‘Veil with Christ’s face’ draws thousands
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| The Manoppello Image |
MANILA, September 16, 2014—Hundreds, if not thousands, of people poured into the Our Lady of the Abandoned Church in Santa Ana, Manila on Monday, September 15, to venerate a framed veil believed to miraculously contain an actual imprint of Jesus’ face, which is in the country for a weeklong tour.
Long queues notwithstanding, each of the faithful patiently waited for his turn to kiss and touch what experts say could likely be, along with the more famous “Shroud of Turin”, the “most sacred object of all”.
A young boy kisses the framed "Veil of Manoppello"
during its visit to the Philippines (Photo: Raymond A. Sebastián)
“We would love to see it for ourselves. It’s not often that we get an opportunity like this,” shared Denzel Castro who tagged his wife and children along from nearby Santa Mesa.
According to Mylene Nieves of Mandaluyong City, she is blessed to have been able to venerate the veil.
Dubbed “The Holy Face of Jesus from Manoppello”, it is more accurately termed sudarium, a piece of cloth customarily used by Jews of Christ’s time to cover the face of the dead at burial.
It is also called “The Veil of Manoppello” after a place in Abruzzo, Pescara near Rome where it was was housed for 500 years.
Relatively unknown outside of Italy, the image caught the public eye when then Pope Benedict XVI visited the image in his early years as pontiff, attracting pilgrims and tourists to Manopello who were curious about the Veil’s significance in Christ’s public ministry.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was said to have been drawn to Manoppello after reading the book “Face of God” by author Paul Badde.
Badde’s work spans ten years of in-depth studies on the Veil by professors, scientists, iconographic experts, and authorities of the Catholic Church.
The Manoppello image was featured recently in the August-September 2014 issue of Inside The Vatican magazine. - CBCP News
According to local tradition, an anonymous pilgrim arrived in 1508 with the cloth inside a wrapped package. The pilgrim gave it to Dr. Giacomo Antonio Leonelli, who was sitting on a bench in front of the church. The doctor went into the church and opened the parcel containing the Veil. At once he went out of the church but he did not find the bearer of the packet. The Veil was owned by the Leonelli family until 1608. Pancrazio Petrucci, a soldier married to a female member of the family, Marzia Leonelli, stole the Veil from his father-in-law’s house. A few years later, Marzia sold it for 400 scudi to Doctor Donato Antonio De Fabritiis to pay a ransom demand for her husband who was then a prisoner in Chieti. The Veil was given by De Fabritiis to the Capuchins who still hold it today. This history was documented by Father Donato da Bomba in his “Relatione historica” following researches started in 1640.
Professor Pfeiffer claims that the image is the Veronica itself, which he suggests was stolen from the Vatican during rebuilding that took place in 1506, before the Sack of Rome. He further suggests it is the cloth placed over Jesus' face in the tomb and the image was a by-product of the forces unleashed by the resurrection, forces he also believes formed the image on the Shroud of Turin. Additionally he has suggested a history of the veil going back to the first Century. His narrative though is unsupported by evidence and is indistinguishable from fiction. There is no official evidence connecting the cloth with Rome. However, some have observed bits of glass embedded in the cloth, suggesting a connection between it and its former glass container in St. Peters, said to be smashed open when the cloth was stolen. Nevertheless, the cloth has received much publicity in recent years and Pope Benedict XVI visited the veil on 1 September 2006. -Wikipedia
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