Gabriel Max saved the miraculous on Veronica's veil. The phenomenon of miraculous faces. Foreskin of Jesus Christ

For many centuries, people have tried at all costs to find at least some things related to Jesus Christ, and no wonder, because many of them, according to legend, have healing properties. Today we will tell you about the eight most important relics associated with Jesus Christ.

Life-giving Cross

The Life-Giving Cross is the cross on which, according to Christian beliefs, Jesus Christ was crucified. It is one of the main Christian relics. According to legend, the cross was found by Queen Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I, in 326. She ordered the destruction of the temple built on the site of Christ's crucifixion and the excavation of three crosses - one - the blessed one, on which Christ hung, and the other two, on which the robbers were crucified. According to legend, in order to determine which cross Jesus was crucified on, all three crosses were brought to a terminally ill woman, who recovered as soon as she touched the Life-Giving Cross.

Over the course of its history, the tree of the Life-Giving Cross was divided into particles of different sizes, which can now be found in many churches and monasteries around the world. According to a study conducted in the 19th century, the total weight of all documented fragments of the Cross is only about 1.7 kg.

Veronica's Veil (Veil of Veronica) is a miraculous image of Jesus Christ, which, according to legend, appeared on the scarf that Saint Veronica gave to Jesus Christ when he carried his cross to Calvary. The history of this relic is quite ambiguous, because the first mentions of it are found only in the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, many copies of the scarf were created, until in 1600 the Pope issued a ban on its copying.

According to legend, the true Plath of Veronica is kept in the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. This is a thin fabric in which the image of the face of Jesus Christ can be seen in the light. The Vatican calls the Plata Veronica the most valuable relic of Christianity, which is kept in St. Peter's Basilica. In 1628, Pope Urban VIII issued a ban on public display of the painting, and since then it has been removed from the column for public viewing only once a year - on the fifth Sunday supper of Lent. The display time, however, is limited, and the board itself is shown from the high loggia of the Pillar of St. Veronica. Only canons of St. Peter's Basilica are allowed to approach the relic.

Veronica's Plaid shown from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica

The crown of thorns is a crown of plant branches with thorns, which, according to the Gospels, was placed on the head of Jesus Christ by Roman soldiers during His reproach. Today, the relic, revered as the Crown of Thorns of God, is located in Paris, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. Despite numerous studies, the authenticity of the crown could not be proven. The relic is displayed on every first Friday of the month, Good Friday, as well as every Friday of Lent.

Nails

While believers around the world debate whether three or four nails were needed to crucify Jesus Christ, there are already at least 30 such relics in the world. According to legend, the nails were found by the same Queen Helen during the excavation of the Life-Giving Cross. She gave some of the nails to her son Constantine I, who used them to create a royal diadem and a bridle for his horse. It is rumored that one of the nails was used to create the Iron Crown, which is kept in the Temple of John the Baptist in Italy.

Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is the cup from which Jesus Christ ate at the Last Supper and into which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood from the wounds of the Savior crucified on the cross. Despite the titanic efforts of many generations of researchers, the Holy Grail was never found.

Conspiracy theorists claim that the word “grail” refers to the blood of Jesus’ descendants. According to other researchers, the Holy Grail may mean the breast of Mary Magdalene.

Foreskin of Jesus Christ

If the Holy Grail is the most coveted relic, then the foreskin of Jesus is certainly the most unusual. The foreskin (or prepuce) is a product of the Circumcision of the Lord, or speaking in simple words, part of the skin of Christ's penis. Numerous monasteries and churches have declared and continue to declare that they have a sacred prepuce, and numerous miraculous properties are attributed to the relic itself. According to some reports, there are as many as 18 preputies in the world, but officially, the church does not recognize any of them.

The Shroud of Turin is undoubtedly one of the main Christian relics, kept in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin (Italy). The Shroud is a four-meter-long linen cloth, in which, according to legend, the body of Jesus Christ was wrapped after death. It clearly shows two imprints of the human body in full height: from the face and from the back. The Catholic Church does not officially recognize the shroud as authentic, but considers it an important reminder of the Passion of Christ. Some believers are convinced that the shroud contains real imprints of the face and body of Christ, but disputes about its authenticity still continue.

I

In one of recent years During the reign of Emperor Tiberius, it happened that a poor winegrower and his wife settled in a lonely hut on the heights of the Sabine Mountains. They were strangers and lived in complete solitude, and no one visited them. But one morning, when the winegrower opened the door of his poor hut, he saw, to his great surprise, an old, hunched woman sitting on its threshold. She was wrapped in an old gray cloak and looked completely beggarly. And, however, when she rose to meet him, there was so much proud dignity in her posture that the winegrower involuntarily remembered stories about how goddesses sometimes take the form of an old woman in order to visit human dwellings without being recognized.

