Saint Veronica
July 12th.
Saint Veronica or Berenice, according to the "Acta Sanctorum" published by the Bollandists , was a pious woman of Jerusalem who, moved with pity as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha, gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offering and after using it handed it back to her, the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it.
The name "Veronica" itself is a Latinisation of Berenice, a Macedonian name, meaning "bearer of victory" . Folk etymology has attributed its origin to the words for true and image . The Encyclopaedia Britannica says this about the legend
Eusebius in his Historia Ecclesiastica tells how at Caesarea Philippi lived the woman whom Christ healed of an issue of blood . Legend was not long in providing the woman of the Gospel with a name. In the West she was identified with Martha of Bethany; in the East she was called Berenike, or
Beronike, the name appearing in as early a work as the "Acta Pilati", the most ancient form of which goes back to the fourth century. It is interesting to note that the fanciful derivation of the name Veronica from the words Vera Icon "true image" dates back to the "Otia Imperialia" of Gervase of Tilbury , who says "Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera."
Beronike, the name appearing in as early a work as the "Acta Pilati", the most ancient form of which goes back to the fourth century. It is interesting to note that the fanciful derivation of the name Veronica from the words Vera Icon "true image" dates back to the "Otia Imperialia" of Gervase of Tilbury , who says "Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera."
The belief in the existence of authentic images of Christ is connected with the old legend of King Abgar of Edessa and the apocryphal Writing known as the "Mors Pilati" . To distinguish at Rome the oldest and best known of these images it was called the vera icon , which in the common tongue soon became "Veronica." It is thus designated in several Medieval texts mentioned by the Bollandists of , and Matthew of Westminster speaks of the imprint of the image of the Savior which is called Veronica "Effigies Domenici vultus quae Veronica nuncupatur" . By degrees, popular imagination mistook this word for the name of a person and attached thereto several legends which vary according to the country.
There is no reference to the story of St Veronica and her veil in the canonical Gospels. The closest is the miracle of the woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus garment ; her name is later identified as Veronica by the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate". The story was later elaborated in the 11th century by adding that Christ gave her a portrait of himself on a cloth, with which she later cured the Emperor Tiberius. The linking of this with the bearing of the cross in the Passion, and the miraculous appearance of the image only occurs around 1380, in the internationally popular book Meditations on the life of Christ. The story of Veronica is celebrated in the sixth Station of the Cross.
