or early in the seventeenth century.
Among the existing treasures of St Peter’s Basilica is an
old Venetian picture frame containing two broken panes of glass.
The Veil was kept stretched between these panes until the sixteenth
or seventeenth century. The Veil of Manoppello fits perfectly into
this frame. Paul Badde observes that lodged in the lower right hand
corner of the Manoppello relic is a sliver of glass. The evidence
suggests that the reliquary had been broken into and the relic,
stolen. Based on the long-standing research of German scholars Pfeiffer,
Resch, Thiermeyer, and Sister Blandina, Badde’s investigative
journalism leads him to the sensational discovery that the church
in Manoppello contains the Veil of Veronica, which had mysteriously
disappeared from Rome in 1608 during the construction of the new
Basilica of St Peter.
Professor Pfeiffer is convinced that the image on the Veil of Manoppello
records the Holy Face at the moment Christ rose from the dead. The
cloth had been placed on top of the Shroud over Our Lord’s
face. Whereas the Shroud of Turin bears the negative image of the
Dead Christ, the Veil records the positive print of the Risen One.
When the face of the Shroud of Turin is laid over the face of the
Veil of Manoppello, the two images form a perfect match. It is the
very same face. We are therefore allowed to suppose that the images
on the Shroud and the Veil were imprinted at the moment of Christ’s
Resurrection. They are the only existing pictures of Christ’s
face – images that no earthly hand made – acheiropoietoi,
so-called.
In 1645, a Capuchin monk named Donato da Bomba wrote a history
of Manoppello’s miraculous image. The manuscript is kept in
the Capuchin provincial archives in Aquila. In 1506, according to
the document, there lived in Manoppello a physician by the name
of Antonio Leonelli. One day he and a group of his friends were
standing on the square in front of the church when a stranger –
a pilgrim – approached them. He asked the doctor to enter
the church with him since he had something very important to convey
to him. Inside the church, the mysterious visitor handed the doctor
a small bundle. Upon opening it, Lionelli saw the beautiful image
of the face of Our Lord. When he turned round to thank the pilgrim
and invite him to his home, the palmer had vanished without a trace.
Every attempt to find him in the town and surroundings proved fruitless.
So Lionelli built an altar in his home to repose the miraculous
image and guard it against theft. Every day he and his family prayed
before it. For many years after the doctor’s death his relatives
quarreled over the division of the heirloom. One of them, a soldier
by the name of Pancrazio Petrucci, broke into Lionelli’s house
and stole the priceless relic. When, several years later, Pancrazio
found himself imprisoned in the town of Chieti and in need of money
to pay his fine, he ordered his wife to sell the image. Heeding
an inner prompting, the purchaser, Dr. Antonio De Fabritiis of Manoppello,
gave the relic to the Capuchins in 1638. This way all the faithful
could have access to it and venerate it in the parish church of
Manoppello. In 1750, the Capuchins decided to celebrate the feast
of the Holy Image every year on the third Sunday in May.
Professor Pfeiffer, however, questions the reliability of this
story. He claims that “Veronica” did not reach Manoppello
until early in the seventeenth century and that the whole story
had been made up to put the Vatican off the scent, since the Holy
See was seeking the lost relic.
We may never know how exactly the relic reached Manoppello. Nor
is it possible to ascertain whether it was stolen from the Vatican
Basilica in the early sixteenth or the seventeenth century. At any
rate, all people of good will will cherish both the Veil and the
Shroud of Turin as Christianity’s most precious relics.
Bruno Forte, Archbishop of the Diocese of Chieti and an outstanding
theologian in his own right, has designated 2006 as the Great Jubilee
Year of the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello. The Holy Father,
Benedict XVI, made a pilgrimage to this site on September 1, 2006.
Increasing numbers of pilgrims visit Manoppello to pay homage to
the Savior in order to experience His loving gaze. “No one
has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,
he has made him known” (John
1:18).