Adventure Pilgrimage – The Veil of Veronica

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 The Veil of Veronica can be seen in the Stations of the Cross inside any Catholic Church. It is the veil depicted as having the Face of Jesus. It is not to be confused with the Shroud of Turin in Turin, Italy, or the Holy Sudarium in Oviedo, Spain (more on the Holy Sudarium when I visit Oviedo in September 2010). This is the veil that was placed on the face of Jesus at his burial inside the tomb. I had the amazing opportunity to travel from 8 – 12 July 2010 to a monastery high in the mountains in Manoppello, Italy to witness the Veil of Veronica. This was an amazing and incredible experience to be just about two feet from the Veronica Veil. To add certain degree of authenticity for those that may find this incredible to believe, Pope Benedict visited the Veil of Veronica a couple of years ago.  The Veil of Veronica, when interposed with the Shroud of Turin, it makes a perfect match. The following is an extract from the official website of the Volto Santo, or Holy Face of Veronica keepers in Manoppello:

– The “Holy Face” is a very tenuous Veil that measures 6,70 inches by 9,45, stretched between two framed panes of glass. In order to avoid running the risk of damaging the mysteriously impressed Image, the Veil has not yet been removed from the reliquary to verify scientifically the kind of staple that at a glance seems to be an ancient sea-byssus fibre, a precious “marine silk” also found inside some sarcophagi of the Egyptian pyramids, the “fine linen” mentioned forty-six times, neither more nor less, in the Bible. 

– The horizontal threads are rather wavy and the structure of the material is simple, so weft and warp intersect in the usual way as in a normal texture.  The fabric is so thin that the Image is visible before and behind the shrine and so transparent that a newspaper, put behind it, could be read even at a distance. There is the effigy of a long-haired man with broken nose, bloodstained forehead (Mr 15:17 – Mt 27:29) and swollen cheek (Jn 18:22); his half-open mouth seems to be about to utter the word LOVE (1Jn 4:8 “God is Love”) and his light red lips seem to annul every material aspect. 

– The contrasting shades of brown flatten by candlelight so the dark bruises covering his hit face become visible (Jn 19:1-3).
His eyes look very intensely upward so we can see the white of the eye under the iris. His pupils are completely open, but in an irregular way. His glance is amazed but also benevolent and consoling as really Jesus loves us so much that, even after his Passion, He said to the disciples:  “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). 

– Prof. D. Vittore from Bari and Prof. G. Fanti from Padua, not only by enlarged digital photographs but also by ultra-violet rays confirm that there is no paint on the Veil.  The expert iconographer B. Paschalis Schlömer evidenced the truth of her assertion by placing both diapositives (of the Holy Face of Manoppello and the Holy Shroud of Turin) one upon another: their transparent data-points fit together perfectly and Prof. A. Resch declares that the wonderful identity, moving us to tears, confirms the authenticity of both Relics as without any doubt it can’t be mere chance: Our Lord’s Face appears in his Resurrection from the dead on the third day after his Deposition from the Cross (Lu 9:22).