“My friend,” she said. “Don’t be surprised that I slept on the threshold of your hut last night.” It was in this hut that my parents once lived, and here I was born almost ninety years ago. I thought it was empty and uninhabited; I didn’t expect to find people in it.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that you thought to find this hut abandoned and long abandoned, it stands so high among these exposed rocks,” answered the owner of the hut. “But my wife and I arrived from a distant country, we are strangers, and we could not find more comfortable housing. But how could you, despite your old age, to make such a tedious journey. You, of course, are hungry, thirsty and tired; it is better for you that there were people in this hut, and not the wild wolves of the Sabine Mountains. You will find with us a bed where you can rest, a mug goat milk and a loaf of bread, which I hope you will not refuse to accept.

A barely noticeable smile ran across the old woman’s face, but it was so fleeting that it did not even have time to dispel the expression of deep sorrow that was reflected on her still beautiful face.

“I spent all my youth on these desert mountains,” she said. “I have not yet forgotten the art of driving a wild wolf out of its lair.”

And she still seemed so strong and strong that the winegrower had no doubt that, despite her years, she had sufficient strength to cope with the predatory forest animal.

The vinedresser repeated his invitation, and the old woman entered the hut. She sat down at the table where these poor people were eating, and without hesitation shared with them a modest meal. But, despite the fact that she seemed quite pleased and satisfied with a piece of simple bread soaked in milk, it always seemed to both husband and wife that she was accustomed to a completely different food.

“Where could such a strange traveler come from? - They asked themselves, looking at the guest. “She probably ate pheasants on silver platters far more often than she drank milk from clay cups.”

Sometimes the old woman raised her head and looked around, as if trying to remember what the hut had been like before. Behind long years the wretched hut had changed little; still the same clay walls, earthen floor; The old woman even showed her owners simple images of dogs and deer that had been preserved since her childhood on one of the walls: it was her father who amused his small children with drawings. And on a high shelf, right under the ceiling, the old woman found shards of an earthenware jug in which she carried milk as a girl.

But the husband and wife, despite the old woman’s words, continued to think about her as before:

“Perhaps she really was born and spent her childhood in this hut,” they thought, “but then something completely different happened in her life, and all her life she spent her entire life doing something other than milking goats and making cheese.”

They also noticed that the old woman was often carried away by her thoughts somewhere far away and became so deep in them that she did not notice her long silence, and when she came to her senses, she sighed heavily and became even sadder.

Finally she got up from the table, affectionately thanked him for his hospitality and headed towards the door.

But when the old woman approached the threshold, she seemed so lonely, pitiful and helpless to the winegrower that he called out to her again:

“It seems to me,” he said, “that you didn’t come here with the intention of leaving again so soon.” If you really are as poor and lonely as you seem, you probably wanted to live in this hut for the rest of your days. Are you leaving because my wife and I live here?..

The old woman did not deny that he guessed correctly.

“This hut has been uninhabited for so long that you had every right to take possession of it, however,” answered the old woman, “it belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.” I have no reason to consider her mine and drive you away.

“But this hut belonged to your parents,” the winegrower objected. “You have much more rights to it than I do.” Besides, you are old and we are young. In fairness, you should stay here, and we will leave and look for another place to live.

When the old woman heard these words, she was deeply amazed. She stepped back from the threshold, approached the winegrower and began to peer carefully into his face, as if she could not understand the meaning of his words.

But then the young wife entered the conversation.

“If I could express my opinion, I would say,” she began, “that we need to ask this old woman: does she want to look at us as her children, let us stay with her and take care of her. What benefit would it be to her if we returned this hut to her and left? She, alone, would be scared in this mountain desert. And how would she get food for herself? We would treat her in this case as if we were dooming her to starvation!

The old woman looked at the husband and wife in amazement and listened to their words:

- Why do you say that? Who taught you such thoughts? After all, I am a complete stranger to you! Why are you showing me such mercy?

Then the wife answered her:

– Because we ourselves have encountered Great Mercy in life!

Guess the secret from the obvious.

Solon

A sensation was caused in the scientific world by the findings that the blood on the greatest Christian shrines - the Shroud of Turin, the Tunic of Argentoi and the Sudarium of Oviedo - belongs to the same rare group. Their scientific analysis was carried out as part of the filming of the scientific documentary film “Can Christ be Cloned?” by the famous French director Yves Boisset.

