The "Holy Face" of Christ Unites

 

History and Devotion in the Twinning Between Chiusa Sclafani (Sicily) and Manoppello (Abruzzo)

 

 by Antonio Bini

(except as noted photos by Antonio Bini)

An unprecedented twinning took place between the Holy Face kept in the church of San Nicola di Chiusa Sclafani and that of the Holy Face of Manoppello, after a journey that developed during 2024, which began with a visit to Manoppello by a group of members of the Confraternity of the Holy Face, during the rite of Omnis Terra,  celebrated on January 28. This was followed by the participation of the rector of the Shrine, Fr. Antonio Gentili, invited in connection with the feast of the Holy Face, which is celebrated annually in the Sicilian town on the first Sunday of May. On that occasion, the twinning charter was signed by Mons. Gualtiero Isacchi, archbishop of Monreale, by the archpriest of the church of San Nicola di Bari don Bernardo Giglio, by the aforementioned Fr. Antonio Gentili and by Manuele Ruvolo, president of the Confraternity of the Holy Face of Chiusa Sclafani. The act was later also signed by Mons. Bruno Forte, archbishop of the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto. 

The document summarizes the historical origins of the Holy Face venerated in the Sicilian town, which is located halfway between Palermo and Agrigento, then manifests "the desire to strengthen the root of reparation expressing the desire to look upon the Holy Face of Manoppello" or veil of Veronica.  On August 6, on the occasion of the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, celebrated in Manoppello, numerous faithful arrived belonging to the Confraternity of the Holy Face of Chiusa Sclafani, founded in 1900 and led by the active and passionate work of President Manuele Ruvolo.

At sunset, after the celebration of the afternoon Mass, presided over by Fr. Simone Calvare, provincial minister of the Capuchins of Abruzzo, Lazio and Umbria, the short procession took place, from the Basilica to Fonte Leone, preceded by Fr. Bernardo Giglio who carried in his arms the Holy Face of Chiusa Sclafani, followed by the large banner of the Confraternity and the numerous members,  arranged in two rows, who all wore the characteristic habit (or scapular).

It was a devout and at the same time joyful participation of people who had traveled over a thousand kilometers to reach Abruzzo as well as an engaging testimony of a twinning deeply felt by the Sicilian community, which mingled among the many local faithful and those also from abroad to attend the solemn rite. Faith is certainly something personal, but at the same time communal.  Also present was Father Anatoly Grytskiv, representing the Orthodox Church.                                         

The procession is a cause for reflection, with aspects that go far beyond the religious event.

It is appropriate to briefly explain the presence of the Holy Face in the Sicilian town, which is due to the venerable friar Innocenzo Caldarera (1557-1631). The friar had received the image as a gift in 1623 from Gregory XV of whom he was a trusted advisor. The pope, out of gratitude, in the final phase of his life, proposed to Brother Innocent that he choose for himself one of the objects in his apartment. The friar turned his attention to the copy of the Holy Face, which in turn he donated to the convent of the reformed Friars Minor of the convent of San Vito in Chiusa Sclafani, his hometown, with a notarial deed dated September 21, 1623. The copy was made by Canon Pietro Strozzi in the year 1617 and bears the Latin inscription "the holiness of Our Lord Paul V pronounced anathema against those who dared, without the permission to be granted by himself or his successors, to make a copy from this image", and portrays the face of the dead Christ. The work, which corresponds to the copy made by Strozzi himself in 1616 and intended for Constance, Queen of Poland, reveals the evident transformation of the iconography of Veronica (True Icon), which previously appeared with its eyes open.

The presence of the Holy Face immediately generated local devotion and also in the neighboring villages.

Of particular historical interest is the documentation that came after the papal brief of Urban VIII of 29 May 1628 which, in reiterating the prohibition of reproduction of the image of Veronica, already ordered by Paul V, ordered the return of existing copies, under penalty of excommunication. The provision, as was explained by the pope himself, did not concern the reproduction of any image of Christ - which would have paradoxical effects for the Church - but only those that "portray the true Holy Image of the Holy Face that is beheld here in St. Peter's Basilica with stains and bruises of blood, sweat and blows."                                                                             

The collection of these documents, patiently transcribed, constitutes the appendix to the work by Antonio Giuseppe Marchese, "Christ in Chiusa Sclafani", a privately published edition of 2009, distributed by the Confraternity of the Holy Face of Chiusa Sclafani.                                                                                                                                                  

It can be seen that on July 11, 1628, Mons. Francesco Traina, bishop of Girgenti (Agrigento), in whose diocese Chiusa Sclafani was then included, ordered the guardian of the Friars Minor to deliver the copy of the Holy Face within eight days, with the threat of papal excommunication. On July 13, Lorenzo Gioeni Gardona, Marquis of Giuliana and Count of Chiusa, intervened in defense of keeping the icon in the village, pointing out that the copy was kept in the church under papal authority  and not by private individuals,  referring to the donation of Gregory XV.                             

