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| Emperor Vespasian Cured by Veronica's Veil |
THE DUBLIN REVIEW, 1885, VOLUME 97, PG. 78-102 ART. V.—" THE HOLY FACE." VERONICA—derived from Vera-icon; according to St. Gregory of Tours, Vera-iconica (true image)—is the representation of the Venerable Face of Our Lord, commonly known as the "Vultus Sanctus," " Sancta Veronica," or "Holy Face," impressed on a veil of soft woollen texture, guarded with the utmost veneration as one of the three Great Relics of the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica in Rome, within an oratory or niche formed in the interior of one of the four immense pilasters upholding the majestic dome of the Church of St. Peter. The corner-stone of the foundation of this oratory, which bears the name of the Chapel of St. Veronica, a cornu epistolce, of the Papal Altar of the Basilica, with a balcony for the exhibition of the sacred treasures, was laid by Julius II., April 18, 1506; the "Holy Face" placed therein by Paul V., April 18, 1606; and the Lance, with a portion of the True Cross, by Urban VIII., in 1629. The exterior of the Loggia, or balcony, is ornamented with bas-reliefs showing angels displaying the Vultus Sanctus; while beneath, in an appropriate recess, is a colossal statue, sixteen feet high, in white marble, with pedestal, representing St. Veronica holding to view the Sudarium (veil), by the Florentine sculptor Francisco Mochi, seventeenth century, in the rather exaggerated style of the time. Behind this statue, to the right side of the pedestal, a bronze door opens on a winding staircase, giving entrance to the Grotte Vaticane, or Crypt of St. Peter; and at the eighth step another small metal door closes the secret interior stairs leading to the upper oratory, where the relics are kept. In the crypt, directly under the pilaster, is the subterranean Chapel of St. Veronica, which receives its light from two grated openings in the pedestal of the statue itself, and reproduces the altar and ciborium erected for the "Volto Santo" (Holy Face) by Pope John VII., in the chapel built by him in 705 in honour of Our Lady, under the title of "S. Maria Praegnantium." The altar-piece represents St. Veronica handing the veil to the Redeemer, whilst around and above are frescoes of Our Lady and the Three Maries, two on either side; of Urban VIII. receiving from Bernino the plan of the four chapels of St. Veronica, St. Longinus, St. Andrew, and St. Helena, corresponding to the four pilasters, and to which the Pope assigned each a chaplain employe’ of the Barberini Library; of Boniface VIII., showing the Volto Santo to Charles II., King of Sicily, and to James II., King of Aragon, 1296; and of the exhibition of it before the Emperor Frederic III., by order of Pope Nicholas V. On the walls of the corridor leading to the Confession of the Apostles, are frescoes representing Veronica handing the veil to the Saviour, standing between the two sisters Martha and Magdalen; Veronica preparing to bear the Sudarium to Rome, in company of Mary of James, Mary Salome, Mary the Virgin, and Mary of Cleophas. The vault shows Veronica displaying the Sudarium to the people, John VIII. bearing the ciborium, built by him for the custody of the sacred relic; and the Volto Santo shown to Louis I., King of Hungary, by command of Clement VI. The legends of St. Veronica tell us that she was a noble Jewess, Seraphia by name, of sacerdotal race, daughter of a brother of Zachary of Hebron; consequently cousin to St. John Baptist. She was five years older than the Blessed Virgin, with whom she had been raised among the Maidens of the Temple, had formed with her a close friendship, and was present at her espousals with St. Joseph. She was also related to the aged Simeon, and had shared his eager longings for the advent of the Messias. When Jesus, at twelve years of age, remained behind in the Temple amid the doctors, Seraphia gave him hospitality and nourishment in a house situated near the Bethlehem gate, a quarter of a league from Jerusalem, where He remained when not within the Temple limits, and where Mary, soon after His birth, coming to present Him in the Temple, passed two nights and a day with the then proprietors, two aged Eisenians, friends of the Holy Family. This house was a pious foundation for indigent travellers, and Jesus and his disciples frequently lodged there, especially during the days immediately preceding the Passion. Seraphia, whom Catherine Emmerich describes as somewhat resembling in appearance St. Catherine of Siena, and of generous, resolute, and daring character, married late in life, some say at thirty years of age, a descendant of the chaste Susanna, a member of the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem, byname Sirach, who at first was very inimical to Jesus, thereby causing his wife much suffering by reason of her attachment to the Saviour, was by his colleagues, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, brought to a better way of thinking, and permitted Seraphia to follow the Messias. In fact, after the judgment before Caiaphas, Sirach openly declared himself a disciple of Jesus, and with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus separated himself from the Sanhedrim. Their son Amadon, was among the first martyrs in Jerusalem. We find Seraphia, with the other holy women, in the train of Jesus through all his apostolic wanderings, witness to his miracles at Ainon, at Azanoth, at Dothan, and at Jezarael, travelling and halting with him, sometimes at Caphernaum, sometimes at Hebron; and while Martha provided for the requirements of Jesus and his apostles, Seraphia busied herself more especially with the needs of the holy women. At the marriage of Cana in Galilee she brings from Jerusalem a basket filled with rare flowers and delicate pastry; she took great interest in Mary of Magdala, with whose family she was intimate, and was instrumental in procuring the conversion of that model of all penitents, frequently visiting her with that object, and urging her to turn from her evil ways. After the martyrdom of St. John Baptist, Seraphia, with Joanna of Chiusa, repaired to Macheronta to secure the head of the Holy Precursor, which had been thrown into a sewer by order of Herodias; she was, with Jesus and Lazarus, one of the guests in the house of John Mark; and in the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday she collected garments to spread in his way, and extended beneath his feet the veil she then wore, the same later destined to wipe the face of her Divine Master in his sorrowful road to Calvary, and to bestow upon its owner her new name of Veronica; and she deposed in his favour before Pilate, with the irrefragable testimony of his miracles on Lazarus, Simon the leper, Jairus the demoniac, the blind Bartemius, and others. St. Methodius, Bishop of Tyre in the third century, celebrated for his holiness and learning, epitomized the Life of St. Veronica. In the Gospel of Nicodemus she appears at the moment when the Jews shout loudly for the death of Jesus; Pilate, in order to save him, calls for witnesses in his defence, urging them to come forward and speak. Thereupon, says the writer, "a woman named Veronica cried out from afar, 'I touched the border of his garment, and was instantly healed of a bloody flux which had lasted twelve years.'" It is true the Gospel of Nicodemus is apocryphal, and considered by many the same with the Acts of Pilate, cited by Justin Martyr, by Tertullian, and by Eusebius ;1 but whilst excluding said books from the Canon of Holy Writ, the Church, it is well known, does not deny them all historic value. Whatever their authenticity, their antiquity is incontestable, some of them being even preserved in the Liturgy of the Oriental Church. Many authors have not scrupled to accept from this source the history and the name of Veronica, and to pronounce her the woman cured of a bloody flux by contact with the garment of the Saviour, and who received from Him, at the time of the Passion, an impression of His Holy Face upon a napkin. The "Plorarium manuscriptum Sanctorum," and other writers, treating of the prodigy of the Volto Santo, refers to this cure as a prior bond of gratitude and of devotion between the Redeemer and His pious servant, which conjecture is supported by a still higher authority, namely, a Mass common to three very ancient Missals, the Ambrosian, that of the Church of Jaen in Spain, and that of the Church of Aosta. In the prayer they invoke St. Veronica, who wipes the face of our Lord; the Prose adores that Divine Image, whilst the Gospel given is that of the cure of the haemorrhagic woman. (Acta, ss. iv. Feb.) Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, holds this woman to have been a Syrophcenician, not a Jewess, and a dweller, not in Jerusalem, but at Caesarea Philippi, or Paneas (the modern Banias), where her house in the city, he writes, is still shown, "at the gates whereof, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen image of a woman on her bended knee, with her hands stretched out before her, like one entreating. Opposite to this is another image of a man, erect, also in bronze, decently clad in a mantle, holding forth his hand to the woman. Before her feet, and on the same pedestal, there is a certain strange plant growing, which, rising as high as the hem of the brazen garment, is a species of antidote to all kinds of diseases. This statue is, they say, a statue of Jesus Christ curing the woman with the issue of blood, mentioned by the Evangelists, and it has remained even until our times (A.D. 328); so that we ourselves saw it whilst tarrying in that city." Philostorgius and Sozomen declare this statue to have been thrown down by command of Julian the Apostate, who erected one of himself in its stead; but fire from heaven was poured down upon the latter, the head and breast were broken, and it was transfixed to the ground with the face downwards." It is still to be seen on the spot where it fell, blackened by the effects of the thunder. The statue of Christ was dragged round the city and mutilated by the Pagans, but the Christians recovered the fragments, and deposited the statue in the church, wherein it is still preserved" (a.d. 415). Maury deems the Gospel of Nicodemus the source whence John Malala drew the name " Veronica," since generally given in legend to the haemorrhagic woman. Piazza, in his "Emerologio di Roma," gives under Feb. 4, as the feast of the day: "St. Veronica, Noble Matron of Jerusalem, believed to be the woman cured by Christ of a bloody flux, styled by Baronius, Berenice, the name of Veronica being derived from 1 The learned Fabricius conjectures that the Anglo-Saxons bestowed upon this document the title of "Gospel of Nicodemus," because the Nicodemus therein named was their patron. It was printed in their language, and read by them as a sacred and canonical book. (Fabric. tom. ii. p. 214. the Vultus Sanctus, impressed upon the veil she had offered Christ to wipe his face from sweat and blood on his way to Calvary.” St. Ambrose inclines to the opinion that the woman in question was Martha, sister of St. Mary Magdalen.2 But to return to the legend. After the condemnation by Pilate, when the cortege, with Jesus bearing his cross, had reached the middle of the long street leading from the Judicial Gate, or Gate of Ephraim, a tall woman, of imposing aspect, leading a young girl by the hand, came forth from a large house situated to the left, and darted in front of the line of the procession. This was Seraphia, who had prepared a vase of excellent spiced wine, with the pious intent of giving Jesus to drink as He passed on His painful journey. She was closely veiled, and a cloth of fine wool, or flaxen fibre, three times longer than wide, hung from her shoulders; the little girl clung closely to her side, striving to conceal the cup filled with wine. Those preceding Jesus sought to drive away Seraphia, but she forced her way amid the populace and soldiery, reached Jesus, and, in accordance with the Jewish custom to offer the shoulder-cloth above described to friends in affliction, in token of sharing their grief, she fell on her knees, and presented the napkin, saying, "Suffer me to wipe the face of my Lord." Jesus took the cloth, pressed it to his face, streaming with sweat and blood, and returned it with thanks to Seraphia, who, kissing it reverently, hid it beneath her mantle, and rose; the young girl timidly held the vase of wine towards Jesus, but the soldiers would not allow him to drink. This daring and prompt act had created a movement amid the crowd, stopping the procession for some two minutes, thereby permitting Seraphia to present the napkin; once the cortege resumed its onward march, she hastily re-entered her house, spread the napkin upon a table, and sunk, fainting, to the ground, the little girl kneeling beside her, weeping bitterly. A friend coming in, found her lying senseless, and beheld the open napkin, whereon the bleeding features of Jesus were miraculously impressed. Struck by this sight, he roused her to consciousness, and drew her attention to the Sudarium, before which she kneeled, weeping, and exclaiming, "Now will I quit all, since the Lord has given me so precious a memorial." Our Lady and the holy women, to the number of seventeen, then entered the house of Seraphia, to avoid Pilate and his horsemen, who were filling the street, gazed tearfully on the Face of Jesus imprinted on the Sudarium, rejoiced with her over the grace vouchsafed her, took the vase of spiced wine she had prepared, and, in company with Seraphia, turned their steps towards the Gate of Golgotha. Beaching Calvary, they endeavoured, fruitlessly, to purchase from the archers permission for Jesus, then being despoiled of his garments, to drink the aromatic draught. Seraphia stood amid the group of sorrowing women near the foot of the Cross, aided them in preparing the linen, the water, the spices, the sponges, and other articles required for washing and embalming the body of the Crucified Saviour; assisted in collecting, in phials, the blood and water flowing from the wound in the Sacred Side; followed Joseph, Nicodemus, and the other disciples, bearing the remains to the tomb; accompanied the holy women, early in the third day, to the Sepulchre; and was present at all the apparitions of Jesus to his Apostles, at the Ascension, and at the Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. Mrs. Jameson gives two popular legends relative to the possessor of the Vultus Sanctus, according to one of which she was Veronica, or Berenice, niece to King Herod, being daughter of his sister Salome, who had been devoted to the pomps and vanities of the world, but was suddenly converted on witnessing the suffering and meekness of the Saviour, who to encourage her faith gave her a napkin whereon He had impressed His features, and which was endowed with miraculous powers. The second legend runs: Veronica was the woman who had been healed by touching the hem of Christ's garment. She greatly longed for a picture of Him, and therefore brought a cloth to St. Luke, who was a painter. When the picture was finished, both thought it very like, but on next beholding Christ they found His face was quite different. Veronica wept, and Luke painted another picture, and then a third, but both were less like than the first. Then God heard the prayers of Veronica, and Christ said to her, "Unless I come to your help, all Luke's art is vain, for my face is known only to Him who sent me; go home and prepare me a meal; before this day is over I will come to you." Veronica joyfully hastened home and prepared the meal. Soon Christ arrived, and asked for water to wash. She gave it to Him, and also a cloth to wipe with. He pressed it to His face, and it received a miraculous portrait of His features. "This is like me," He said, "and will do great things," and he gave it to her. 2 The supplement to the Synaxari of the Greeks, according to Siamund, gives under July 12, " Memoria S. Veronicas profluvio sanguinis laboriuitis, quae a Christo sanata eat." The story of Veronica as related in the legend thus given is that recognized by the Church's tradition, and mentioned in the Acta Sanctorum. Chifflet ("De Linteis sepulchralibus Christi," Antwerp, 1624), quoting Salmeron and others, thinks the napkin or veil of Veronica to have been folded in three ere being handed to the Lord. When unfolded the Sacred Features were found impressed upon each of the three divisions. This fact is likewise asserted, we are told, in a very ancient "History of Christ," written in Persian. One of these Vultus Sancti is preserved in Jerusalem, one in the Church of Jaen in Spain, and one in Rome, where the presence of the precious portrait is noted by Peter Diaconus, 518.3 Gian Gregorio di Gesii e Maria, a learned Augustinian friar, in his "Prsetorium of Pilate," Lesson vil, "De Vultu Sancto" (Rome, 1660), thus describes the Veronica or Sudarium: "One beholds in it, with the most tender compunction, the head all pierced with thorns, the forehead bleeding, the eyes swollen and blood-clotted, the face deathly