The Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Part 2.

As to the question of knowing if the name Veronica (which is said to be composed of the Latin word Vera, true, and a Greek word Latinized icon, an image, i.e. true image,) is a name predestined or symbolical, as those of Christopher Columbus, 1 and Mezzofanti, 2 or rather if the name be one by inheritance to the saint, from the designation of the towel, it is not repugnant to believe that this belly woman, chosen by Almighty God for so exalted an action, had likewise received from Providence a prophetic name. Moreover, it must be kept in mind that the name Berenice, which she is generally called, and which the Greeks have adopted, is the same in meaning as Veronica, which the Latins employ. The Latins change the Greek consonant B into V, so of Berenicia they easily make Veronica.3 In the meantime we are inclined to believe, with a great number of authors, that Veronica was the name first given to the holy towel on which was impressed the real likeness of our Saviour, and that by degrees the faithful gave this name to the holy woman who is represented in pictures or paintings holding the holy towel in her hands. It is likewise true that authors call the holy Face itself Veronica, and that in the time of Innocent III. medals were cast with the image of the holy Face on them, which were called Veronicas, and those who sold them were called vendors of Veronicas, and likewise in the old Missals of some of the dioceses in Germany, especially those of the church of Augsburg, (Augusta Vindelicorum) printed in 1555, is to be seen the rubric, " Missa de Vultu sanc-to seu Veronica"—" Mass of the Holy Face or Veronica," Giacomo Gretsero 4 says that in Germany they have a custom to paint iu the churches, at the right of, the high altar, the image of Veronica, and that the people have a devotion, as they approach it, to make the sign of the cross on it, and afterwards on themselves. The practice of this devotion is so frequent that it becomes necessary to renew and refresh these paintings which, by the continuous contact of the hands, lose their colour and become effaced.
Be the name and identity as it may, of this pious woman, who had the happiness of consoling our dear Lord in the midst of His sorrows, we know that she brought to Borne this precious treasure which had been confided to her. It is said that in going to the Eternal City she landed at the isle of Zante, where she planted the faith of Christ. It is for this reason the inhabitants of this island, who received from Veronica the first precepts of the Christian religion honour her memory with a peculiar devotion.
Many important and authentic documents attest the arrival of St. Veronica in the city of Rome. Peter the Deacon, who flourished about the year 515, says: " The towel with which Christ wiped His face, and which some call Veronica, was brought to Home in the time of Tiberius Cæsar." 5

It is said that Tiberius was cured of a leprosy by the presence alone of the holy Face, which Veronica exposed in his palace, and that he was anxious to load her with favours; but she had received from our Lord a treasure in comparison with which all other things were as nothing, and she piously guarded it till her death. Of the two cases of shrines in which the holy relic was brought to Home, the larger one is venerated in the church of St. Mary of Martyrs, and the other in the church of S. Eligio de' Ferrari. Al-vieri gives us the inscription which was on the case at St. Mary of the Martyrs, as it was in his time : "In this case the towel of the Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ was brought from Jerusalem in the time of Tiberius Augustus." 6
St. Veronica died at Rome, and the sacred treasure remained in the possession of Clement I. (fourth successor to St. Peter) who governed the Church from the year 91 to 100. Pietro Galesino makes mention of it in his Martyrology, in these words: Romæ, S. Veronicæ quæ vultum Domini ad cam Urbem a Hierosolymis attulit." It is thought that her body lies buried in the Vatican Basilica, not far from the Holy Image, which is an invincible labarum placed over the City, to defend it against the assaults of the enemy, and an object of the veneration of the faithful in .every age, and worthy of the veneration of the whole world.
During the persecutions of the first three centuries which beat so terribly against the vessel of the infant Church, Clement and his successors secretly preserved the holy relic in the depths of the catacombs; but when-God caused the aurora of a new era of tranquillity and peace to rise on His Church, she came forth with these treasures from these dark dwellings and shone in full day. Constantino was desirous to build a temple at the base of the Vatican hill, where St. Peter was buried. We then behold the hands of Cæsar, which were formerly employed in raising temples to idols, now sanctified in building in that part of Borne, which was most sullied by Pagan superstitions, and on the very site of the Temple of Apollo, the magnificent church of the Fisherman of Galilee, where future generations should come to consult the infallible oracles of Truth. This august sanctuary, embellished by the munificence of Constantine and his mother St. Helen, was consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester, on the 18th November, 824. It is in this Basilica, so often enlarged, restored, and completely reconstructed, that the Holy Face was preserved and venerated from time immemorial. If we find it deposited in other churches of Rome as in the Rotunda, Holy Ghost, and in the Castle of St. Angelo, it is only for a time, St. Peter's being situated outside the city, it was more exposed than these already named, and the Roman Pontiffs wishing to have the Holy Relic secure, sent it to them.

1 The name Christophorus Columbus recalls to our mind the dove going from the ark and bringing back to Noe the olive branch, the symbol of peace, as also the cross which the great navigator planted in the New World, which he went to discover to sow the faith of Jesus Christ.