In the meantime, Fra Innocenzo Caldarera was informed in Rome so that he could act accordingly, in support of Chiusa's reasons. The good friar evidently succeeded as evidenced by a letter sent from Rome on August 23, 1628, signed by Cardinal Mellini, addressed to the Count of Chiusa, in which he recalls his gratitude to Fr. Innocent, finally clarifying that the obligation to surrender "does not include the prohibition of those images that have been obtained with the authority of this Holy See." The copy could therefore remain in Chiusa Sclafani. But it must evidently have been an interpretation that departed from the order imposed by Urban VIII, so much so that in the same note the cardinal recommends "that the image be kept secret as much as possible, so that other use of this example would not be the cause of the enactment of some new order to cast any doubt upon the grace already obtained,  because His Holiness is very strict in this matter."   In essence, the return of the Holy Face and its destruction is avoided, but on the other hand the secrecy of the image and silence regarding it is imposed.                   

The logic of these provisions seems incomprehensible, especially since in these years the trace of the "pictores veronicarum", which since the Middle Ages had reproduced the face of Christ at the request of pilgrims, had been erased.

The Vatican attitude helps to understand the fears of the Capuchins of Manoppello to protect the Holy Face.  It is no coincidence that they had avoided any form of worship and dissemination of the sacred image, which had remained walled up for a long time. A well-preserved silence, considering that no intimation is present in the archives of the Convent.

With the death of Urban VIII, which took place on July 29, 1644, his long pontificate, which lasted 21 years, came to an end, and the grip on copies of the Veronica began to loosen, even if his provisions would not be annulled. Although during his pontificate he did not fail to grant a Sicilian nobleman, coinciding with the Jubilee of 1625, a copy of the Veronica ("true image of the Holy Sudarium"), painted on a copper plate, which is venerated in the church of San Nicolò in Venetico Superiore, in the province of Messina. The work, also executed by Strozzi, with the usual prohibition of reproduction, differs from the copy of Chiusa Sclafani, but in any case having its eyes closed.

A complex and very tangled story, with contradictory attitudes and with many mysterious aspects, in a tormented period that put Veronica itself at risk.                                                                                              

When, during the Great Jubilee of 2000, John Paul II – who knew the evolution of studies on the Holy Face of Manoppello due to his frequent interactions with Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini (president of the International Institute for Research on the Face of Christ) – asked forgiveness for the sins of the Church in a striking act, arguing: "we cannot fail to recognize the infidelity to the Gospel into which some of our brothers and sisters have fallen, especially during the second millennium" (point 4 – homily delivered in St. Peter's on 12 March 2000)*, he almost certainly also referred to the silence perpetrated by his predecessors regarding Veronica, regarding which only in 2011, during the papacy of Benedict XVI, was its disappearance during the  Sack of Rome in 1527 admitted.

It is worth mentioning that a reflection on the artistic and historical level was expounded by Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, at the invitation of then archbishop of Monreale, Mons. Cataldo Naro, to participate in a conference organized in Chiusa Sclafani on November 6, 2004, with inevitable comparisons to Veronica (a true icon), studied for many years.   

At the left, Mons. Cataldo Naro, with Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer at the right
(photo courtesy of Manuele Ruvolo)

Fr. Pfeiffer articulated at the event an in-depth analysis of the Face of Chiusa, published in the Ecclesiastical Bulletin of the Archdiocese of Monreale, July-December 2004. By extension also the person of Fr. Pfeiffer is to be considered part of the twinning process, recalling that the cardinals of Palermo, Salvatore Pappalardo and Salvatore De Giorgi in recent years, at different times, were among the first pilgrims to Manoppello, as soon as the German Jesuit's studies on Veronica were disseminated.

In the prayer written by Benedict XVI a year after his visit to Manoppello, the pope spoke of "the human face of God who entered history to reveal the horizons of eternity." And on these horizons the paths of faith move freely and spontaneously, converging on the person of Christ and his face.