pale; on the right cheek is clearly perceptible the impress of the cruel blow given by the iron-gauntled hand of Malchas, by whom he was buffeted in the house of Annas, whilst the left cheek bears traces of the spittle of the Jews; the nose somewhat crushed and bloody; the mouth open and bespattered with blood; the teeth loosened; the beard plucked out in spots; the hair to one side torn away; and the entire Most Holy Face, even thus distorted as it is, breathing such unearthly majesty, love, compassion, and sadness, as to excite in those who venerate it, when exposed to the Faithful in the Vatican Basilica, sentiments of holy horror, of sorrowful confidence, and, as a visible testimony of the ingratitude of mankind, produces within the heart of the beholder a flood of penitent grief and burning flames of love towards the Redeemer of the world." Referring to the imprint of the gauntlet, Lanspergius, in Hom, xix., "De Passione," writes: "That the face of Christ impressed on the Sudarium bears the marks of fingers stamped thereon, and shows clearly that the blow was inflicted upon Christ the Lord by an iron hand ;" 4 and Pamelius, in his annotations on ch. xiv. of the "Apologetico" of Tertullian, declares that "the Effigy of Christ, which tradition holds as given by Him on the napkin to Veronica, is still extant in great veneration, and neither its aspect, nor the miracles wrought thereby, permit a doubt relative to its authenticity." The spot where the action took place was ever held in great veneration, and the memory of Veronica is still green. Bernard of Breydenbach, Dean of Mainz, claims to have (July 14, 1483) traversed the long street through which Christ was led from the palace of Pilate to the place of Crucifixion, and to have passed before the house of Veronica, distant some five hundred and fifty paces from the praetorium of the Roman governor. Andrichomius of Cologne (1580) is still more precise: "The house of Veronica stands on a street corner. From the spot where she met Jesus to the Judiciary Gate, where He fell, for the second time, beneath His Cross, Christ proceeded three hundred and thirty-six paces and eleven feet." Henry Maundrell, writing in 1697, enumerates, amid the places pointed out to him along "the Dolorous Way," "fourthly, the spot where St. Veronica presented to Christ the handkerchief to wipe His bleeding brows;" whilst a more recent traveller, the late Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New York, Dr. Wainwright, visiting the Holy Land in 1849, speaks of this house of Veronica, or, more correctly, the spot on which stood that house, the very ruins whereof have disappeared, and whereon is now seen the dwelling of a Greek family. You are shown the place where that heroic woman, forcing her way through the soldiers and the crowd which surrounded Jesus, and casting herself at His feet, wiped his distorted features, the impression whereof was left upon the cloth which had touched the August Face of the Saviour of the world. This house of Veronica is about one hundred paces from the Judgment Gate, through which malefactors passed to be executed on Calvary. Behind the gate is the upright stone pillar whereon was posted the sentence of Pilate. But a seal of authority, far more venerable, lies in the fact that the house of Veronica is numbered by the Church amongst the "Holy Places." A Bull of Pius IV, dated July 14, 1561, "confirms and ratifies the Indulgences set forth on a handsome tablet, preserved near the most holy Sepulchre of the Lord Jesus Christ," which Sixtus V., Benedict XIII., and Gregory XVI., successively recognized and published. In the nomenclature of the Holy Places, to which the indulgences are attached, as appearing on this tablet, reproduced in the Bullarium of the Holy Land, we read: "At the house of St. Veronica, indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines." This Station is preserved in the pious exercise known as the "Way of the Cross." 3 "Sudarium, cum quo Christus faciem suam extersit, quod ab aliis Veronicadicitur, tempore Tiberii Caasaris Komanis delatum est," &c. 4 "Quod Christi facies in eodem impressa Sudario digitorum vestigia impressaretineat, et aspicientibus mostrat quod armata manu Christo Domino inflixere." In the latest and best guide to the Holy Land, by the Franciscan, Fra Lievin de Hamme, long resident in Jerusalem, "the site of the house of Veronica" is noted, with the partial indulgences granted by the Bull, Unigeniti JUii Dei, of Innocent XI., Jan. 28, 1688, and confirmed by Pius IX., Feb. 22, 1849. Fra Lievin states the house now occupying the ancient site is recognizable by its low door opening on the street, and by a fragment of column incrusted in the pavement. Very Rev. Father Nehakade, vicar of the Patriarch of the United Greeks in Jerusalem, has purchased, in name of the latter, this house of St. Veronica, the VI. Station of the Via Dolorosa, proposing to erect on this spot a sanctuary in commemoration of the wondrous fact there recalled to mind. But the napkin miraculously impressed with the features of the suffering Saviour was not to remain private property. It was a relic destined to find its way to the centre of Catholicity. Catherine Emmerich tells us that, "in the third year following the Ascension of Christ, the Roman Emperor Tiberius sent a messenger to Jerusalem to collect information relative to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. This man, on his return to Rome, was accompanied by Nicodemus, by Veronica or Seraphia, and by the disciple Epaphras, a relation of Joanna of Chusa, who, an ancient employe’ of the Temple, had witnessed the apparitions of Jesus risen in the Cenaculum and elsewhere. Veronica repaired to the presence of the Emperor, who lay ill, his bed raised on two steps; the chamber was square, not over large, and with no windows, it being lighted from above. Veronica bore with her, not only the Sudarium, but also one of the winding-sheets of Jesus. She displayed the former before the eyes of the Emperor, who was entirely unattended. The Face of Jesus was clearly impressed there, as in His blood, the imprint being larger than a portrait, the cloth having been applied all round the features. I did not behold the Emperor touch the sacred napkins, but he was cured by the mere sight of them." Philip of Bergamo gives a similar account, making the name of the messenger to be Volusianus; as also does the "Florarium Sanctorum," and the Ambrosian Breviary, in Lesson iii. of the Office of St. Veronica, Feb. 4. Not only is mention made of Veronica and of Volusianus in all the Canonical Hours, but even in the Mass of the day, which has a proper Preface, with the name of Volusianus. Two very ancient books, written, one in the time of Alexander III. (1160), preserved in the Vatican Library, relates that Volusianus, the friend of Tiberius, and sent by him to Jerusalem, had brought thence Veronica, with the Sudarium. Marianus Scotus gives a similar account, after the relation of St. Methodus, martyr. Molanus, in 1350, speaks of having seen in the Vatican Library a history of the translation of the Vultus Sanctus, under Tiberius, in elegant style and very ancient characters, which the celebrated English theologian, Stapleton, claims to have read in its entirety. The existence of this precious MS. is further confirmed by Baronius. Lady Eastlake also cites a collection of pen-drawings and woodcuts of the fourteenth century, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, representing the story of this translation. Many authors doubt the existence of St. Veronica of Jerusalem, deeming "Veronica" to be the title applied to the Holy Face itself, not the name of any holy woman, and adduce in support of their opinion that the Roman Martyrology registers no such person in its calendar; that in the time of Innocent III., pewter medals, struck with the Holy Face and the Keys of St. Peter, were sold to pilgrims visiting the " Limina Apostolorum," who fastened them to their hats and clothes, by certain traffickers styled "Vendentes Veronicas;" hence "Veronicse" would seem simply medals with the impress of the Holy Face. The proceeds of their sale were by Innocent III. granted to the Vatican Chapter. The third reason put forth is that in the ancient Missals of some German dioceses, especially in that of the Cathedral of Augsburg (edition of 1555), the rubric reads: "Missa de Vultu Sancto, seu Veronica;" consequently Veronica signifies the Holy Face. Jacopus Gretser, S.J., in his "Syntagma de Imaginibus non Manufactis," notes the custom in Germany of painting upon the