From the highest church authorities, Boisset received permission to analyze blood stains on these shrines. It is believed that the body of Christ was wrapped in the Shroud kept in Turin immediately after being taken down from the cross. The tunic, located in the Church of St. Denis in the Paris suburb of Argentoy, was worn by Christ during His Way of the Cross to Calvary. The sudarium from the Cathedral of the Savior in the Spanish city of Oviedo covered the head of Christ during his entombment.

All these shrines contain numerous traces of blood. Their analysis showed that the blood belongs to the rarest group AB (blood group IV), and its carriers live mainly in Palestine, Syria, Jordan and some areas of Turkey.Group AB is so rare that today, for example, out of the entire multi-billion-strong population of the Earth, less than 1.5 million people have it.Boisset does not rule out that the blood on all Christian shrines belonged to the same person.

The canonical Gospels do not directly describe the appearance of any of the three images. There are non-canonical stories about three miraculous images of Jesus Christ:

1. Face from Edessa (Savior Wet Brad, Savior Not Made by Hands).


2. Veronica's Plath (Veil of Veronica).


3. Shroud of Turin.

The first stories about images of Jesus Christ on the shrouds, in this case on canvases, are associated with the legends of Veronica's scarf. These legends were created over the course of the 6th-9th centuries. It was said that Jesus Christ, carrying his heavy cross to Calvary, was accompanied by “a great multitude of people and women who wept and wept for him” (Luke 23:27; John 19:16-17).

Among them was a certain compassionate pagan Veronica. She noticed that Jesus Christ was sweating heavily from exertion, and wiped it for him.sweat and blood from thorn needles from the face with your handkerchief. The Savior returned the scarf to her with the words: “Blessed are you, brave woman.” The Miraculous Image remained imprinted on this scarf.As a result, an image of the Savior’s face remained on her scarf.

The legend is a legend, but it is reliably known that in 944 the “Plate of Veronica” was first exhibited for worship by believers in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. In 1204, the pious and pious knights, having captured Constantinople, successfully seized the “Plate of Veronica” and took it with them to Western Europe.

Since then, the “Plate of Veronica” has become a relic exclusively of the Catholic Church. The original of the stolen “Veronica's Payment” was later lost.Having lost my shrine, Orthodox Church created a new legend about the miraculous image of the face of Jesus Christ.

They say that at the end of his farewell supper, Jesus Christ wiped his face with the towel with which he had previously wiped the feet of the apostles (John 13:1-15). After this action, an image of the face of Jesus Christ remained on the towel. The original of this miracle, of course, is currently nowhere to be found.

Instead in Orthodox churches There are “reliable” copies, which are officially called “The Image of Our Lord Jesus Christ Not Made by Hands.”

The relic, called the “Veronica board”, is kept in the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. Presumably, the name Veronica, when mentioning the Image Not Made by Hands, arose as a distortion of the Latin vera icon (true image).The characteristic features of the Face from Edessa are: the fact that Jesus Christ wiped his face, wet after washing, with a towel, so His hair and beard were wet and divided into three strands: two strands of wet hair and one strand of a wet beard, therefore the Face from Edessa is also called the Wet Savior Brada.

Veronica's veil was made of mesh fabric. Since Jesus Christ carried his cross to Calvary after the crown of thorns was placed on his head,then many artists depict on the Veil of Veronica the face of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns on his head and with bruises from punctures with thorn needles. The original has been lost, only copies survive.In medieval Western iconography, the two images were often confused.Some artists did not know about the existence of three miraculous images and, therefore, painted one instead of the other.

At least two “Veronica’s Fees” are known:

1. In St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. When held up to light, the handkerchief shows the face of Jesus.Just like on the shroud, the image was not applied with paint or any known organic materials.Scientists are still studying these images, but the mystery has not yet been solved.

2. “The Face of Manopello”, which is also called “Veil of Veronica”, but there is no crown of thorns on it, it is obvious that the drawing is man-made, in the positive, the proportions of the parts of the face are disturbed (the lower eyelid of the left eye is very different from the right, etc.), which allows us to conclude that this list from “The Savior Not Made by Hands” sent to Avgar, not Veronica's Plaid.

"...According to ancient legend, when Jesus, after laying the crown of thorns and scourging, carried His cross to Calvary, a woman filled with compassion wiped his face with her handkerchief, “on which the features of His holy face were imprinted.” The face of Jesus Christ was displayed on the handkerchief: “How "It's as if a living person is looking through a thin fabric. The person has beautiful hair that falls on His shoulders. The eyes are open and the whites of the eyes are expressive white. The gaze is affectionate and the lips seem to be folded into a slight smile." This is how one of the researchers, Father Heinrich Pfeiffer, describes the saint. .