 

 

 

* 12 March 2000, Day of Forgiveness | John Paul II (vatican.va)

 

 

 

A Study Conference Commemorates Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer Twenty-Five Years After the Identification of the Holy Face with the Roman Veronica

Fr. Antonio Gentili greeting the speakers and the public

Under Christ's gaze towards the Jubilee 2025.

by Antonio Bini

photos by Francesca Bini

The important study conference took place on August 3, 2024 in the Conference Room of the Pilgrim Hotel in Manoppello, with the participation of scholars who have dedicated themselves for years to in-depth studies of the "veil of Veronica".

The day's activities were introduced by the Minister Provincial of the Capuchin Friars Minor for Abruzzo, Lazio and Umbria, Father Simone Calvarese, who praised the organization of the event, which has stimulated reflection and interest towards the Passion of Jesus Christ and the Shrine entrusted to the friars. Father Antonio Gentili – rector of the shrine – greeted and thanked the speakers and all present, encouraging them to work together to move forward in the best possible way to welcome the pilgrims of the upcoming Jubilee. Councilman Roberto Cavallo of the Municipality of Manoppello greeted the conference participants, recalling that Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer was an honorary citizen of Manoppello.

From the left Antonio Bini, Lorenzo Bianchi (archaeologist CNR),
Professor Silvia Elena di Donato, Annalisa De Meis (Conference moderator)

This writer, in his talk, recalled the extraordinary figure of Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, whom he first met in 1998, as well as the idea to promote a press conference at the headquarters of the Foreign Press in Italy on May 31, 1999. This was hosted by the German scholar, by Fr. Germano Di Pietro, pro-tempore rector of the Shrine and by Prof. Donato Vittore, professor at the University of Bari, who had conducted scientific research on the veil using a very high resolution scanner.



The film "In memory of Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer", conceived by Antonio Bini and produced by Stefano Falco, was then screened, including a montage of some reports which appeared on television news broadcasts in 1999 in Italy and abroad, followed by a series of subsequent photos, including those concerning the meeting of the scholar with Pope Benedict XVI on his visit to Manoppello, which took place on September 1, 2006.



It aroused emotion among those present at the press conference to hear the courageous statements of Fr. Pfeiffer, also in response to questions posed by journalists, with which the scholar explained the unique characteristics of the Holy Face and its identification with Veronica, also making his own some previous research by Sister Blandina, on the overlapping of the Veil with the Shroud. Sister Blandina was present in the audience. The theses expressed by Fr. Pfeiffer caused a big commotion at that time, considering that knowledge of the Holy Face had until then been predominantly local.



In addition to the scheduled speakers Fr. Germano Di Pietro, rector in 1999, wished to give his impromptu testimony, admitting that everything regarding the press conference happened without him doing anything in particular. He recalled the great uproar caused by that press conference and the consequences that were immediately created, in the conflict between the hypotheses of the German scholar and the position of the Vatican, which had never admitted the disappearance of Veronica from Rome. In this regard, Fr. Germano recalled how, together with the many journalists, prelates and pilgrims, there were also Canons of St. Peter's Basilica who immediately began to flock to Manoppello, including the authoritative Cardinal Pio Laghi (1922-2009), who admonished him to deny Fr. Pfeiffer's hypotheses. Fr. Germano, with his usual frankness, recalled that he had replied that for him the Holy Face was an object of deep devotion, but that – not being a scholar – he was unable to disprove Fr. Pfeiffer. This testimony, made public for the first time after many years, makes us understand the human and professional difficulties experienced by the German scholar, professor of Christian art at the Gregorian University in Rome.



Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, Fr. Germano's successor, from 2004 to 2020, also recalled with emotion his long friendship with the German Jesuit, before moving on to read, at the writer's request, the report by the writer Paul Badde, entitled "Medium is the message. Reflections on the 25th anniversary of the identification of the Holy Face with the Roman Veronica by Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer". Badde emphasized the Vatican's wariness with respect to Heinrich Pfeiffer's studies, recalling that after the disappearance of the Veronica from St. Peter's Basilica there was a change to an even more precious reliquary, one no longer enclosed between two panes of glass.

