Saint Veronica

Who is Saint Veronica?

Saint Veronica was a pious woman of Jerusalem in the first century AD, according to Christian tradition. A celebrated saint in many pious Catholic countries, the Acta Sanctorum published by the Bollandists gave her Feast, but the Jesuit Scholar Joseph Braun cited her commemoration in Festi Marianni on 13 January.

According to Christian tradition, Veronica was moved with pity when she saw Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha and gave him her veil that he might wipe his forehead. Jesus accepted the offering, held it to his face, and then handed it back to her—the image of his face miraculously impressed upon it. This piece of cloth became known as the Veil of Veronica.

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 Encyclopædia 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."