If we turn to history, we learn that Saint Plath found himself in Constantinople in 574 and in 626, during the siege of the city by the Avars, he was on its fortress walls. Then the board disappeared from Constantinople and its trace was discovered in Rome. In 1506, a wanderer came to Manopello. Approaching the parish church of St. Nicholas, the mysterious wanderer found a priest in it and placed a bundle in front of him with the words: “Take care of this shrine as a gift from heaven, honor it, and it will be protection for you and for your entire family.” Admiring the image that the wanderer brought, the priest took the valuable gift to his home, where the Miracle-Made-by-Hands image remained for 100 years. It was passed on by inheritance until, finally, one of the heirs donated it to the temple in 1638. The image, which ended up in the temple, became the subject of universal veneration, and whoever turned to it received what he asked for...."

But today the Vatican refuses to recognize the authenticity of the Veronica's Veil icon, kept in a remote monastery in the Italian village of Manopello, which many believe miraculously bore the imprint of Jesus' face after His earthly death.The fact is that the Holy See has its own relic at its disposal, which claims to be called the veil of St. Veronica.

According to church teaching, Saint Veronica wiped the sweat from the eyebrows of Jesus as He carried His cross to Calvary. She became the patron saint of photography, and her name is generally believed to be derived from the combination "vera icon", meaning "true icon".

In dim lighting, the image loses color, the prints become darker, and Christ's facial features look like those of a deceased person. If you rotate the image against daylight, it disappears, and when you watch it from the side of the altar, the expression of the eyes on the face of Jesus changes, and he seems to be looking to the side.

There is no crown of thorns in the painting by Hans Memling“Saint Veronica”, it is obvious that, not having a sample, Hans Memling used a copy from the Savior Not Made by Hands instead of Veronica’s Plath.Roman Catholic Church canonized Veronica, although there is no reliable information that the story with the veil actually took place.At least in the New Testament there is no mention of the described event.According to the Vatican, Veronica kept the veil for a long time. They say she cured the Roman Emperor Tiberius with it, and then gave it to Pope Clement for safekeeping.

According to official Vatican data, Veronica's Shawl is the most valuable relic of Christianity and is still kept in St. Peter's Basilica.Veronica's Veil is removed from the column for public display only once a year - on the fifth Sunday Supper of Lent, but the display time is short and, moreover, it is shown from the high loggia of the Pillar of St. Veronica.Only canons of St. Peter's Basilica are allowed to approach the relic.

The meticulous German journalist Paul Budde, in the spring of 2004, turned to Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, Vicar General of the Vatican and Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, with a request to see the relic hidden in the column.The cardinal explained the refusals by saying that “over the years the image has faded too much.”

Finally, the journalist’s persistence won out, and an exception was made for him - he was allowed to enter the Vatican vault, located in Veronica’s Pillar. He experienced deep disappointment. Not only did the linen not make any impression on him,but you can hardly see anything on it - the image looks more like a dark spot.

Budde suspects that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the new St. Peter's Basilica was still being built, the Veil was stolen and an unsuccessful copy was placed in its place. In the picture Veronica's Veil depicted in the form of a veil, like the one kept in Monapello.

“Official recognition after so many centuries of silence would have enormous theological and iconographic significance,” another supporter of the authenticity of the monastery icon, a German Jesuit priest and art teacher at the Gregorian University in Rome, Frank Heinrich Feiffer, told representatives of the Italian press.

Having studied the veil, he came to the conclusion that it had unusual, one might say, supernatural properties. The veil is a small piece of fabric measuring 6.7 by 9.4 inches (approximately 17 by 24 cm).It is almost transparent, reddish-brown in color, and features the face of a bearded man,there are no traces of paint on it.Depending on the inclination of the sun's rays, the face either disappears or appears, which in the Middle Ages was considered a miracle in itself.In addition, the image is on both sides - both are absolutely identical to each other.

The relic amazes the observer with its properties.It is a mixture of a slide and a hologram of a Mediterranean-looking man with a broken face and a broken nose. Details like the thin beard and plucked eyebrows almost look like a photograph, or at least a negative.

On the Shroud of TurinThe crown of thorns is no longer there, since it has already been removed, but punctures from thorn needles and bruises remain. The original is located in Turin (Italy).The modern name of the Shroud of Turin comes from its current location. Since 1578, it has been moved to the city of Turin, which has been its official and almost permanent residence for the past 428 years. The 400th anniversary of the Shroud of Turin was celebrated in 1978.

Its mystery has not yet been solved.How the imprint appeared, when it appeared - radiocarbon analyzes give a date much later than the death of Christ.The Catholic Church itself does not officially recognize the shroud as authentic, although it preserves and venerates it.And then it is a personal matter for the believers themselves.If you want, believe it to be true, or not.These miraculous images became the first icons and gave rise to many images.