    Antonio Bini, Fr. Germano Di Pietro, Fr. Simone Calvare and Angelo Rytz, aide to the Capuchins 

Silvia Elena Di Donato, Greek and Latin teacher and poet, presented her speech: "The Roman Veronica: semantics of a face"; Father Piero Sirianni, Capuchin Friar Minor, doctor of dogmatic theology and journalist, developed the theme: "Eucharist: fons et culmen. Popular piety and evangelizing force”.



The conference concluded with the contribution of Lorenzo Bianchi, researcher of the CNR (National Research Council), who announced the result of studies conducted for 15 years on the state of conservation of the Holy Face, providing positive results both following periodic surveys of air pollution inside the church and on the tightness of some tension points of the cloth, examined only through optical investigations. In announcing the establishment of a scientific commission (whose names have not been disclosed), he reiterated the need to avoid the use of flash photos and the prolonged exposure of the Veil outside the church.

The conference was moderated by Annalisa De Meis.

Paticipants at the Conference including Fr. Germano di Pietro (fourth from the left) and  Fr. Carmine Cucinelli (third from the right)

Last Article Authored by Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J. on the Holy Face of Manoppello

Translated from an Article published in I LUOGHI DELL’INFINITO,

2018 October/232, page 33

The magazine I LUOGHI dell'INFINITO is a monthly magazine linked to the daily newspaper Avvenire, an expression of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI)








The Veil of Secrets:

The enigma of Manoppello

The precious cloth preserved in the Abruzzo shrine

could it be the Veronica which disappeared from Rome?*

A concrete hypothesis between history and science



text by Heinrich Pfeiffer** Translated by Angelo Rytz

Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer during the Omnis Terra Celebration at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello

In a small town in Abruzzo lies one of the greatest treasures in the world. We are in Manoppello, not far from the ancient bishopric of Chieti, in a valley that leads south towards the slopes of the Maiella massif.

In the foothills behind the village, in 1621, the Capuchins built a convent. The treasure is here: an exceptionally fine cloth, probably Byssus. The white cloth, measuring 24 by 17 centimeters, is contained in a reliquary in the shape of a monstrance. From the fragile veil shines a face easily identifiable with the face of the Lord.

This piece of cloth contains many secrets. One of its mysteries is that the image vanishes almost completely when held against any light source. Another extraordinary fact is the color of the face, changing from gray to brown, while sometimes, depending on the observer's positIon, light red spots appear. There are also variations depending on the intensity and angle of the light on the fabric.

Other details include the many folds and a piece of chipped glass or crystal.

                                            Note the lines created by the many folds

                                                    

                                                                    

                   The piece of chipped glass or crystal is visible at the bottom right of the veil



The first document treating of the veil is a manuscript by the Capuchin friar Donato di Bomba, written before 1646. This work of fifty-four pages is entitled Vera et breve relatione historica d'una miracolosa figura over’ imagine del volto di Christo Signore nostro passionato et tormentato; which is now found in the Convent of the Capuchin Fathers of Manoppello, Terra in Abruzzo Citra Province of the Kingdom of Naples. In this writing, it is said that in 1506, an unknown person brought the veil to Manoppello and gave it to a certain Giacomo Antonio Leonelli, disappearing immediately after the delivery without leaving a trace of himself. A descendant, Martia Leonelli, would have had the veil as a dowry for her wedding to the soldier Pancrazio Petrucci. But since her brother would not give her the object, her husband violently removed the veil from his brother-in-law's house. Petrucci was finally imprisoned in Chieti, and in order to free him, his wife in 1618 or – according to another version of the manuscript – in 1620, sold the veil for four scudi to Dr. Donato Antonio de Fabritis, who delivered it into the hands of the Capuchins.

The Capuchins could not have researched the object's provenance before 1621, the year of their arrival in Manoppello, which is why the only possible source of reference could be the narration of Martia Leonelli. It is unlikely that this woman remembered a date as precisely as 1506, from a distance of more than a century later.

Moreover, beyond and prior to the historical Relatione, no trace of the presence of the precious veil has ever been found in the town of Manoppello. De Fabritis donated the relic to the Capuchin Fathers in 1638. Father Donato di Bomba wrote the Relatione which was read in public in the town hall of Manoppello on 7 April 1646, followed by a notarial deed in which the text was defined as "historia seu legenda" (“history or legend”).

The thing that makes us curious is the fact that such an object had existed in Rome:
the famous relic of Veronica. Kept at one time in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, it disappeared during the Sack of Rome in 1527. The then director of the Vatican Museums, Professor Antonio Paolucci expressed himself in these terms, in an interview in 2011 coinciding with the presentation of the exhibition "The Man, the Face, the Mystery."