2 The name is composed of the Italian " mezzo" and Latin "fans" (part, of fari) speaking. It is known that the illustrious cardinal spoke more than fifty languages.

3 The Macedonians explain Pheronica at ferens victoriam bearing away the victory. The Latins employed F in place of the consonant V, from the time of the Emperor Claudius, who, to distinguish the consonant V from the vowel V, introduced the Eolian digamma, a letter or figure composed of two Greek gammas, superposed, and forming our capital F; so for Servus or civis they wrote SerFus and ciFis. Pliny, lib. 7, c. 41, calls Pheronica what Valerius Mazimus lib. 8, calls Berenicia: " cui soli ex mulieribus, quod filia, mater et soror esset Olympionicarum concessum est ut gymnicos ludos posset spectare, faeminis omnibus interdiclos.
The circumstances which accompany the gift of this holy .image by our Saviour, as well as the considerations above, fully justify the natural etymology of the name Veronica which is from the words Vero (abl. de verum, i ) by the truth, and Nica, be a conqueror. Jesus is the truth, and died to destroy the empire Of the devil, that He might leave to His Church, in the person of His faithful servant, this .pledge of His eternal love, which the name (Sola vainqueur par la Verite) as a glorious device opposed to the war-cry of His enemies in every age: "Montez,montez, toujours." Jesus is the Word made flesh, and at the same time the truth; and if we have recourse to anagrams, the name Veronica represents to us the divinity by .the vowels A E I O V, which compose the name JEOVA, and His humanity by the consonants R. N. C, which are the initials of the three titles given to Him as man; Rex, Nazarenus, Christus. King, Nazarean, Christ. " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us."—St. John. And as the true .cross was distinguished from the others by the miracles it -wrought, so the Veronica daily proves its authenticity by the graces of every kind which it pours on those who wish to implore the mercy of Him whom it represents.

4 Tract de Imaginibus non manufactis, cap. 7.

5 Sudarium cum quo Christus faciem suam extersit. quod ob aliis Veronica dicitur tempore Tiberii Cæsaris Romanis delatum est, et

6.In ista capaa fuit portatum Sudarium Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu-Christi a Hierosolymis Tiberio Auguste

The Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Part 1.

The Holy Face, or Veronica, is one of the three great, remarkable and very holy relics which the patriarchal Basilica of St. Peter of the Vatican preserves with a jealous care, and which have been in every age of the Church, the object of the veneration of the faithful. The Veronica, is a veil, or handkerchief, on which is impressed the true likeness of the adorable face of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, miraculously imprinted, not produced by artificial colours, but by the divine power of God the Son made Man.

These precious relics are preserved in an oratory situated in the interior of one of the four large pentagonal pillars, which support the magnificent cupola, at the epistle side of the papal altar. Paul V. placed the Holy Face there in 1606, and Urban VIII., the holy Lance in 1625, and the wood of the true Cross in 1629.

From a constant tradition, which is founded on the most authentic documents, we are informed, that whilst our Saviour was on the painful journey to Calvary, loaded with the heavy wood of the cross, the altar on which He was to sacrifice His life for the redemption of mankind, a holy woman, moved by compassion, presented Him a handkerchief, or towel, to wipe His face, all covered with sweat, spittle, dust, and blood; and that Jesus, having used it, gave it back to her, having impressed on it His majestic and venerable image, so full of the deep sorrow into which He was then plunged by the weight of the sins of the world.
It is for this reason, that this holy woman is usually represented near our Saviour, holding in her hands the Holy Face, as may be seen in the sixth station of the holy way of the cross.

The learned Piazza, in his work entitled, "Emerologio di Roma," which was published in 1718, relates this pious tradition on the feast of St. Veronica, the 4th of February. St. Veronica, a noble lady of Jerusalem, lived about the year 88 of the Christian era, during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius. It is believed that she is the woman that was cured of the bloody flux by our Lord, and whom Baronius calls Berenicia, being called Veronica, from the circumstance of her having possessed the blessed relic of the Holy Face. After Jesus had left the house of Pilate, and was on His way to Calvary to be put to death, being all covered with blood from the scourges which He had received, and the wounds of His blessed temples, which were caused by the crown of sharp thorns; after having gone 450 steps, He came near to a house which formed an angle, where, Veronica seeing Him approach in the distance, through compassion, went to meet Him, and, taking the veil from off her head, presented it to Him to wipe His face, all covered with sweat and blood. Our Lord benignly received it from her hands, having wiped His face with it, returned it to her with the impress of His Holy Face printed on it. (Brev. Ambr. Petr. in Catal) A gracious acknowledgment, but with a resemblance so natural, that the marks of the fingers of the cruel man who had given Him the sacrilegious blow, are quite visible. Veronica, full of joy at possessing so precious a treasure, piously cared it till the arrival at Jerusalem, from Rome, of the ambassadors whom Tiberius on being informed by Pilate of the great number of miracles which Jesus had performed, had sent in the hope that he likewise might be cured of a malady with which he was afflicted. When the envoys of the Emperor arrived, they found that Jesus had been crucified, and heard from the Jews the fable of His disciples stealing His body, and pretending that it had arisen, but Veronica undeceived them by showing them the towel with the Holy Face of our Lord impressed upon it. She promised to accompany them to Home, and likewise told them that at the eight of the holy relic the Emperor would be cured. Having placed the Holy Face in a case, or shrine, she set out with the ambassadors for Rome, where, having presented it to the Emperor, he was instantly cured.