The Shroud was a piece of canvas measuring approximately 410 cm by 140 cm. It was said that on the canvas - by analogy with the Shroud of Veronica - there remained an image of the entire body of the deceased Jesus Christ. And, in fact, the pilgrims saw on the canvas offered to them a double image of a man’s body: from the back and from the front; the double head in the center is united, and the legs are at opposite ends. Viewers could conclude that Jesus Christ was not wrapped in linen, but that the linen was only placed under his body from head to toe, the scroll of linen was bent over the head of the deceased and then covered with it from head to toe.

It was said that this relic was brought to Lirei by a local crusader knight (according to another version, they say “soldier of fortune”) from Constantinople. For pilgrims it was said that this shroud was only now, in 1347, “transferred” from Constantinople. Later, already in the 16th century, they began to say that this was the shroud that the crusaders saw in Constantinople in 1204 and then “secretly took with them” to France.

From then to the present day, more and more rumors have been invented and spread about the current Shroud of Turin, which are simply impossible to follow with complete certainty; It is impossible to retell all these “says”. They say - well, let them talk. We will further present only the history of the current Shroud of Turin based on strict documents and facts. (In parentheses, we note that among the versions of historical documents about the Shroud of Turin that have reached us, there are some minor discrepancies that we cannot eliminate. These discrepancies are not significant for our research.

For many years now there has been controversy surrounding the Shroud of Turin, but for some reason they forget that the shroud is not the only relic on which there is a miraculous image.
The other is the "Plate of Veronica" - a miraculous image of Jesus Christ. According to legend, a certain woman gave Christ a handkerchief when he carried the cross to Calvary, so that he could wipe the sweat and blood from the thorn needles from his face.
The canonical Gospels do not directly describe the appearance of any of the three images.
There are non-canonical stories about three miraculous images of Jesus Christ:
Face from Edessa (Savior Wet Brad, Savior Not Made by Hands);
Veronica's Plath (Veil of Veronica);
Shroud of Turin.

Her mystery has not yet been solved. How the imprint appeared, when it appeared - radiocarbon dating gives a date much later than the death of Christ. The Catholic Church itself does not officially recognize the shroud as authentic, although it preserves and venerates it.
In 1143, the canon of the Cathedral of St. Peter Benedict, describing the festive mass, for the first time mentioned the shrine, which in Russia is usually called “Veronica’s plate”:
“Then the Pope proceeded to the sudarium of Christ, which is called Veronica, and consecrated it.”
The oldest version of the legend of Veronica, which arose in the 7th-8th centuries and was included in the short Latin story “The Death of Pilate,” says that a certain resident of Jerusalem, Veronica, wanted to have a portrait of Jesus, and the Savior took an embroidery canvas from her, pressed it to His face and returned with a picture. In the 7th century, the story “The Healing of Tiberius” was composed, in which Veronica was identified with the “bleeding woman” from the gospel story, perhaps because the evangelist mentions the touch of this woman on Christ’s clothes. The author forced Veronica to go to Rome and there use a miraculous cloth to heal Emperor Tiberius of leprosy. But gradually another version became established: while Jesus was walking with the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, a certain Veronica heard a noise, came out of curiosity, took pity on the Sufferer and gave him something to drink, and handed him a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat. The Savior returned the scarf to her with the words: “Blessed are you, brave woman.” The Miraculous Image remained imprinted on this scarf.

In the West, since the 16th century, there has been a tradition of dividing the Way of the Cross of Christ into 14 episodes (stops, “stations”) - the episode with Veronica became the sixth, a reason for prayer and contemplation. At the same time, they completely forgot that the name “Veronica” is very ancient, comes from the name of a plant, and they began to interpret it as a word derived from the Latin expression “verum iconum” - “true image”: as if Veronica was renamed after the incident with the “plate” his honor.
In 1207, Pope Innocent III established an annual procession with a board from the Cathedral of St. Peter's to the Holy Spirit Hospital. The “Plate of Veronica” was solemnly exhibited during the anniversaries (celebratory years declared by the popes) of 1300 and 1350. And then it somehow faded away, and perhaps this is due to the fact that at the end of the 14th century in Rome the existence of a genuine Shroud became known; Doubts crept in. In 1527, when Charles V sacked Rome, there were rumors that drunken soldiers were selling this shrine in a tavern.
Supporters of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin believe that the Sudarium of Veronica is genuine, that it is kept in the Vatican and is not shown... In order not to arouse passions, apparently...
The characteristic features of the Face from Edessa are: the fact that Jesus Christ wiped his face, wet after washing, with a towel, so His hair and beard were wet and divided into three strands: two strands of wet hair and one strand of a wet beard, therefore the Face from Edessa is also called the Wet Savior Brada. The towel was made of thick fabric. There are no punctures from thorn needles or bruises in this image and there could not be any. The original has been lost, only copies survive.


