The Holy Face of Jesus is a title for specific images which some Catholics believe to be miraculously formed representations of the face of Jesus Christ. The image obtained from the Shroud of Turin is associated with a specific medal worn by some Roman Catholics and is also one of the Catholic devotions to Christ.[1][2]
Various acheiropoieta (literally "not-handmade") items relating to Christ have been reported throughout the centuries, and devotions to the face of Jesus have been practiced. Devotions to the Holy Face were approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1895 and Pope Pius XII in 1958.[3]
Belief in the existence of authentic images of Christ is connected with the old legend of Abgar of Edessa regarding the "Mandylion". It is also seen in some apocryphal writings including the Mors Pilati that describe a "veil of Veronica" imprinted with Christ's face.[6] The oldest and best known of these images was called the vera icon ('true image'), which in ordinary language became known as "veronica".
According to tradition Veronica encountered Jesus along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Calvary. When she paused to wipe the blood and sweat off his face with her veil, his image was imprinted on the cloth. The story is not recorded in its present form until the Middle Ages.[citation needed] The event is commemorated by the Sixth Station of the Cross.
In 1844, Marie of St Peter, a Carmelite nun in Tours, France, reported an interior locution in which Jesus told her, "Those who will contemplate the wounds on My Face here on earth, shall contemplate it radiant in heaven."[7] She later reported further "communications", as she termed them, with Jesus and the Virgin Mary in which she was urged to spread the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, in reparation for the many insults Jesus suffered in his Passion.[8] Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus started to spread among Roman Catholics in France.[9]
Leo Dupont was a religious man from a noble family who had moved to Tours. In 1849 he had started the nightly Eucharistic Adoration movement in Tours, from where it spread within France. He later came to be known as the "Holy Man of Tours". Upon hearing of Sister Marie of St Peter's reported visions, he started to burn a vigil lamp continuously before a picture of the Holy Face of Jesus, at that time an image based on the Veil of Veronica.[10]
Dupont prayed for and promoted the case for a devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus for around 30 years. However, the documents pertaining to the life of sister Marie of St. Peter and the devotion were kept by the Church and not released; despite this, Dupont persisted in her cause. Eventually, in 1874 Charles-Théodore Colet was appointed as the new Archbishop of Tours. Archbishop Colet examined the documents and in 1876 gave permission for them to be published and the devotion encouraged, shortly before Dupont died. Dupont was thereafter at times referred to as the Apostle of the Holy Face.[11]
When Leo Dupont died in 1876, his house on Rue St. Etienne in Tours was purchased by the Archdiocese of Tours and turned into the Oratory of the Holy Face. The oratory is administered by an order of priests called the Priests of the Holy Face, canonically erected in 1876. The Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885, who expressed a desire to establish a similar oratory in Rome.[12][13] This was eventually opened in the Via Pietro Cavallini in 1891 and administered by the Priests, but was demolished in subsequent redevelopment.[14]
Thérèse of Lisieux
Thérèse of Lisieux was a French nun who received the Carmelite habit in 1889 and later became known by the religious name "St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face". She was introduced to the Holy Face devotion through her blood sister Pauline, Sister Agnès of Jesus. Thérèse wrote many prayers to express the devotion to the Holy Face.[15] She wrote the words "Make me resemble you, Jesus!" on a small card and attached a stamp of the Holy Face to it. She pinned the prayer in a small container over her heart since at that time the Holy Face Medal did not exist. In August 1895, in her "Canticle to the Holy Face" she wrote: "Jesus, Your ineffable image is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth. My love discovers the charms of Your Face adorned with tears. I smile through my own tears when I contemplate Your sorrows."
Thérèse also composed the Holy Face prayer for sinners: "Eternal Father, since Thou hast given me for my inheritance the adorable Face of Thy Divine Son, I offer that face to Thee and I beg Thee, in exchange for this coin of infinite value, to forget the ingratitude of souls dedicated to Thee and to pardon all poor sinners."[16]
Shroud of Turin
Stampita or print of the Holy Face of Jesus (modern reproduction).
A broader devotion to the Holy Face is based on the image used on the Shroud of Turin which some believe to be the burial cloth of Jesus. It is different from the likeness of Jesus on the Veil of Veronica, although the veil image had earlier been used in devotions. Since the Holy Face image is said to have been obtained from the burial cloth of Jesus, it is assumed to be a post-crucifixion image. However, the likeness on the Veil of Veronica is by definition pre-crucifixion, for it is assumed to have been imprinted when Veronica encountered Jesus in Jerusalem along the Via Dolorosa on the way to Calvary.[6]
Although the Shroud of Turin has been publicly displayed by Roman Catholics at least since the 16th century, the faint image of the Holy Face on it cannot be clearly seen with the naked eye and was only observed with the advent of photography. In 1898, amateur Italian photographer Secondo Pia was startled by the negative of the image in his darkroom as he was developing the first photograph of the shroud. The happenstance by which Secondo Pia received the King's approval to attempt the first photograph of the Shroud for an exhibition was unusual in its own right. And Pia later said that on the evening of May 28, 1898, he almost dropped and broke the photographic plate in the darkroom from the shock of seeing the image of a face on the Shroud (for the first time ever) that could not have been clearly observed with the naked eye.[17]
Hence devotions to the Holy Face prior to that year relied on earlier images, based on paintings of the Veil of Veronica.