back of the high altar in the churches, the pictures of the Veronica, which the faithful were wont devoutly to approach, make upon it the sign of the Cross, and repeat the same on their own foreheads. Nevertheless, her history, the cultus observed towards her, and for the Vultus Sanctus, rest upon ancient, continued, and well authenticated tradition; the Bollandists, who treat of her in March, after weighing all the evidence for and against, conclude that the fact of the Sudarium given to Veronica is beyond question by orthodox Christians, and it is the unanimous opinion of all writers that St. Veronica bore that image to Rome. Benedict XIV., who like Urban VIII. held the "Holy Face" in great veneration, declares: "Be Veronica the name of a woman or of the relic itself, certain it is that said relic has been for many centuries in high honour within the Vatican Basilica;" and the learned Dom Mabillon lays down as a safe rule, that when tradition is immemorial and identity established, the cultus has a solid title to possession, which cannot be destroyed save by certain and evident proofs; that the presumption is in favour of relics, since as the ancient canons prescribe, they cannot be exposed to public veneration before being duly examined; that consequently equity demands judgment in their favour, unless there exist good and precise, not vague and general, reasons to doubt their authenticity. The silence of the Roman Martyrology is no argument, since each lesson of that volume terminates with the words:—"And elsewhere, many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins." In some cases the same Martyrology omits even patron saints, of whom Baronius and other annalists treat in their works. Finally, it is possible that the "Holy Face," being generally portrayed depending from the hand of St. Veronica, the latter name may have been applied equally to the bearer and to the burden. Whatever the fact, tradition holds that Veronica—in Greek Berenice—then of mature age, came to Rome 14 a.d., halting on her way thither at the island of Zante, where she planted the faith of Christ, and left a memory in benediction amid the inhabitants, whose descendants to this day venerate her as the foundress of the Christian religion in their island. The popular legend runs, that she remained in Rome until her death, shortly after the martyrdom of St. Peter, and found burial within that city, 69 a.d. The Martyrology of Peter Galesinus notices her: "Rom» St. Veronicse, quae vultum Domini ad eam Urbem Hierosolyma attulit;" though some think she breathed her last 93 a.d., under the pontificate of St. Clement I., to whom she bequeathed the precious handkerchief, enclosed within two cedar-wood coffers, for better security. It was at first guarded with great honour in the Church of St. Maria ad Martyres, the ancient Pantheon, that temple being both spacious and central, whilst the Vatican Basilica was without the circuit of the walls of Rome until 848, when Leo IV. included it in the Leonine City. It was venerated in that church from the time of Boniface IV., 610, and publicly exposed on the High Altar, on the anniversary of the dedication of the said Church, May 13, and also whenever any peril threatened the Eternal City. At other times it was carefully secured in a shrine furnished with thirteen locks, the keys whereof were entrusted to the custody of the respective chiefs of the thirteen ancient Rioni, or wards of Rome; the shrine itself being deposited in the Chapel of the Crucifix, to the left of the High Altar, in which chapel is still preserved, in our own day, one of the worm-eaten coffers in which the precious relic was brought from Jerusalem by St. Veronica. It is placed in a niche above the altar-slab, within a crystal urn, bearing the inscription: "Area in qua sacrum Sudarium olim a diva Veronica delatum Romam ex Palestina Hac in Basilica anni centum emituit." The urn is surmounted by a figure of the crucifix, enclosed in glass, whence the title of the chapel. The remains of the coffer bear traces of ten locks; the other, and from all appearances the internal coffer, that more closely in contact with the venerable relic itself, is yet to be seen in the little church of S. Elizio dei Ferrari, and is inscribed: "In ista Cassa fuit portatum Sudarium Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi a Hierosolymis Tyberio Augusto." It is ornamented with enameling of the thirteenth century. In 705, John VII. transported the "Vultus Sanctus " to the chapel he had prepared for it in the Vatican Basilica. Cancellieri relates that subsequently—but he does not give the precise date—this precious relic was removed to the church attached to the Hospital of Santo Spirito, quoting to that effect an ancient MS. chronicle, where it was jealously guarded by six noble Roman families—Capo di Ferro, de Tartari, de Ricci, de Mercanti, de Tossetti, and Stefaneschi— with which families the charge was hereditary. The Sudarium [says the chronicle aforesaid] is preserved within a little room, lined throughout with marble and with iron, secured also with six locks, and exposed only once annually; and the six gentlemen, custodians of the keys, were freed from any legal condemnation they might have incurred, were never summoned to camp or military duty, and were one of their number elected maresciallo (sheriff), he was exempted from ever presiding at an execution. Wherever the Sudarium was exhibited to public veneration, each custodian was obliged to appear with twenty companions, armed at all points, mount guard with drawn swords round the relic, escort it to its repository, and secure the lock, of which he held the key in charge. Amid the privileges attached to their office was that of receiving, yearly, from the Hospital of S. Spirito, on the Feast of Pentecost, "in die S. Spirito," two cows, the flesh of which they ate there with great rejoicings. Piazza, Severano, and other writers, citing the Regesta of Honorius III., an. vii. (1223), state that this Vultus Sanctus was annually borne processionally from the Basilica of St. Peter to the Church of Santo Spirito, with the intervention of the Pope and of the entire Sacred College, when His Holiness pronounced a discourse to the people, and the hospital gave an alms of three denarii each to one thousand poor foreigners and to three hundred of the patients in the hospital itself, one denarius of which was for bread, one for wine, and one for meat. The canons, who bore this sacred relic, received each twelve coins known as quattrini (farthings), and a candle of one pound in weight. This outlay was met from the offerings made at the altar of St. Peter collected by the Mansionarii. In 1471, Sixtus IV., for just cause, inhibited the procession to Santo Spirito, establishing in lieu thereof the present usage observed by the members of the Arch-Confraternity of San Pietro in Sassia, founded in 1198, who succeeded the original six noblemen as custodians of the sacred relic, of repairing in procession, on the second Sunday after Epiphany and on the Monday after Pentecost, to the Vatican Basilica, when, by special privilege, exposition is made to them of the Vultus Sanctus and the other great relics. Einaldi relates that when Louis V. of Bavaria came to Rome, followed by a swarm of heretics, schismatics, and prostitutes, and the city was placed under an interdict, a Canon of St. Peter, guardian of the sacred relic, concealed it from the profanations of the invaders. An ancient diary states that, "Oct. 4, 1409, the Sudarium of Veronica was transferred from the sacristy of St. Peter to Castel St. Angelo, lest it be exposed to insult or injury from the troops of Ladislaus, King of Naples." The same diarist tells how it was brought back to St. Peter on the 1st January, 1410, from which date it has never been removed save during the enlargement of the Basilica under Paul V., in 1606. Not only the Romans but Christians everywhere have ever professed great devotion to this precious relic of the "Holy Face," and history tells us that crowds thronged the Basilica of St. Peter whenever it was exposed to public veneration. The exposition took place at stated times with much pomp, and save at those times was shown to no one without an express order from the Pope. This permission was granted only to crowned heads or to special friends of the Holy See. The custody of the sacred relic was exclusively the privilege of the Canons of St. Peter's, who took a solemn oath to guard it with zealous care. Even when kings were admitted to venerate the relic they had first to be aggregated to the