Are there any reasons that prevent us from identifying the veil of Manoppello with that of Veronica?

So far, no argument has been found to contradict this thesis. On the contrary, there are many reasons that lead us to accept it. The first consists in the fact that all the ancient representations and copies of Veronica executed until the beginning of the seventeenth century correspond to the features of the Holy Face of Manoppello, but not to those made later, since 1616, which were passed off as authentic copies of the Roman Veronica.

In this context, we note some strange measures taken by the popes. As early as 1616, Paul V forbade any reproduction of the relic, and when he was asked for a copy by the imperial court of Vienna, he had it executed by a canon of St. Peter's Basilica. This "copy," of no artistic value, is still preserved in the Weltliche Schatzkammer of the Vienna Hofburg and shows for the first time the Face of Christ with his eyes closed.

Even the few versions made during the three years of Gregory XV's reign show the same features as the one in Vienna. Pope Urban VIII had all the ancient and authentic copies of the Roman relic destroyed.

Ancient Reliquary in the Treasury of St. Peter's Basilica showing two shattered panes of glass which formerly enclosed the Veronica 

All these strange measures taken by the popes find an explanation in the theft of the original Veronica: a thesis that finds its confirmation in the fact that the Vatican archivist Giacomo Grimaldi, in 1618, recorded that the glass frame of the ancient reliquary of the Veil, dated 1350, was broken. The same archivist, in the very same year (but one could also think of a falsification of the original date: MDCXVI with the manipulated addition of two strokes to obtain MDCXVIII), drew the Face of Christ together with its reliquary, portraying the identical features of the Holy Face of Manoppello. 

The Opusculum of Giacomo Grimaldi of 1618 

These unusual acts of the popes could not have remained unknown to the Capuchins of the Abruzzo town. In fact, at that time, the religious tried to protect the relic itself, which probably had been saved and then hidden in Abruzzo. The Relatione historica was written to inform the Minister General of the Order in Rome, Father Innocentio di Caltagirone, about the events in Manoppello.

Did the fathers suspect that their veil was actually the Roman Veronica? We don't know. We have only clues that can be interpreted in this sense: the fathers waited until 1686 to dedicate a chapel to the relic of the Holy Face and until 1718 to ask Pope Clement XI to grant a plenary indulgence for pilgrims visiting the sanctuary.

There is much evidence to assert that the veil of Manoppello is identifiable with the Veronica. First of all, it is certain that there is no object in the entire world that so perfectly reflects, in every trait and detail, the Roman relic and that corresponds so faithfully to everything that is known about it. Only the image of Manoppello can give us a concrete vision of how it would have appeared to pilgrims and artists, especially in the period from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century.

The Veronica was a veil that was sometimes represented as transparent cloth and sometimes with the clear signs of many folds.

The recognizable Face on it had open eyes, the same wavy hair, and the beard divided into two parts of the Holy Face. It is enough to set up in parallel the innumerable images that we find in Western art to notice this.

On the other hand, the Holy Face of Manoppello cannot be a copy of a presumed lost original for two reasons. First, the image on the veil is reproduced with an unknown technique: anyone who would make copies would have had to adopt some known method to make them. Secondly, the Veil of Manoppello is the most richly detailed portrait among those renowned, whether in the East or in the West.

The rules of philology dictate that in a relationship of dependence between a model and its imitation, the object with the most considerable number of details is to be considered the original. At the same time, copies never report all the details in the progenitor image.

Other research on the Holy Face of Manoppello by a German nun, Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer, has proved to be of extreme interest. The nun compared the face of the veil and the features of the Holy Shroud of Turin using a remarkably simple but effective method: the superimposition of the two images on a 1:1 scale. As a result, with the exception of the traces of blood - or at least they seem to be, there is a perfect coincidence of all the details so that a single image is formed between the two faces without creating any disturbance or interference.

There seems to be only one explanation: the image of Manoppello could only have been formed when the two fabrics had been superimposed on each other.

If this first overlapping of the two fabrics took place in the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem, then the story of the Holy Face would begin in the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem, precisely as that of the Shroud of Turin.