Maria Pierina De Micheli
On the first Friday in Lent 1936, Sister Maria Pierina De Micheli, who was born near Milan Italy, reported a vision in which Jesus told her: "I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honored. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me".[1][2]
Further reported visions of Jesus and Mary urged Sister Maria Pierina to make a medal with the Holy Face of Jesus. This became known as the Holy Face Medal. On one side the medal bears a replica of the Holy Face image from Shroud of Turin and an inscription based on Psalm 66:2: "Illumina, Domine, vultum tuum super nos" ('May, O Lord, the light of Thy countenance shine upon us').[1][5] On the other side of the medal there is an image of a radiant Sacred Host, the monogram of the Holy Name ("IHS"), and the inscription "Mane nobiscum, Domine" ('Stay with us, O Lord').[1]
In another vision, Sister Maria Pierina reported that Jesus told her: "Every time my Face is contemplated I will pour out my love into the heart of those persons, and by means of my Holy Face the salvation of many souls will be obtained". She further reported that Jesus wanted a special Feast on the day before Ash Wednesday in honor of His Holy Face, to be preceded by a Novena (9 days) of prayers.[citation needed]
After some effort Sister Maria Pierina managed to obtain permission to cast the medal and its use started to grow in Italy. As World War II started, many soldiers and sailors were given a Holy Face Medal as a means of protection. Sister Maria Pierina herself died in 1945 at the end of the war.[1][2][18]
In 2000 Pope John Paul II stated that the inscription "Illumina, Domine, Vultum tuum super nos" on the Holy Face Medal underscores the need for deeper reflection on the Face of Jesus and the spread of devotion to it.[5]
Vatican approval and Feast Day
The first medal of the Holy Face was offered to Pope Pius XII who approved of the devotion and the medal. In 1958 he formally declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all Roman Catholics.
On the occasion of the 100th year of Secondo Pia's (May 28, 1898) first photograph of the Shroud of Turin, on Sunday May 24, 1998, Pope John Paul II visited the Turin Cathedral. In his address on that day, he said: "the Shroud is an image of God's love as well as of human sin" and "it is an icon of the suffering of the innocent in every age."[19]
The Holy Face devotion and the Holy Face Medal spread among Roman Catholics worldwide, with organizations such as the Holy Face Association.
Theological analysis
In his 2005 book On the Way to Jesus Christ, Pope Benedict XVI performed an analysis of Holy Face devotions, and characterized them as having three separate components.[20] The first element is discipleship, and the orientation of one's life towards an encounter with Jesus. The second element is seeing Jesus in the Eucharist. The third element is eschatological, and is interwoven between the other two.[20]
Referring to Matthew 25:31–36 Benedict XVI stated that the first element (i.e. discipleship) involves seeing Jesus in the face of the poor and the oppressed, and caring for them, but to properly see Jesus in the face of those in need, believers first need to become better acquainted with Jesus through the Eucharist.[20] The second element involves relating the Passion of Jesus, and the suffering expressed by the images that represent his wounded face to the Eucharistic experience. Thus the devotion that starts with the images of the face of Jesus leads to his contemplation in the Eucharistic experience.[20] The eschatological element then builds on awakening to Christ by contemplating his face in the Eucharist.[20]
In his message to the 6th annual conference of the Institute held in Rome in October 2002, Pope John Paul II emphasized the spiritual importance of contemplation of the Face of Christ and referred to his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, which stated:[22][23]
And is it not the Church's task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make his face shine also before the generations of the new millennium? Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.
In the same message John Paul II also related the theme of the contemplation to that of contemplating the Person of Christ as discussed in his first encyclical Redemptor hominis.[22]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Veronica". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Sources
Joan Carroll Cruz, Saintly Men of Modern Times. (2003) ISBN1-931709-77-7
Saint Veronica, also known as Berenike, was a widow from Jerusalem who lived in the 1st century AD, according to extra-biblical Christian sacred tradition. A celebrated saint in many pious Christian countries, the 17th-century Acta Sanctorum published by the Bollandists listed her feast under July 12, but the German Jesuit scholar Joseph Braun cited her commemoration in Festi Marianni on 13 January.
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is predominantly used in the Catholic Church, followed by high-church Anglicans, and some Western Rite Orthodox. In the Latin Church, the liturgical Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated the third Friday after Pentecost. The 12 promises of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus are also popular.
