156 THE OLIVE LEAR CHAP. 



name was Prounikos or Bernice, afterwards Latinized 

 into Veronica, supposed to be no other than the woman 

 with the issue of blood whom Jesus healed, deeply com- 

 passionating His sufferings, and in gratitude for her own 

 wonderful cure, gave Him her veil, that He might with 

 it wipe away from His face the sweat caused by the 

 heavy burden of the cross, and the blood oozing from 

 the wounds inflicted by the crown of thorns. Our 

 Saviour returned the veil to her when it had done its 

 work of mercy, with His sacred features indelibly im- 

 pressed upon it. With this miraculous portrait the holy 

 woman went to Rome, where she met with St. Clement. 

 The Emperor Vespasian at this time was seriously ill, 

 and St. Clement accompanied her to the palace, when 

 the sacred icon at once restored him to health. The 

 Roman Catholic Church has introduced this legend of 

 St. Veronica into the office of the Via Dolorosa. 

 Several miraculous veils or veronicas exist in Christen- 

 dom at the present day ; one is at Jaen in Andalusia, 

 another at Laon, a third at Cologne, and a fourth at 

 Milan. But the most celebrated are the two Roman 

 ones in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in St. 

 Peter's and in the Church of St. Sylvester, and the one 

 preserved in the Church of St. Bartholomew at Genoa. 

 The late Mr. Thomas Heapy, who devoted a lifetime to 

 the subject, in his magnificent monograph, " The Like- 

 nesses of Christ : being an enquiry into the verisim- 

 ilitude of the received likeness of our Blessed Lord," 

 gives what the English public had never seen before 

 representations of these three veronicas. 



