Did the Veil of Manoppello belong to Veronica? What is its significance?

Those are just a couple of the questions that came up when ZENIT interviewed German journalist and historian Paul Badde about his book, The Face of God: The Rediscovery Of The True Face of Jesus (Ignatius Press, 2010):

A veil in Manoppello, kept secret for centuries and only recently reemerging, illustrates Christ's resurrection in a way that will change the world, says Paul Badde.

Badde, author of "The Face of God: The Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus" (Ignatius Press), explained to ZENIT how this veil features "uncountable" images of the Risen Christ.

The journalist and historian, and editor for the German newspaper "Die Welt," noted that the veil also illustrates much of what Benedict XVI wrote about in his newest book, "Jesus of Nazareth Part II: Holy Week -- From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection" (Ignatius Press).

In fact, the Pope visited the shrine at Manoppello as one of the first trips of his pontificate, reflecting his decades-long interest in the meditation on the face of God, the author noted.

In this interview with ZENIT, Badde explained some of the conclusions of his research on this veil, and why he thinks it is bound to change the world.

ZENIT: Some have referred to the Veil of Manoppello as belonging to Veronica, and having the image of Jesus' face from before the Crucifixion. Your investigation, however, led you to a different conclusion. Could you clarify what this veil is?

Badde: This veil has had many names in the last 2000 years -- maintaining only its unique character in the same time.

It is, in fact, "the napkin" or "handkerchief" (in Greek: soudarion), to which St. John the Evangelist is referring in his report of the discovery of the empty tomb by St. Peter and himself, that they saw "apart" from the cloths (including the shroud of Joseph from Arimathea) in which Jesus had been buried.

This napkin, St. John says, had originally been laying upon the Face of Jesus.

This veil had to be kept completely secret right away -- together with the Shroud of Turin -- in the first community of the Apostles in Jerusalem due to the ritual impurity in Judaism of everything stemming from a grave. And it remained secret for many centuries.

This explains why it had been bearing many different names in the course of history after it appeared in public some hundred years later in the Anatolian town of Edessa for the first time.

Among all these different names are for instance: The Edessa Veil, The Image or Letter of King Abgar, The Camuliana Veil, The Mandylion, The Image Not Made by Man's Hand (in Greek: acheiropoieton), The Fourfolded Veil (in Greek: tetradiplon) or -- today -- The Holy Face (Il Volto Santo). The "Veil of Veronica" is just another name of all those that meant altogether this very veil in Manoppello.

The famous Veronica herself, though, who allegedly had wiped Jesus' Face on his way to Calvary, does not appear in the Gospels. It is not earlier than the Middle Ages, around the 12th century, that she became mentioned for the first time in pious tales and traditions. Her name contains, however, one of the real and true names of this veil, in a Latin and Greek mixture: Vera Ikon. This is: True Icon.

Read the entire interview on ZENIT.org.

Comments

[David]

A complete book could and should be published of all the occasions and sentences in which [Pope Benedict XVI] reflected and meditated on Jesus' Face as the true face of God that he sees -- together with Dante -- in the center of paradise and the universe.

I have often noticed the same thing, to the point that I think of the Holy Father as "The Pope of the Holy Face". The theological search for the true Face of Jesus Christ is the motive force behind the Pope's masterly study of Our Lord.

[me.yahoo.com/a/fmb.50IdiscJuK2Z8srTsAtUkiGmdhzKaQ--]

Can one actually visit the veil? Or is it hidden away for special occasions? I'll be driving by Manopello in a month or two and it would be nice to know if one could stop and see it.