St Veronica at the Vatican
One of the most beautiful sculptures that I saw at the Vatican, (as if it’s easy to choose one), was that of Veronica holding the veil with the image of Christ’s face. Little is known of Veronica but her one act of kindness-wiping the face of Jesus as he stumbled on his way to the crucifixion earned her a place in history.
In the midst of the chaos of the crowd jostling and shouting, very few might have noticed what Veronica did. Veronica herself had no idea that she would be raised to sainthood or that shrines would be built in her honour. She would not have known that two thousand years later, a beautiful statue commemorating her would exist within one of the four pillars supporting the dome of St Peter’s Basilica and that it would inspire a 21st-century woman’s blog post.
This representation of Veronica was done by Francesco Mochi whom I had not known of prior to doing some background reading on the statue. His technique is astonishing. Veronica seems caught up in a whirlwind that funnels her clothing about her body and spreads the veil so that the imprint of Christ’s face is unmistakable. I stood next to one of my classmates, Sn, looking at this scene and we were both in awe. Was Mochi imagining the scene just after Veronica wiped Jesus’ face? Her face seems frozen in horror, yet she had just found the courage to rush forward from amidst the mob to provide relief to someone in terrible pain.
Where did such courage come from? Perhaps it was her gratitude for the mercy Jesus had shown toward her prior to this encounter. Tradition has it that Veronica was the same woman whom Christ healed after a decades-long hemorrhage. How could she then not try to ease the suffering of the one who had halted her own?
Two thousand years later, Saint Veronica rushes forth powerfully from her niche at St Peter's to bring Christ's healing gaze to a suffering world.
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