Canon of St. Peter's, and were obliged to wear the canonical robes whilst paying their devotions before it. The precise date of the first public veneration is not known. Perhaps the earliest token of such public worship is a ceremonial or ordinal drawn up by a Canon of St. Peter's in 1143. Mallins, in his history of the Vatican Basilica, dedicated to Alexander III. in 1159, speaks of the ten lamps which burned before the Veronica day and night. Pope Celestine III., in 1193, showed it to Philip Augustus of France, and there are numerous records of Popes permitting its special exposition for behoof of royal visitors. The procession to St. Spirito, with its accompanying dole to the poor, ceased when the Popes removed to Avignon, and was never renewed on their return to Rome. From Avignon, however, the Popes watched over this devotion of their special affection. We learn from two Vatican codices (Nos. 3769, 3779), that John XXII. composed, in honour of it, the rhythm "Salve Sancta Facies," the recitation of which he indulgenced ;. and that Innocent VI. composed the shorter " Ave Facies prseclara," with versicles and prayer. Clement VI., during the jubilee of 1350, directed from Avignon the public exposition of the relic in the Vatican Basilica. Matthew of Westminster, in his " Flowers of History," ad. 1216, writes: Whilst Pope Innocent III. was celebrating a solemn procession at Rome, and when that image of the Lord's countenance which is called the Veronica had been borne along reverently, to be gazed upon by the people, the Pope himself replaced it in his accustomed place; but on the morrow it was found turned round, standing in an improper manner, in such a way that the face was bent downwards, and the beard turned down to the ground. And when the Lord Pope heard this, he greatly feared that it was an evil omen, and accordingly he composed a collect, and appointed it to be said in honour of the Veronica; and he granted to all who should repeat it a pardon for ten days. To enumerate all that the popes have done in ancient times to mark their high appreciation of this great relic would be most interesting, but lead us beyond all limits, as would any attempt to detail all the royal and other high personages of every kingdom who from time to time have gladly gone through all the formalities demanded of them for the privilege of being permitted to approach and venerate the "Volto Santo." Some authors hold that from the time of Charlemagne all the emperors upon being crowned by the Pope in person were created Canon of St. Peter and admitted in their canonical robes to venerate the relic. The Vatican archives still preserve a contract of lease, drawn up in the sixth year of the pontificate of Benedict VIII. (1017), subscribed as witness by "Johannes un Clerico et Mansionarius Sanctse Marise in Veronica," which document, thus making mention of the Sudarium of Veronica and of its altar, and which dates from the beginning of the eighth century, refutes the assertions of Baillet, Serry, and similar scoffers, that the name of Veronica is an invention of the thirteenth century. A further proof in point we learn from Garampi, Fiocaranti, Scilla, Vettori, and other authorities on pontifical money, that besides the blessed medals known as "Veronicas," even in the time of Innocent III., many of the Popes struck coins bearing the effigy of the Vultus Sanctus, which were styled "Signa S. Veronicse." Chaucer, in his "Canterbury Tales," dating from 1390, alluding to the custom observed by pilgrims returning from their journeys to foreign shrines, to bring with them certain tokens of the several places which they had visited, represents the Pardoner, who is just arrived from Rome, as showing A vernicle sewed upon his cappe; "vernicle," being the diminutive of "Veronike," is, according to Du Cange, a copy in miniature of the miraculous picture. Madox, in his "Formulare Anglicanum," quotes the will of one John de Nevill, 1386, bequeathing to his brother, the Archbishop of York, a red velvet vestment, having the " Veronike" broidered thereon. Dante tells us in his "Paradise" of the wight, Who haply from Croatia wends to see Our Veronica; and the while 'tis shown Hangs o'er it with never-sated gaze, And all that he hath heard revolving, saith Unto himself in thought: "And didst thou look E'en thus O Jesus, my true Lord and God? And was this semblance thine?" (Canto xxxi.) The poet styles it "our Veronica," because it was preserved in Rome; and in his "Vita Nuova" (page 275) he speaks of the "many people who were going to see that blessed image, which Jesus Christ left to us for a pattern of his most beautiful form." Petrarch (in Ep. ix. lib. ii.) alludes to it as "verendam populis Salvatoris Imaginem." The public exposition of the three sacred relics is made twelve times annually, as also during the holy year, and likewise when Rome is visited by pestilence, earthquakes, war, or inundation of the Tiber, as also on occasions of extraordinary jubilees and penitential processions. The Veronica is reported to give visible warning of coming trial to the Church; and during the Republican domination in 1849, about Easter, the canons of St. Peter perceived the Holy Face turn pale, and ominously change colour as they gazed upon it. The late Cardinal Barnabo, at that time member of the Vatican Chapter, frequently assured the writer that he had himself been an eye-witness of this fact. Pius IX., of blessed memory, besides the Encyclical, "Apostolicze nostrse caritatis sollicitudine," of August 1, 1854, wherein he urged the Catholic hierarchy to fervent prayer, preparatory to the coming definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, further ordained that on the first Sunday of Advent, December 3, of that same year, the Great Relics of the Vultus Sanctus, the Holy Lance, and the True Cross should be brought from their chapel, and placed beneath a baldachin, on the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the Vatican Basilica, and remain exposed thereon until the Thursday following, December 7, in order that they might be closely inspected and venerated by the numerous bishops come to Rome to be present at the definition, many of whom celebrated Mass at the altar. There is no previous example of the said relics having been ever exposed upon any altar of that Basilica. Mgr. Barbier de Montault, in vol. xxiii. of the "Annales Archeologiques," thus describes his visit:— The celebrated relic of the Veronica was exposed upon the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament, between the Holy Lance and the Wood of the Holy Cross. The Holy Face is enshrined within a frame of silver gilt, square in shape, plain, and with slight ornamentation. This simplicity of surrounding brings out in greater relief the picture itself, protected by a plate of thick crystal. Unfortunately, in homage to a wide-spread Italian usage, a sheet of metal covers the interior, concealing all but the face, of which it traces the outlines. From the latter we argue long hair, falling over the shoulders, and a short beard, parted in two thin locks. The remaining features are so vaguely delineated, or rather so completely effaced, that it required all my force of will and imagination to discern any trace of the eyes and of the nose. This indistinctness is still further augmented, thanks to a wide-ringed network placed over it, to hinder the linen from falling to pieces. In short, the material is entirely hidden by the useless metal covering, and the impress of the face presents but a blackened surface, giving no idea of a human face. Consequently the pictures, authenticated as having been touched to the original Veronica, which are distributed in Rome, are rather indications than copies of the true relic, whereon the features are much obliterated, whereas the engravings present a very clearly delineated face of our Lord. The scoffer Hemans, in his "Catholic Italy," claims also himself (in December, 1854) to have closely examined the Vultus Sanctus, which he pronounces undoubtedly a work of early Byzantine art, possibly of the seventh or eighth century, painted on linen, with that expression of gloomy severity common to the heads of saints in ancient Greek pictures. If we may judge from the engraving given by Rohault de Fleury (Instrum. de la Passion, p. 249), reproduced from a photograph furnished by the Bishop of Jaen in Spain, the Veronica venerated in that city, said by tradition to be one of the three folds of the original veil, is in a much better state of preservation, and clearer as to features and outline. Lady Eastlake