The study of the Holy Face began quite a long time ago; one can recall, in particular, A. Kalkagnino (early 17th century). The first ones really Scientific research were carried out at the request of the Cardinal of Syria in 1968 by Professor Colet Dufo of the University of Genoa with the technical support of Professor Pico Cellini (Rome) using radiography and tomography.
Under a layer of tempera, linen fabric was found, fixed on a cedar base; the edges of the fabric are clearly visible. Perhaps this is the same flax on which Christ, according to legend, imprinted His Face. Over time, retouching was needed to better highlight features that had been erased over time.
Research has made it possible to separate the original facial features from subsequent restoration additions. In addition, Pico Cellini managed to establish a correspondence between the Face of Genoa and the Shroud of Turin.
The original cedar base retains traces of the previous decoration around the Face of Christ: it was a row of small pearls, from which holes still remain. During the research, another invaluable element was identified - fragments of ancient Persian (Sassanid era) and Arab (Fatimid era) fabrics. It's about about the so-called “Brandoms” - “relics through contact”, apparently the Face was wrapped in these fabrics. In the 15th century, another priceless fabric was glued in Genoa - Ligurian with the image of garnets with silver threads.
To this day, the relic is located in the Church of St. Bartholomew of Armenia, founded in 1308 by two Basilican monks from the Black Mountain (the famous Mount Sev Ler) in Cilician Armenia. Both the Basilican monks (they were also called Bartholomites) and the Armenian colonies in Genoa were closely associated with the cult of St. Bartholomew; there are still six churches dedicated to this martyr apostle, one of the two apostles who preached the Faith of Christ in Armenia.


The image of the Savior on the wall of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is different from the canonical “Savior not made by hands.” Christ is depicted wearing a crown of thorns with eyes closed. This image is called "Veronica's Plath".
According to this legend, righteous Veronica, touching the hem of the Savior's robe, received healing. This event is described in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 9 (20-22). It is also believed that the biography of this saint is closely connected with the story of the acquisition of the Miraculous Image. When Christ was led to Calvary, Veronica wiped the sweat and blood stained face of Jesus with a cloth, and it was reflected on the material. There is another version of this legend, according to which Veronica was a student of the Savior, but she could not accompany him all the time, then she decided to order a portrait of the Savior from the painter. But on the way to the artist, she met the Savior, who miraculously imprinted his face on her plate. Veronica's cloth was endowed with the power of healing. With its help, the Roman Emperor Tiberius was cured.
Veronica's veil was made of mesh fabric. Since Jesus Christ carried his cross to Calvary after a crown of thorns was placed on his head, many artists depict on the Veil of Veronica the face of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns on his head and with bruises from punctures with thorn needles.

On the Shroud of Turin, the crown of thorns is no longer there, since it has already been removed, but punctures from thorn needles and bruises remain.
There are two known "Veronica's Plates" - in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and in the church in Manopello; there is a real war going on to recognize the authenticity of one of them.
One relic is kept in the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. When held up to light, the handkerchief shows the face of Jesus.
Just like on the shroud, the image was not applied with paint, nor with any known organic materials.
The Vatican refuses to recognize the authenticity of the Veronica's Veil icon, kept in a remote monastery in the Italian village of Manopello. This is understandable - if the veil in Manopello is genuine, this means that the other veil of Veronica, which is kept in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, but which only a few people have seen, is fake...
The Roman Catholic Church canonized Veronica, although there is no reliable information that the story of the veil actually took place. At least in the New Testament there is no mention of the described event.

Interesting Facts.

According to official Vatican data, Veronica's Shawl is the most valuable relic of Christianity and is still kept in St. Peter's Basilica.
In 1628, Pope Urban VIII issued a ban and ceremonial demonstrations of the Veil to believers ceased.
Veronica's Veil is removed from the column for public display only once a year - on the fifth Sunday Supper of Lent, but the display time is short and, moreover, it is shown from the high loggia of the Pillar of St. Veronica.
Only canons of St. Peter's Basilica are allowed to approach the relic.
The meticulous German journalist Paul Budde, in the spring of 2004, turned to Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, Vicar General of the Vatican and Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, with a request to see the relic hidden in the column.
The cardinal explained the refusals by saying that “over the years the image has faded too much.”
Finally, the journalist’s persistence won, and an exception was made for him - he was allowed to enter the Vatican vault, located in Veronica’s Pillar.
He experienced deep disappointment: not only did the linen canvas not make any impression on him, but it was difficult to see that the image looked more like a dark spot.
Budde suspects that at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the new St. Peter's Basilica was still being built, the Veil was stolen and an unsuccessful copy was placed in its place.

