#byssus fiber

At the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy, visitors see a transparent cloth encased between two glass panes within an ornate silver frame above the sanctuary’s altar.

Once light is shined on the cloth of byssus fiber, the image of a bearded man, eyes open, and mouth seemingly taking a breath is revealed.

Devotees of Manoppello veil claim that it is the so-called “Veronica’s Veil.”

It was secretly moved to the little hilltop town in Abruzzo on orders from Pope Clement VII to protect it following the Sack of Rome in 1527.

Another image of Christ’s face, known as “Veronica’s Veil,” is displayed at St. Peter’s Basilica on the 5th Sunday of Lent each year to bless pilgrims as they approach Holy Week.

Although traditional Stations of Cross include “Veronica wipes face of Jesus,” none of the Gospels recount a woman wiping Jesus’ face as he carries his cross to Calvary.

A pious legend says Veronica later went to Rome to leave the relic with St. Clement, one of early popes.

German journalist Paul Badde is convinced that veil displayed by Vatican for the past 400 years is a copy and that the true veil is in Manoppello.

“Every year on Passion Sunday, they show a hoax, I would say,” Badde told Catholic News Service January 14.

Capuchin friars at Manoppello have been custodians of a veil since 1630.

For centuries, few people outside small town knew of cloth and its image of Jesus. However, Capuchin priest, Father Domenico di Cese, made it his life’s work to spread devotion to Holy Face of Manoppello.

When he first saw veil as a young priest in 1930s, he knelt in shock. The face on the ancient linen looked like the same unidentified man who had rescued him from rubble of a church after a major earthquake in 1915 when he was a child.

Father Cese died in 1978 and it wasn’t until 1999 that veil really caught world’s attention.

That was when Jesuit Father Heinrich Pfeiffer, an art historian at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, announced at press conference that cloth was true “Veil of Veronica.”

He stated that after conducting research, he discovered that the image on the veil could be perfectly superimposed on face of the Shroud of Turin, the relic many believe is Jesus’ burial shroud.

Some devotees maintain that the image’s connection to “Veronica” is not related to a woman who tried to soothe Jesus but is actually form of phrase “vera icona” (true icon).

Capuchin Father Paolo Palombarini, parochial vicar of the shrine, said:

“Both pupils are open. But one can see that the right pupil is more closed than one on the left because this is first instance of the Resurrection and it happened just at it does when we wake up in the morning.”

Vatican does not formally recognize authenticity of relics like Veil of Manoppello or Shroud of Turin.

However, public veneration of such relics by popes often draw attention of faithful.

Such was the case when Pope Benedict XVI became first pope to visit Manoppello shrine in 2006 and venerate the image, Badde said.

He told CNS that Pope Benedict had read his book on the veil and “decided to go there against enormous resistance in Vatican.”

Still, during what Pope Benedict himself described as a “private pilgrimage,” he made no pronouncement about the image.

Addressing priests, religious and pilgrims who packed the shrine, he said those who seek the true face of Christ can find it in their brothers and sisters, “especially poorest and those most in need.”

“If we persevere in our quest for the face of the Lord,” Pope Benedict said, “at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, he, Jesus, will be our eternal joy, our reward and glory forever.”

Badde said, “He was the first pope after more than 400 years to get on his knees in front of this image, that’s what he did. That’s what will remain of his pontificate.”