Veil reveals ‘Face of Jesus’

           A veil in Manoppello, Italy, illustrates Christ's resurrection in a way that will change the world, a historian says.

Italy
March 29, 2011

           
              A veil in Manoppello, Italy, kept secret for centuries and only recently reemerging, illustrates Christ’s resurrection in a way that will change the world, says historian and author, Paul Badde.
Badde, author of “The Face of God: The Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus” (Ignatius Press), told ZENIT that the veil features “uncountable” images of the Risen Christ.
             The journalist and historian, and editor for the German newspaper “Die Welt,” noted that the veil also illustrates much of what Pope Benedict wrote in his newest book, “Jesus of Nazareth Part II”.
             In fact, the Pope visited the shrine at Manoppello as one of the first trips of his pontificate, reflecting his decades-long interest in the meditation on the face of God, the author noted.
            ZENIT: Some have referred to the Veil of Manoppello as belonging to Veronica, and having the image of Jesus’ face from before the Crucifixion. Your investigation, however, led you to a different conclusion. Could you clarify what this veil is?
Badde: This veil has had many names in the last 2000 years — maintaining only its unique character in the same time.
                It is, in fact, “the napkin” or “handkerchief” (in Greek: soudarion), to which St. John the Evangelist is referring in his report of the discovery of the empty tomb by St. Peter and himself, that they saw “apart” from the cloths (including the shroud of Joseph from Arimathea) in which Jesus had been buried.
This napkin, St. John says, had originally been laying upon the Face of Jesus.
             This veil had to be kept completely secret right away – together with the Shroud of Turin – in the first community of the Apostles in Jerusalem due to the ritual impurity in Judaism of everything stemming from a grave. And it remained secret for many centuries.