Monapelle Veil Dispute.

“Official recognition after so many centuries of silence would have enormous theological and iconographic significance,” another supporter of the authenticity of the monastery icon, a German Jesuit priest and art teacher at the Gregorian University in Rome, Frank Heinrich Feiffer, told representatives of the Italian press.
Having studied the veil, he came to the conclusion that it had unusual, one might say, supernatural properties. The veil is a small piece of fabric measuring 6.7 by 9.4 inches (approximately 17 by 24 cm).
It is almost transparent, reddish-brown in color, the face of a bearded man is imprinted on it, there are no traces of paint on it.
Depending on the inclination of the sun's rays, the face either disappears or appears, which in the Middle Ages was considered a miracle in itself. In addition, the image is on both sides - both are absolutely identical to each other.
The relic amazes the observer with its properties. It is a mixture of a slide and a hologram of a Mediterranean-looking man with a broken face and a broken nose. Details like the thin beard and plucked eyebrows almost look like a photograph, or at least a negative.
In dim lighting, the image loses color, the prints become darker and the facial features of Christ look like those of a deceased person.
If you turn the image against the daylight, it disappears, and when you observe it from the side of the altar, the expression of the eyes on the face of Jesus changes, and he seems to be looking to the side.
It is believed that the veil is made of fine linen, a very high-quality silk obtained from the threads of mussels, with the help of which these mollusks are attached to the rocks.
In ancient times, fine linen was used to weave clothing for the pharaohs and the highest-ranking Jewish clergy.
These miraculous images became the first icons and gave rise to many images where a face is depicted on a board.

Many people have probably heard about the shroud in which the body of Jesus Christ was supposedly wrapped before burial and which is kept in the Cathedral of John the Baptist in Turin. Scientists continue to study the Shroud of Turin and debate its origins, and the media regularly report on it. They also wrote on this topic “Secrets...” (No. 4 for 2014). But the name of another Christian relic - Veronica's plate - may not be familiar to everyone.

How did Veronica's board appear?

Hans Memling "Saint Veronica", circa 1470

“And a great multitude of people and women followed Him, weeping and lamenting for Him” (Gospel of Luke, chapter XIII, 27).

According to old legend, one of these women, a resident of Jerusalem named Veronica (later canonized), tore the scarf from her head and, pushing aside the guards, handed it to Jesus so that he could wipe himself with it.

This episode is not mentioned in the gospels, but it is reported that one of the apostles saw when he visited the grave of Christ on the third day after his burial, having heard about the disappearance of the Teacher’s body from the tomb (already resurrected and leaving his grave): “... Simon comes Peter, and enters the tomb and sees only the linens lying.

And the cloth that was on His head, not lying with swaddling clothes, but especially rolled up in another place” (Gospel of John, chapter XX, 6-7).

It turns out that the text of this excerpt confirms the authenticity of the story about the appearance and purpose of Veronica’s board.

Subsequent history of the relic

The value and uniqueness of Veronica's cloth lies not only in the fact that it was used to wipe the face of Jesus Christ when he was going to execution, and during his burial the face of the Savior was covered with this cloth. The face of Christ is imprinted on the fabric of the cloth in a mysterious, incomprehensible way, in approximately the same “artistic manner” as on the mentioned Shroud of Turin.

Once a year, on Friday Vespers during Lent, before Easter, Veronica's plate is taken out of the chapel and shown to the believers gathered at the cathedral.

True, they put the relic on public display in such a way that a fairly large distance separates it from the audience, and they do not have the opportunity to come closer and examine the image of the Savior.

"Double" of the Vatican board

With the beginning of our millennium, information began to spread that in the Church of the Face of God in the Italian town of Manoppello, province of Abruzzo, another plaque of St. Veronica is kept, and it is the real one.

Opponents of this version remind us that for centuries it has been known where this relic is kept, the authenticity of which no one doubts. However, German journalist, researcher and Vatican expert Paul Budde believes that the shroud from the treasury of St. Veronica is a fake, imitating the original, stolen and taken from Rome many hundreds of years ago.

What is his opinion based on? Firstly, as he found out, until the beginning of the 16th century, eyewitnesses claimed that on the Vatican Veronica plate, Christ’s eyes were open. And according to the unanimous opinion of those who saw the relic later, including in our days, Christ’s eyes are closed on it. Based on this “inconsistency,” Budde concludes: what was called Veronica’s plate before the beginning of the 16th century, and what is passed off as it in modern times, are different things. But the original canvas disappeared at the beginning of the 16th century, and since then the clergy, not wanting to admit its loss, keep another canvas in the chapel of the cathedral, which they pass off as the missing original.