mentions a picture of Christ, dark as a Moor, from Canticles (" I am black but comely"), as sometimes seen on a Veronica cloth; but it appears strictly of modern origin, and probably taken from the much-darkened Byzantine representations, since no tradition exists of a black face as associated with Christ. Emerich David, who has examined all the Veronicae from an artistic point of view, pronounces the Sudarium of the Vatican Basilica that whereon the face of Christ wears the air of greatest dignity. Raoul Rochette, who rather questions its divine origin, avows it to date at least from the sixth century. Besides the Veronica of Jaen in Spain, and the third original said to be preserved in Jerusalem, there exists a true copy of that of St. Peter in the Cistercian Abbey of Montreuil-lesDames, in Thierache, diocese of Laon, sent to them in 1249 by Jacques Pantaleon, chaplain to Pope Innocent IV. (archdeacon of Laon, afterwards of Liege), and later, Pope Urban IV. (1261-1264), whose sister was a member of that community. The text of the letter accompanying the precious gift is given in the treatise "De Linteis," Sec., of Chifflet. The abbey became forthwith a place of pilgrimage. Another Veronica was the object of popular devotion at Cahors in Gascony. It is related that a pious lady of the Sforza family earnestly besought and obtained permission from Pope Gregory XV., in 1621, to have painted an exact copy, of the like dimensions, from the Vultus Sanctus of the Vatican Basilica, which copy she presented to the Professed House of the Gesu in Rome, where it was preserved and venerated in a chapel of the rooms of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus. Later it was removed to the adjoining Church of the Gesu, exposed to public devotion, and adorned with a silver crown. At the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 it was removed therefrom, but restored by Pope Leo XII., who by the brief "Salutis nostrse spes," of February 16, 1825, ordered it to be replaced in the chapel of the rooms of St. Ignatius, confirming the indulgences conceded by Clement XIV. to those visiting it. Though Panciroti, Signorile, Ferrari, Piazza, and other writers, deem Veronica to have breathed her last in the Eternal City, where her remains found sepulture in the Basilica of St. Peter's, near the Chapel of the Vultus Sanctus, there is not the slightest proof in support of their assertions, which are, however, repeated in the Ambrosian Breviary of the Milanese Church; no traces whatsoever exist either of the tomb or of the body of the holy woman glorified by so striking a miracle, so highly honoured by Tiberius, and rendered so dear and venerable to the primitive Church by her close relations with the Saviour of the world. Certainly Rome, so jealous of the glory of her saints and so tender of their relics, had she ever possessed so sacred a deposit, would not have suffered quietly the loss thereof. Neither is there more foundation for the second theory of her death in Jerusalem, as we read in the Revelations of Catherine Emmerich, who at different dates declares Veronica to have returned to Palestine to end her days in the land hallowed by the death of Jesus. During the persecutions directed against Lazarus and his sisters, Veronica, who was of remarkable beauty, shared in their perils and sufferings, and finally, together with several of her female friends, sought safety in flight; but pursued and overtaken, they were thrown into prison, where Veronica died of hunger for the name of Jesus, to whom she had so often ministered earthly nourishment. Were this latter supposition true, Jerusalem, which still points with pride to the "House of the Saint” would have preserved with due care all other indications of her presence; whereas, whilst her name is in everlasting remembrance, her prison is unknown and her tomb forgotten. Secular tradition assures us that Veronica died in Saul, near Bordeaux. Peter Suberto, "De Cultu Vineae Domini," St. Antoninus, and others, state that she passed from Rome into France, where her presence is attested by an author of high historic reputation, the Dominican Bernard de la Giuonie, Bishop of Lodere, who notes that many ancient chronicles attest that St. Martial, the Apostle of Aquitaine, had in his train a man of God, named Amateur, with his wife Veronica, who had been the companion and familiar friend of the Most Blessed Mother of God. Amateur became a hermit, and dwelt long in a rocky solitude, then known as Vallis Tenebros, but which from him received the name of Roc-Amadour—" Amator Rupis," the popular appellation bestowed on the pious solitary—now one of the most celebrated sanctuaries of France, wherein is venerated an image of Our Blessed Lady dating from the time of St. Martial and St. Amadour, 47 A.D., having been fashioned by the hands of the latter. Pope Martin V., in 1425, declared the foundation of the Church of Roc-Amadour to date from the origin of Christianity— Amadour being no other than Zaccheus of the Gospel, the disciple of Christ, and that he had been husband of Veronica. The Breviaries of Limoges, of Toulouse, of Bordeaux, of Cahors, of Carcassonne, of Tulle, of Agen, of Angouleme, of Perigueux, &c., of the seventeenth century, repeat in substance these ancient legends, which likewise form the basis of inspiration of the Office in honour of St. Amateur, approved for the diocese of Cahors by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in 1852. Zaccheus, or Amator Rupis (Lover of the Rock), was first buried in the vestibule of the Chapel of Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour, whereof he had been the founder, where his body remained concealed until 1166, when it was discovered entire and uncorrupted, and fittingly enshrined within the church near the altar, where numberless miracles were wrought by his intercession. The remains continued for many centuries in so perfect a state of preservation as to give rise to the familiar proverb, "Entire as the body of St. Amadour." In 1562 the Huguenots stormed the city, pillaged the chapel, and cast into the flames the relics of the Saint, which being, nevertheless, respected by the fire, Captain Bessoni, the heretical commander, seized a blacksmith's hammer, and proceeded to break in pieces the blessed remains, accompanying the impious deed with the most horrid oaths and blasphemies. Odo de Gissey, a monkish chronicler of the time, states to have learned from an eye-witness of the horrible spectacle that the beard was yet discernible on the face of the Saint, whilst the Father himself testifies to having seen and venerated an arm and hand which had been rescued from the flames, one of the fingers, which was broken, showing traces of blood as fresh and red as if issuing from a body newly wounded. The relics of St. Amadour were anew profaned in 1793, and naught now remains but some fragments of half-carbonized bones, mingled with dust, similar to black ashes, and the liver is fresh and elastic as if in life. His feast is celebrated throughout the diocese of Cahors on August 26. That of Our Lady of RocAmadour falls on the Festival of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, Sept. 8, during the Octave whereof some 40,000 pilgrims visit that Sanctuary. Veronica, spouse of Zaccheus, or Amadour, continues the Bishop of Lodere, faithfully attended St. Martial in his apostolic journeys, until, worn out by extreme old age, she retired to the sea-coast, near the mouth of the Garonne, where St. Martial built and consecrated a chapel in honour of the Virgin Mother of God, which bore the name of Soulac (solum lac], the etymology whereof has given rise to curious discussion. Here she remained quietly until her death, 70 a.d., aged 97 years, and was buried in the chapel of Soulac, whence, because of troublous times, her body was removed to Bordeaux, the ancient Burdegala, and now reposes in the Church of St. Seurin, formerly the cathedral, dating from the eighth century. It is almost entire, a small portion of the bones having been placed in the Altar of St. John Baptist, in the Carthusian Church of Bordeaux; while one of the femoral bones was presented by the Chapter of Bordeaux, Oct. 10, 1659, to the parish priest of Saint-Eustache, Paris, in which church is established a celebrated Confraternity under the invocation of St. Veronica. During a recent official verification of the relics of our Saint, a physician named Ore, a member of the Investigation Committee, pointed out two very important proofs of the extreme old age of the subject under examination—namely, "the complete