St Veronica

While Jesus was moving along the Via Dolorosa, He fell beneath the weight of the cross. Out into the street stepped a brave and compassionate woman with a cloth. She wiped His face. Under the coersion of the Roman soldiers charged with His execution, Jesus returned to His feet and staggered on toward Calvary--and our salvation. When the woman looked at the cloth, it bore the image of His face.

Nothing of this story exists in Sacred Scripture, yet Sacred Tradition tells us the story. While little is know of this woman, the cloth's history is preserved as is the cloth, itself. It resides today in St. Peter's Basilica where it has been since the reign if Pope John VII (705-707).

The exact identity of this holy woman is unknown, as is her true name. The name we have for her, Veronica, probably comes from the cloth. Very early, it was identified as vera icon--"true image". As time increased the distance between the event and those venerating her and the cloth, the term was changed to veronica and applied to her as a proper name.

Most often, she is identified as the woman healed of the issue of blood. (Mark 5:25-34)   Other proposed identities include the wife of Zaccheaus, the wife of a Roman soldier, and Martha, the sister of Lazerus. Her status as a saint is pre-congregational.

St. Veronica left Jerusalem and went to Rome with the cloth and some unspecified relics of the Blessed Virgin. Tradition tells us she used the cloth to heal Emperor Tiberius of an unknown illness. Presumably, she died a natural death as she is not listed in any of the early martyrolgies nor in the Roman Martyrology. Upon her death, she left the cloth to Pope St. Clement.

St. Veronica, the cloth, and this event are also honored in the 6th Station of the Cross. She is the patroness of laundry workers and photographers.