, c. 1500, oil on panel,
Philadelphia Museum of Art 's 1513
Veronica There is no reference to the story of Veronica and her veil in the
canonical gospels. The closest is
the miracle of the unnamed woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’s garment. The apocryphal
Gospel of Nicodemus gives her name as Berenikē or Beronike (); Nicodemus recounts Veronica's attempt to testify on Jesus's behalf during his trial, which was shouted down by the mob at hand, because they did not permit women to testify. The name Veronica is a Latinisation of this
ancient 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 Emperor
Tiberius. The linking of this with the bearing of the cross in the Passion occurs only around 1380 in the internationally popular book
Meditations on the Life of Christ. {{blockquote| Eusebius in his
Historia Ecclesiastica (vii 18) tells how at
Caesarea Philippi lived the
woman 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 with
Martha 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) of
Gervase 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 reported
visions of Jesus by
Marie of St Peter, a
Carmelite nun who lived in
Tours, France, and started the
devotion to the
Holy 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 in
reparation for
sacrilege and
blasphemy.
Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ are thus compared to Veronica wiping the face of Jesus. The Devotion to the
Holy Face of Jesus was eventually approved by
Pope Leo XIII in 1885. Veronica is commemorated on 12 July. == Official patronage ==