The legend of one of the relics of the Catholic Church is the “Veil of Veronica” or simply known, “Veil of Veronica”. This piece of cloth is believed to be the real face of Jesus Christ before being crucified on his way to the cross. According to legend, a woman had given a cloth to the Christ so that he could wipe His face with the cloth, creating an impression of His face on the cloth. But does this cloth show the true face of Jesus?
The Bible never refers to such an event, nor to any woman named “Veronica” which means “True Icon” supposedly in Latin. Furthermore, this cloth does not show any sign of blood that Jesus had imprinted on his face. However, there is a cloth, which was folded on one side of the shroud of Christ, which is referred to in the Book of John 20: 6-7:
“Then Simon Peter came following him, and entered the tomb, and saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin that was on his head, not lying with the linen, but wrapped in a separate place.” (KJV).
The Vulgate Bible refers to the “napkin” as the “shroud”, which literally means “sweat cloth” in Latin. According to ancient Hebrew law, if a person dies and the face appears unrecognizable, it must be covered with a cloth on the way to the grave.
Christ’s need to wear a sweatshirt began when Roman soldiers beat Him and pushed down a thick crown of sharp thorns that clung tightly around His head. His face would have been covered in blood due to the thorns that deeply pierced the skin of his head. Blood would have flowed down His face from His head in large amounts that had already rendered Him unrecognizable.
Many hours later, while hanging from the cross, his body left much more blood. His arms were extended and upward on the cross. Also, her feet were pinned, so she couldn’t get up to breathe without feeling a lot of pain. As a result, his lungs filled with edema that caused suffocation. After exhaling his last breath, he was taken down from the cross. Then, blood mixed with edema came out of his nose and the shroud was used to trap both fluids as someone evidently tried to stop him. As a result, two large blood stains appeared on the cloth. In addition, the shroud soaked the blood that had already covered His face due to the crown of thorns pushed against his head by Roman soldiers, causing blood stains to appear on the top of his head.
According to historical documents, the shroud had been in Jerusalem before 600 AD. It was brought to Spain where it was housed in various cities. During the 9th century AD it arrived at the Cathedral of Oviedo and has remained there ever since.
It should be very clear that the “Shroud of Oviedo”, not Veronica’s veil, is the “other” cloth that was found in the tomb of Christ after he rose from the dead.
The “Veil” offered to Christ to wipe His face as He walked to the cross, by a woman named Veronica, is highly unlikely to be the “cloth” found in the tomb. Nowhere in the Bible is this story of Veronica mentioned. In fact, it looks like a poor drawing of the face of Christ. Also, Jesus would have bled into the veil, but there is no blood to count. On the other hand, since the Shroud is mentioned in the Book of John, it is a true biblical artifact. Clearly, blood, edema and sweat stain the body of the crucified Jesus. In addition, the blood has been forensically analyzed with the Shroud of Turin and found to come from the same body: the body of Jesus.