A number of alleged relics associated with Jesus have been displayed throughout the history of Christianity. While some individuals believe in the authenticity of Jesus relics, others doubt their validity. For instance, the sixteenth-century philosopher Erasmus wrote about the proliferation of relics, and the number of buildings that could be constructed from wooden relics claimed to be from the crucifixion cross of Jesus. Similarly, at least thirty Holy Nails were venerated as relics across Europe in the early 20th century. Part of the relics are included in the so-called Arma Christi, or the Instruments of the Passion.
The Shroud of Turin, also known as the Holy Shroud, is a length of linen cloth that bears a faint image of the front and back of a man. It has been venerated for centuries, especially by members of the Catholic Church, as the actual burial shroud used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth after his crucifixion, and upon which Jesus's bodily image is miraculously imprinted. The human image on the shroud can be discerned more clearly in a black and white photographic negative than in its natural sepia color, an effect discovered in 1898 by Secondo Pia, who produced the first photographs of the shroud. This negative image is associated with a popular Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
Secondo Pia was an Italian lawyer and amateur photographer. He is best known for taking the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin on 28 May 1898 and, when he was developing them, noticing that the photographic negatives showed a positive image of the man in the shroud in addition to a clearer rendition of the image. The image he obtained from the shroud has been approved by the Roman Catholic Church as part of the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
Eucharistic adoration is a Eucharistic devotional practice primarily in Western Catholicism, but also to a lesser extent in certain Lutheran and Anglican traditions, in which the Blessed Sacrament is adored by the faithful. This practice may occur either when the Eucharist is exposed, or when it is not publicly viewable because it is reserved in a place such as a church tabernacle.
The Veil of Veronica, or Sudarium, also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than human means. Various existing images have been claimed to be the original relic, as well as early copies of it; representations of it are also known as vernicles.
Blood of Christ, also known as the Most Precious Blood, in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ primarily on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby, or the sacramental blood (wine) present in the Eucharist or Lord's Supper, which some Christian denominations believe to be the same blood of Christ shed on the Cross.
Catholic devotions are particular customs, rituals, and practices of worship of God or honour of the saints which are in addition to the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops describes devotions as "expressions of love and fidelity that arise from the intersection of one's own faith, culture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Devotions are not considered part of liturgical worship, even if they are performed in a church or led by a priest, but rather they are paraliturgical. The Congregation for Divine Worship at the Vatican publishes a Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy.
Maria Consolata Betrone, baptised as Pierina Maria Betrone, commonly known as Consolata Betrone, was an Italian Catholic mystic and nun of the Franciscan Capuchin order.
A number of people have claimed to have had visions of Jesus Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding his mother, Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited controversy. The Catholic Church endorses a fraction of these claims, and various visionaries it accepts have achieved beatification, or even sainthood.
Mary of Saint Peter was a Discalced Carmelite nun who lived in Tours, France. She is best known for starting the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus which is now one of the approved Catholic devotions and for the The Golden Arrow prayer. She also introduced the "Little Sachet" sacramental.
Maria Pierina De Micheli was a Roman Catholic religious sister who was born near Milan in Italy. She is best known for her association with devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and for introducing a medal bearing an image from the Shroud of Turin as part of this devotion. She was beatified on Sunday 30 May 2010 at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
Venerable Leo Dupont, also known as "The holy man of Tours," or "the apostle of the Holy Face", was a Catholic layman who helped spread various devotions such as that of the Holy Face of Jesus and the nightly Eucharistic Adoration. He was declared venerable by Pope Pius XII.
Reparation is a Christian theological concept closely connected with those of atonement and satisfaction. In ascetical theology, reparation is the making of amends for insults given to God through sin, either one's own or another's. The response of man is to be reparation through adoration, prayer, and sacrifice. In Roman Catholic tradition, an act of reparation is a prayer or devotion with the intent to expiate the "sins of others", e.g. for the repair of the sin of blasphemy, the sufferings of Jesus Christ or as Acts of Reparation to the Virgin Mary.
The Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face is a Roman Catholic women's congregation of pontifical right whose focus is providing Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ.
The Roman Catholic tradition includes a number of devotions to Jesus Christ. Like all Catholic devotions, these prayer forms are not part of the official public liturgy of the church but are based on the popular spiritual practices of Roman Catholics. Many are officially approved by the Holy See as suitable for spiritual growth but not necessary for salvation.
The Archconfraternity of the Holy Face was established in Tours, France in 1876, by Archbishop Charles Colet; and raised to an Archconfraternity by Pope Leo XIII in 1885.
The Oratory of the Holy Face is a Roman Catholic oratory in Tours France. It was originally established on the Rue St. Etienne, in the former home of Venerable Leo Dupont who did much to promote devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. The Oratory was subsequently relocated to 8 Rue Bernard Palissy. The Dominican Fathers of the French Province have care of the Oratory. It is visited by many Catholic pilgrims every year.
The Manoppello Image is a piece of linen cloth depicting the face of Jesus Christ that is stored in a church in the village of Manoppello, Italy. The church, known as Santuario del Volto Santo, is part of a monastery belonging to Capuchin friars. There have been claims that the cloth is the Veil of Veronica.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Catholicismportal 