That is why, Budde is sure, the annual demonstration of the relic in the Vatican is organized in such a way that practically nothing is visible to the believers gathered around. And about inspecting the boards in individually, is out of the question at all.

Even Ian Wilson, a famous researcher of the Shroud of Turin, did not have access to Veronica's plate when he was working on a book about the faces of saints. Vatican dignitaries explained the refusal by the fact that “over the past centuries, serious damage has occurred in the fabric, and currently the image on the canvas has a very unattractive appearance.”

The results of the Vatican board study

However, what Wilson failed to achieve, Paul Budde managed to achieve in 2005, and only on the fifth attempt. According to him, “almost nothing is really visible on the canvas from the chapel, but if you look closely, you can discern the image of a man’s face, whose eyes are clearly closed.” Therefore, the researcher believes, this is not the same painting that was shown before the time of Pope Urban VIII, who was on the Vatican throne from 1623 to 1644.

It also turned out that the dimensions of the canvas are larger than the frame, glazed on both sides, kept in the Vatican treasury, from the inscription on which it follows that it was in it that the cloth of St. Veronica was placed almost 400 years ago.

In addition, the double-glazed frame indicated that the authentic relic had to be viewed from both sides. And what was shown to him was not intended for such viewing.

After such “discoveries,” Badde decided to turn his attention to a small canvas stored in the mentioned Italian town.

Surprises of the canvas from Manoppello

This canvas, which allegedly appeared in the Church of the Face of God in the 16th century, depicts the image of Christ, and in its dimensions - 17x18 centimeters - it fits perfectly into the frame from the Vatican treasury. In addition, the image of Christ on it is exactly the same as on the Shroud of Turin.

The result was amazing: the location of the eyes and the distance between them, as well as the shape of the nose, were exactly the same in both images. The nature of the light and shade, as well as the shape and location of the spots, turned out to be identical. It turned out that the painting from Manoppello and the Shroud of Turin undoubtedly depicted the same male face. Could this be a coincidence?

The discoveries continue...

When Paul Budde began a thorough study of the face on the Manoppello plate, he discovered new, no less surprising features.

First, the image can be viewed from both sides, as in the Veronica plate from St. Peter's before the relic was transferred to the treasury inside the pylon.

Secondly, the image has the seemingly incompatible properties of a hologram, a photograph, a painting and a drawing: it shimmers like a rainbow, and each of the ten people standing in front of it sees ten different portraits.

And thirdly, when light falls on the Manoppello canvas, the design on it disappears and the fabric becomes transparent.

Further research showed that in Manoppello the image was depicted on fine linen, a special fabric that in ancient times was literally worth its weight in gold. The raw material for fine linen was the threads formed during the hardening of the byssus - the secretion of the byssus gland, which is present in the leg of a person. bivalves sort of pinna. To make one kilogram of fine linen, it was necessary to catch about a thousand of these mollusks.

Final verdict

According to the researcher of the Shroud of Turin, Catholic priest Heinrich Pfeiffer, when the body of Christ, wrapped in a shroud, was placed in a coffin, then the face, on top of the shroud, was also covered with a piece of cloth, which is now in Manoppello.

“At the same time, it becomes clear,” Pfeiffer believes, “why a negative image appeared on the Shroud of Turin, and a positive image on Veronica’s plate, in accordance with the laws of physics.” In essence, the plate is like a second shroud, only it is much smaller than the Shroud of Turin.

And here’s how he explains the fact that on the Manoppello plate, Christ’s eyes are open:

- The imprint on the Shroud of Turin was most likely formed at the time of Jesus’ death, while the image on the Manoppello shroud appeared when he was resurrected. And this serves as further proof of his victory over death.

But perhaps main mystery The shroud from Manoppello is as follows: fine linen, the material on which the face of Jesus was imprinted, is not only fireproof, impervious to the effects of ethers, acids, alkalis and water, but also cannot be dyed with any dyes. And therefore, no one could draw an image on it.

Just like on the Shroud of Turin, the image of Christ on Veronica’s shroud is, in the literal sense of the word, not made by hands. That is, this image was created not by a person, but by some unknown force.

This conclusion is confirmed by the research of professors Donato Vittore from the University of Bari and Giulio Fanti from the University of Padua. These scientists did not find even the smallest traces of paint on the linen. They found only slightly singed fibers in the black spots of the pupils, as if the tissue in these places had been exposed to high temperatures.

All this information further confirms that the shroud from Manoppello is the original shroud of St. Veronica, which disappeared from the Vatican in the first half of the 16th century.