ossification of the articulations uniting the parietal bones to the forehead, and the rarefaction of the tineis osseus at the upper extremity of the left thigh, both indications of very advanced years. In the modern Church of St. Seurin of Bordeaux, built towards the close of the thirteenth century, two windows in stained glass, later additions, reproduce the pious and touching history of St. Veronica. "Les Origines Chretiennes de Bordeaux," whence much of the above information is drawn, in chapter ii., consecrated to the apostolate of St. Veronica in Medoc, clearly establishes the thesis of the existence and the mission of that holy woman, adducing as a further and irrefragable proof, the resuscitation of the marvellous Basilica of Soulac, which, casting off the winding sheet of sand, enwrapping it for eight centuries as a Lazarus of stone recalled to life, thanks to the late Cardinal Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux, speaks visibly to the numerous bands of pilgrims who flock thither from all sides ; and a witness of the eleventh century points proudly to the fact that of its three principal apsides, that of the right was dedicated to St. Veronica, whilst a second altar in her honour, in the opposite lateral nave, faced the magnificent Roman entrance-door. This second altar was specially the seat of the devotion to the Saint, where the vows were pronounced in her name; at the foot thereof flowed the fountain known as of "St. Veronica," where the sick came to drink and to bathe the eyes, for which purpose the water was caught in a basin, styled "Font of St. Veronica." Her statue rose beside the font placed near the more modern eastern door of ingress. After making the sign of the Cross, a salutation was addressed to " Dame Veronica," and the veiled female head in the centre of an ogive is supposed allusive to the Saint, since this bit of sculpture, found amid the debris, now carefully preserved, of the high altar raised in honour of Our Lady by the venerable Peter Berland, Bishop of Bordeaux, 1430, is in nowise suitable to the Mother of God, but could well apply to Veronica, and is thus described by Pere Bonaventure, writing in 1680: "There still stands behind the altar of Soulac a column on which Veronica is portrayed." She likewise appears amid the personages of an altar of St. John the Baptist, in carved wood of the eighteenth century, transported from the ancient to the modern church. Opposite to St. John, patron of the altar, stands St. Benedict, founder of the Order of Religious then serving the Basilica. At the extremity of the reredos, to the gospel side, the man in Hebrew dress, without any of the attributes distinguishing the apostles, is evidently Zaccheus; whilst to the epistle side is a woman holding a pebble, undoubtedly St. Veronica, bearing to Soulac the stone, stained with blood, picked up near the martyr St. Stephen, and numbered among the relics venerated from the highest antiquity in the Church of Notre Dame de Soulac, or " de la Fin-de-Terres," as it was popularly styled. Finally, as earnest of a cultus deeply graven in the minds of the people, we find, even in our own day, amid the sorcerers so common in Medoc, a formula of conjuration, "by Zaccheus and by Veronica." Those who hold St. Veronica to have been the Hemorrhisse of the Gospel, class her with St. Fiaker, in French St. Fiacre or Ferre, Anchorite of Meaux, in the seventh century, honoured August 30, who is invoked against the disease known as "la maladie de St. Fiacre" (St. Fiaker's evil.)5 Anne of Austria attributed to his intercession her cure, which had baffled all medical remedies. Hence the establishment of the Feast of St. Veronica in those churches where St. Fiacre is specially venerated, as in St. Catherine la Couture, St. Ives, St. Josse of Paris, and many other churches in divers places, particularly at St. Gilles in Valenciennes, where she is styled " Sainte Venice," abridged from Veronique, and where the women brought linen bands to be blessed which they wore during the Novena, as is likewise practised in the Church of St. Margaret at Tournay. From the linen cloth whereon is pictured the Holy Face the linen-drapers and laundresses have chosen as patroness St. Veronica, whom they ordinarily name Sainte Venice. She does not appear in the ancient Martyrologies, nor even in the Roman Martyrology. St. Charles Borromeo at Milan, and Cardinal Baronius at Rome, cancelled from the Liturgy the Feast of St. Veronica, to replace it by that of the Holy Face of Our Lord, specially honoured on Shrove Tuesday, though in Paris and in other localities in France the feast in honour of the Holy Face was celebrated sometimes even on Ash Wednesday. In fact, the Feast of the Veronica seems instituted in various churches merely to honour Our Divine Lord in venerating some representation of the "Vultus Sanctus : " the masses, offices, and prayers composed for the occasion all refer to Jesus Christ, and recall His Sufferings and Passion. Within our own day has grown up, by permission of God, a devotional "cultus," which is being war oily propagated throughout the Church—the devotion of Reparation to the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This beautiful devotion, which dates from 1845, and has accomplished so many wonders and is fraught with so many blessings to mankind, has for its object to repair the outrages committed against the Divine Majesty by blasphemy, and the profanation of Sundays 5 St. Fiaker, eldest son of Eugene IV., King of Scotland, studied under Conan, Bishop of Sodor, or the Western Isles, and, the more freely to serve God, fled his own country and embraced the life of an Anchoret, near Meaux, France, where he tilled the ground for his subsistence, and healed many who sought the aid of his prayers. He died August 30,670, and was buried in his own oratory, which soon became a place of pilgrimage and shrine famous for miracles. St. Fiaker is patron of the Province of Brie, and titular saint of several churches throughout France, in which kingdom his name has been famous for twelve hundred years. His relics were transferred to the Cathedral of Meaux, 1568. Anne of Austria obtained through his intercession the recovery of Louis XIII. when dangerously ill at Lyons, and in thanksgiving made a pilgrimage on foot to the shrine of St. Fiaker in 1641. Du Plessis states that the name fiacre was first given to the French cab or hackney coach, because hired coaches were originally made use of for the convenience of pilgrims going from Paris to visit the shrine of this saint, were adorned with his picture either on the outside or inside, and were hired at an inn known by the sign of St. Fiaker, or Fiacrius; hence they received the appellation of voitures de St. Fiacre, later shortened into "fiacre." He is invoked against accidents and honoured as their patron by gardeners; he is generally represented clad as a monk, with a spade in his hand. He appears in the .Roman Martyrology. August 30. History relates that Henry V. of England, having been defeated at Bauge by Charles VII. of France, who had Scottish troops in his service, pillaged the monastery and shrine of St. Fiaker, by reason of the saint having been born Prince of Scotland, but was almost immediately seized with fistula, known as mql de St. Fiacre, which caused his death at Vincennes in 1422, whence he is said to have declared shortly before his decease, " that not only the Scots who were on earth favoured France, but likewise those who were in heaven." and Festivals of the Church; to obtain the conversion and salvation of blasphemers and profaners, and to preserve families and youths from the fatal effects of these scandals. To attain this triple object, it is proposed to render special worship of adoration and love to the Most Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It originated, like the now world-wide devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in private revelation of the Divine Will to a holy Carmelite nun, Sister Mary of St. Peter of Tours, France, where she died in the odour of sanctity, July 8, 1848. She was the daughter of a poor workman, and born at Rennes in Brittany, Oct. 4, 1816, and though little favoured by Nature, was singularly privileged by God, and seems to have been attracted to Tours by an act of special protection of the great patron of that city, St. Martin. On her entrance in the Convent of Carmelites of Tours, she received the name of Mary of St. Peter, and God quickly manifested His designs in her regard. The revelation wherewith she was favoured had in view at