The Veil of Veronica: An Image, a Relic, and the Making of Christian Memory
An account of how the Veil of Veronica entered Christian tradition and shaped the historical imagination of the faith across centuries.
The Veil of Veronica is an artifact associated with one of the most enduring and influential traditions in Christian history, becoming notable through its connection to the Passion narratives and its role in shaping how Christians remembered the final moments of Jesus’s life. Within Christian tradition, the Veil is described as a cloth bearing the image of Jesus’s face, impressed upon it when a woman named Veronica wiped his face as he carried the cross to crucifixion. Although the object itself cannot be traced to the earliest decades of Christianity, its emergence as a relic and devotional artifact played a significant role in the development of Christian memory, pilgrimage, and visual culture from late antiquity through the Middle Ages.