This is why Tiberius wished to honour Jesus Christ by placing a statue to Him in the Lararium, or chapel, where the Romans kept their household gods ; but the Roman Senate would not allow it, ''on the principle" says Baronius, " that they would not give that worship to a mortal which was due to a god." 1

Cardinal Baronius, in his "Ecclesiastical Annals" 2 of the year of our Lord, 34, after he had spoken of the shroud which enveloped the head of our Saviour in the sepulchre, said, "Now, this shroud is different from that which Berenicia gave our Blessed Redeemer to wipe His Face all covered with sweat and blood, and on which remained the impress of His adorable Face, according to the tradition of the Christians, and testimony of an ancient manuscript 3 which is preserved in the Vatican library, and that mentions it was brought to Rome." Bishop Methodius, an ancient chronographer, speaks of this Berenicia, likewise called Veronica, and of the image of our Saviour impressed on the veil.

Very many writers testify the truth of this fact, authenticated by a perpetual and uninterrupted tradition; we will quote some in the course of this notice. We will content ourselves to cite in this place what the learned Bishop of Samelli affirms in his " Letters on ecclesiastical subjects that all the writers on the Holy Land, and especially Adricomio, say that the house of Veronica was situated on the same route on which Jesus went to Calvary, and that everything occurred that we have already related.

Although the act attributed to Veronica may appear to us somewhat extraordinary, we are, however, less astonished when we know that a custom prevailed among the Jewish women of wearing on the head or neck a veil of linen or cotton, which they presented to persons as a mark of friendship, when they saw their face covered with sweat or bathed in tears. Such is, in effect, the primary meaning of the word suaire, which Bergier thus defines in his theological dictionary : " A handkerchief or linen, used to wipe the face." Veronica not only conformed to the received custom of her nation, hut she had to hrave the fury of the cruel soldiers, and also the wicked treatment of the violent and bloodthirsty populace. But she merited by her devotion to Him, in having His sacred image impressed on her handkerchief, as a mark of eternal love; this is why the heroic action of this woman will be glorified in every age, and pious souls will not cease to bless her for this service and this honour rendered to Jesus in His dolorous agony.

Valerius Maximus speaks of another Berenicia, which Pliny calls Pherenicia, who, by an exceptional favour, was allowed to be present at the Olympic games, which was not allowed to other women. But far greater and still more exalted was the glory given to our Berenicia, by the image of the Holy Pace being impressed on her handkerchief by our Saviour. The prize obtained by the conquerors at the Olympic games, was a laurel crown; for Berenicia, the highest glory was a head crowned with thorns; it is for this reason, that the hymn composed in honour of Holy Face, by Pope John XXII., who was created Sovereign Pontiff at Avignon in 1316, says—

"Salve, sancta Facies nostri Redemptoris, 

In qua nitet species divini decoris 

Impressa panniculo nivei candoris 

Dataque Veronicæ signum ob amoris."

Hail! O Blessed Face of our Redeemer, 

Face pure, where shines celestial splendour 

Upon linen white divinely impress'd, 

A pledge of love to Veronica blest.

As we have seen in. the touching relation of Piazza, it is generally believed, that St. Veronica is no other than the woman cared of the bloody flux by our Saviour. In an historical manuscript in the Grecian language, translated into Latin by P. Combefis, and printed at Paris in 1664, we read: "That the woman's name was Berenicia, who was cured by our Saviour of the bloody flux; to which the learned Sarnelli adds: "As to the name, Berenicia, which we call Veronica, it means the same person whom people honour and invoke in all sickness from the flow of blood, in very many places in France." Although, in changing the name, instead of Berenicia, or Veronica, they say in some places, Venizia. in others, Veniza, it is evident from the paintings, that this is the very same saint, for she is always represented as having at "her side the towel, or handkerchief, on which is represented the Holy Face, as a distinctive mark, as Bollandas truly observes in his " Historical Commentaries of St. Veronica."

1 It appears that the senate was angry because Pilate sent the account of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ to the Emperor Tiberias, and not to them, as was customary. It is likewise certain that the governors of provinces wrote directly to the emperor on great and urgent occasions.

2 Translated by Pierre Coppin, D.D., Cure of Notre Dame du Vailes, Paris.

3 Alveri, in his ,c Roma in ogni Stalo," vol. ii., page 210, gives us the history of Veronica, taken from an ancient manuscript of Nicholas Signorile, inscribed in the Vatican library, No. 3351.