first a devotion for the reparation of blasphemy, and the establishment of an Arch-Confraternity for that purpose, which, after considerable efforts on her part, was finally erected, and on July 27, 1847, received the approbation of the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IX., who, to show his interest in the great work, placed his august name first on the roll of the association, loaded it with benedictions, and also took occasion to remark: "This reparation is a divine work destined to save society." The following quotation from one of Sister St. Peter's letters will sufficiently indicate the nature and object of the devotion:— Our Lord transported me in spirit on the way to Calvary, and gave me a vivid representation of the pious office which St. Veronica rendered to Him, who with her veil wiped His Most Holy Face, covered with spittle, dust, sweat, and blood. Then this Divine Saviour gave me to understand that the impious actually renew by their blasphemies the outrages done to His Holy Face, and I comprehended that all those blasphemies which they cast at the Divinity, whom they cannot reach, fall, like the spittle of the Jews, upon the Holy Face of our Lord, who has made Himself the victim for sinners. I understood then how our Lord said that, by applying oneself to the exercise of making reparation for blasphemy, the same service was rendered to Him as the pious Veronica performed; and that He regarded those persons with eyes of the same complacency as that with which He looked at Veronica at the time of His Passion. Our Lord [said the Sister in another letter] caused me to know that this August Face, offered to our adoration, was the ineffable mirror of the Divine perfection— perfections which are contained and expressed in the Most Holy Name of God. I understood that, as the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the sensible object offered to our adoration to represent His immense love in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, so in like manner the Holy Face of our Lord is the sensible object offered to our adoration to repair the outrages committed by blasphemers against the majesty and sovereignty of God, of which the Holy Face is the figure, the mirror, and the expression; and that by the virtue of this Holy Face, offered to the Eternal Father, we may appease His anger and obtain the conversion of the impious and of blasphemers Our Lord (continues the saintly religieuse) showed me an example of the virtue of the Holy Face in the Apostle St. Peter. This apostle had effaced the image of God in his soul by his sin of denial; but Jesus turned his Holy Face towards the faithless apostle, and immediately he repented He had furthermore promised me to imprint on the souls of those who honour His Holy Face the traits of His divine resemblance, since they, like the pious Veronica, wipe His adorable Face, outraged and disfigured by sin. St. Gertrude and St. Mechtildis were also distinguished for special devotion to the Holy Face, of which they have left proofs in their writings; whilst the late M. Leon Dupont, "the Holy Man of Tours," whose cause is even now initiated before the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and who was wont in his humility to style himself "the servant of Sister St. Peter and the executor of her thoughts," made it his duty to propagate this holy devotion. Having in 1851 received from the Mother Prioress of the Carmelite Convent of Tours a duly authenticated copy of the Veronica, or Vultus Sanctus, venerated in the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome, and which had touched the sacred relic, he had it framed and placed in his oratory on the Monday in Holy Week; and on Holy Tuesday, the day whereon our Lord was sold by Judas, consequently that best suited for a glorious reparation, he lighted before it a lamp, destined to burn perpetually day and night, and numberless miracles, wrought in favour of persons who prayed and made use of the oil from this lamp, quickly rewarded his faith and devotion. These miracles, the first three of which occurred successively on the following Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Tuesday, are now too well known and established to be disputed. Mgr. Paul Guerin testified to having himself seen over 6,000 certificates of cures wrought by virtue of the miraculous oil in this oratory of the Holy Face, long since become the resort of pilgrims from all parts of the universe; whilst it is computed that during his lifetime M. Dupont sent no less than 2,000,000 of little bottles filled with oil from the lamp of the Holy Face, each accompanied by a letter, to persons who had recourse to his charity. After the death of M. Dupont, March 18, 1876, the then Archbishop of Tours, Mgr. Colet, who had already by an official document declared the deceased "to have died in the odour of sanctity," gave permission to purchase the Dupont mansion, which he had inhabited for forty-five years, and to erect an altar therein. The oratory of the servant of God was forthwith enlarged, converted into a public chapel, and solemnly dedicated to the Holy Face, on June 29, Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, by the Archbishop himself, who established there the Confraternity for the Reparation of Blasphemy and Devotion to the Holy Face, which is canonically affiliated to the Arch-Confraternity of Reparation of St. Dizier, erected by episcopal ordinance of Mgr. Parisis, June 28, 1847, and approved and richly indulgenced by Pius IX., July 27, 1847; but whilst having the like aim of reparation of the outrages committed against God by blasphemy and the profanation of the Sunday, its distinctive characteristic is its divine object, the adorable Face of our Lord Jesus Christ, outraged and disfigured in His Passion. The badge of the Confraternity is a little cross, whereon is engraved the impression of the Holy Face, with the "Vade retro Satana," and the words, "Sit nomen Domini benedictum." The badge of the Arch-Confraternity of St. Dizier, diocese of Langres, is also a cross, bearing in the centre a medallion, having on one side the Jehovah in a triangle, and on the other the Holy Face of the Saviour. The chapel of the Holy Face at Tours is served by a society of priests living in community, instituted by the late Mgr. Colet under title of Priests of the Holy Face, on whom is imposed no particular vow, though they are bound by a religious rule at once suited to the contemplative and active life, their special object being to study, contemplate, and adore the Most Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to make it known to and adored by others. They are subject to the Archbishop of the diocese as their head superior, and they are engaged in preaching, in the administration of the sacraments, in epistolary correspondence, &c., following the example of M. Dupont, whom they regard as their founder, and pending the decision of the Church, venerate as their father. They forward on demand the little vials of oil, books, prayers, and other pious objects relating to the devotion to the Holy Face, and endeavour to propagate the use of the medal of St. Benedict and the work of the Nocturnal Adoration which was established at Tours, Feb. 2, 1849, with the approbation of Mgr. Morlot, on the plan of that organized in December, 1848, in the Church of Notre Dame des Victoires, Paris. Devotion to the Holy Face is generally spread throughout France, and in other countries as well. In the diocese of Carcassonne more particularly it exists in almost every parish, where it is the source of the greatest benedictions; and it is stated that some of the most zealous bishops of France purpose petitioning the Holy See to obtain the institution in their respective dioceses of an annual feast in honour of the Holy Face, since the Church, which in the Feast of the Transfiguration celebrates the glories of the Divine Face of the Redeemer, has not as yet consecrated any office, any special solemnity, to honour it in its humiliation and sorrow. Nevertheless, the Feast of the Holy Face would seemingly complete the series of feasts in honour of the Sacred Passion of Our Lord, as in no other portion of His body did the Saviour of Mankind endure greater suffering and ignominy than in His most sweet Face, no circumstance of His Passion has been more clearly set forth by the Evangelists, and certainly it was by the special design of God that details of these outrages offered our Redeemer have been handed down in Scripture. Ella B. EDES.
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