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288 SS. VERONICA called yorouica-sellers. Theso pictares, instead of being framed or fastened on wood, were always kept hanging. Painters soon represented them hanging, sometimes held up by an angel, some- times by a woman ; this figure was at first regarded only as the supporter of the yeronica, but by degrees the name of St. Veronica came to be applied to the woman, and a story grew up, as many other legends have originated, to explain the picture ; but this story, which varies in different collections and localities, is not traceable in any of its forms further back than the sixteenth century, when it had for a time a great popularity. Until then the word " veronica " meant only the portrait itself. Some said it was part of the linen in which our Lord was buried ; some, that a devout woman wiped His face with it when He was fainting under the weight of £[is cross. Although the worship of the woman is comparatively modern, that of tho picture is of great antiquity. Over one of the altars of the Pantheon there was, in 1804, an antique coffer behind a glass cose, it was for a hundred years the doiwsitory of the Volto Santo, placed there, it is said, by Boniface VI. when the building was first consecrated to Christian rites in 608, thence removed to St. Spirito, and eventually to St. Peter's ; Mr. Hemans says in all probability it was an old picture of the ascetic Byzan- tine school. It is the original veronica from which the others are copied ; it is mentioned in documents of tho twelfth century, but although it is kept with great veneration and shown on certain days, the breviary of St. Peter's church has neither festival nor record of St. Veronica, either as a holy woman or as the face of the Lord. Sergius IV. in loll dedicated an altar in St. Peter's to tho Holy Face. The Cistercian convent of Sto. Voronique at Montrcuil was so called from a handkerchief sent from Home by Urban IV. (Pope 120 1-1 204) to his sister, who was a nun there. Tho Holy Face of Lucca is not the same. It is a miraculous crucifix attributed to Nicodcmus. After the Council of Trent, when the bishops determined to purge the calendars and abolish fictitious saints, the worship of the woman Veronica was among the cults that were condemned to disappear. The Gospel of Nicodemus, The Death of Pilate. The Bevenffing of the Saviour. Baillet. Butler, " Life of St Veronica of Milan," Jan. 13. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art. Hemans, Monuments in Borne. SS. Veronica (2, 3), April 15, MM. one in Mesopotamia, the other at Antioch in Syria. AA,SS. Compare Dionika. S. Veronica (4), July 11, M. with Pbodogia and Spegiosa (3). St. Veronica (5), Jan. 28, 13, + in Parma, 1497, O.S.A. The daughter of poor but honest and pious parents in the village of Binasoo, near Milan. She wished to take the veil in the austere convent of St Martha, of the Order of St. Augustine. Hard at work all day, she sat up at night, trying to learn to read and write, that she might qualify to become a nun. As she had no teacher, she found it extremely^ dif&oult One day, when she was in great anxiety and distress about her ignorance and the difficulty of learning, the Vibgin Mart appeared to her and told her not to fret, for it was enough if she knew three things: (1) Purity of heart, which was to be learned by giving all her affections to God ; (2) Patience ; (3) Meditation on the Passion of Christ, for which she was to set apart some time every day. After three years' preparation, she was received into St. Martiia's convent and was remarkable for her humility and obedience. By divine direction she visited Como, Bome, and Florence. At Rome she had an audience of the Pope, who said she was a holy woman. She had many visions. Among her graces was a miraculous gift of tears ; the spot where she knelt was so wetted with them that it looked as if a jug of water had been upset ; she was obliged to have in her cell, an earthen vessel ready to re- ceive the supernatural efflux, and she often filled it to the weight of several Milanese pounds. Augustintan Mart. Butler. Vaughan. She was beatified by Leo X. and placed in the A.B.M, by Benedict XIV. B. Veronica (6) of Ferrara, JiJy