Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/299

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ST. VERONICA 287 Oaillaume near Boaen, at Yalenoionnos, and at Tonmaj. Invokod against chlo- rosis. The Holy Faoe is patron of Jaen, Laon, Montreuil, and the Lateran Basilica. St. Veronica and St. Fiacre are patrons against hasmorrhage, and Veronica is sometimes identified with St. Hjsmorbhoissa. The most popular legend of St. Veronica is tbat she was a charitable woman living in Jerusalem at the time of our Saviour's Passion. She saw Him pass her door, carrying His Cross, and observed that He was overcome with distress and exhaustion, and that drops of agony stood on His forehead. She wiped His face with her veil, which retained ever after the impress of His countenance. Another legend is that Tiberius, who was sufEering from a dreadful cancer or from nine sorts of leprosy, heard that wonderful cures had been performed by a Babbi, named Jesus, and not knowing that He had been put to death, he de- spatched a messenger to Pilate, to send him this great Doctor, that He might cure him of his disease. Pilate said, <' He was a malefactor and I crucified EQm." As Volusianus, the messenger, went out from his interview with Pilate, he met Veronica and asked her about the holy Man Who had been crucified. She answered with tears, "It was my Lord and my Grod. I desired to have His picture; I was going to the painter to have it painted, and I met the Lord. He asked mo where I was going, and when I had told Him, He took the canvas from my hands and gave it back to me with His portrait printed on it." Volusianus begged to have the picture, and said the emperor would give any price for it; but Veronica would not part with it. She told him further that no gold or silver would buy a cure, but repentance and devotion to the crucified Lord might obtain it, by means of the picture. Veronica was taken to Bome with the picture and as soon as Tiberius had looked upon it he was healed. He was then very angry with Pilate for having put the holy Babbi to death, but Pilate, when he appeared before the emperor, put on the Lord's seamless coat. which had the property of dispelling all anger in those who looked upon it or its wearer. At last, however, he was caught without the miraculous coat and dragged to the presence of Tiberius, who at once condemned him to death ; but before any measures were taken against him, he killed himself with his own dagger. In the story of the Revenging of the Saviour (Cowper, Apoe. Oosp, 415), it is Titus who was cured of a cancer in the face by the picture: Veronica is taken, among other captives, from Jerusalem to Bome, but Tiberius dies before her arrival. All the legends make her go to Bome, and some say she remained there with SS. Peter and Paul and was a martyr under Nero; others say she died there and left the holy handkerchief to St. Clement, the Pope. By another account she went to Marseilles with SS. Lazarus, Mabtha and Maby, and suffered martyr- dom in Provence or Aquitaine, or died a hermit at Solac on the Garonne. She has been called the wife of St. Amator or Amadour, but there was no St. Amator for centuries after her time, a difficulty which is got over by identifying him with ZacchaBus, the publican, or by call- ing him an apprentice of St. Joseph and servant of the Blessed Virgin Maby. According to Butler, BaiUet, and other accredited writers, there was no woman of the name of Veronica among the early Christians. Some of the story-tellers, however, to give an air of probability to their fictions, said her name was a corrup- tion of Berenice, a not uncommon name in Palestine in the time of our Lord. They then proceeded to identify her with Berenice, a niece or daughter-in-law of Herod, and to say that she went to Bome to demand vengeance against Pilate. The original devotion was to the picture not to the woman who carried it. It was the face of the Saviour de- picted on a linen cloth ; neither the throat nor any part of the dress was included. It was called Veronica, the true image, from vera, true, and eikonf an image. It was also called in various languages and dialects, the holy face, the holy image, the holy handkerchief Many copies were sold in front of the church of the Vatican ; the vendors were