If we admit, at least hypothetically, this possibility, we can try to write in broad terms the history of the veil of Manoppello. thus it seems probable to identify the relic with another Face of Christ on cloth of which we have historical information: the image Camulia, in Cappadocia. As the Byzantine historian George Cedrenus writes, in 574, the acheropita, the image of Christ not made by human hands, is said to have arrived in Constantinople from Camulia. This image in the capital made up for the disappearance of the labarum, the flag of the Roman troops created by Constantine, which had been lost since the time of the empire of Julian the Apostate. In its place, the holy image was carried before the troops during battles.

The victories were celebrated by poets who emphasized the role played by the acheropita, taking care to report some descriptions of it.

The poet Theophylact Simokatta, for example, wrote on the occasion of the battle near the Arzamon River in 586 that the image had been executed by divine hand, so it was neither woven nor painted. If one observes the veil of Manoppello attentively, together with its image, one can become perfectly aware that this Face is neither painted on the cloth nor is it a woven image. There is no trace of pigment on the cloth while the image is perfectly visible from both sides, as if were one with the threads of the cloth. Not even weaving can explain it because each thread of weft is not shown to be of a single color in its length but divided into different shades that change from one to the other almost indistinctly. The image of Camulia remained in Constantinople until about 705 when the second period of Justinian II's rule began. In the interregnum, the Acheropite image must have been lost.

It was only in 753, on the occasion of the Lombard siege of Aistulf, that there was news of an "Acheropsita"(sic): an icon of Christ in the chapel of the Sancta Santorum of the Lateran Palace in Rome. The upper part of this icon was covered by a veil with the Face of Christ depicted.

Was the first veil placed over the icon perhaps the same image of Camulia, later replaced by a second veil with a painted face when the Lateran "Acheropsita" was secretly transported to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, where it assumed the new name of Veronica? This hypothesis could bridge the gap between the loss of the image of Camulia in Constantinople in about 705 and the appearance of Veronica in St. Peter's towards the end of the twelfth century.

How is it possible to identify four different objects (the images of Camulia, the Lateran, St. Peter's, and Manoppello) as the same object? The fundamental reason lies only in the fact that we are always treating of an image on cloth, but above all in the mysterious character of the Holy Face itself.

It's difficult to accept that there might exist a number of images with the same inexplicable properties.

Finally, let us recall two events of particular importance. Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Manoppello on September 1, 2006, to whom we owe the elevation of the modest shrine to the status of a minor basilica.

And the re-enactment, during the Jubilee of Mercy, of the ancient procession of the Holy Face from St. Peter's to the nearby basilica of Santo Spirito in Sassia, established by Pope Innocent III in 1208. For the occasion, a copy of the Holy Face was brought by the Capuchins from Manoppello to Rome and was exhibited on January 16 and 17, 2016 in the Basilica of Santo Spirito.

During the solemn Eucharistic celebration, the Prefect of the Papal Household, Georg Gänswein, said: "This is a copy of that ancient original that Pope Innocent III showed to pilgrims and that for four hundred years has been kept in Abruzzo on the Adriatic, in a peripheral area of Italy, from where today for the first time it has been brought back to the place where its public worship began."

*Jesuit, art historian, (1939-2021)

**The question in the subtitle of the article was inserted by the editorial staff of the magazine I Luoghi dell'Infinito

Beautiful Video and Photos at Manoppello of the Holy Face on the Feast of the Transfiguration

Every year there is a local celebration in Manoppello to honor the Holy Face on the feast of the Transfiguration. I am extremely grateful to Angelo Rytz for the tremendous video of the Feast of the Transfiguration and to Alexandra Prandell for the beautiful photos of the Holy Face.  Both the video and the photos capture well the joy which the Holy Face brings. 

Fr. Antonio Gentili, O.F.M., Cap., Rector of the Shrine of the Holy Face holding the monstrance of the Holy Face.  Notice in the photo below the fineness of the Veil which allows Fr. Antonio's face to be seen through the Veil.  

Paul Badde's Talk for the Conference held at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello August 3, 2024.

 

Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J. during the Omnis Terra Procession January 2017
 (Photo by Antonio Bini)

"THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE!"

by Paul Badde

Some reflections on the 25th anniversary of the identification of the Holy Face with the Roman Veronica by Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer S.J.

"The Jubilee of 2025 will probably be the Jubilee of the Holy Face", said Father Germano Franco di Pietro OFM Cap. in the magazine 'L'Arena' of Verona on November 22, 2000. How did the sober rector of the Basilica of the Holy Face in Manoppello come to this conclusion? What happened?

A year earlier, on May 31, 1999, the German professor and Jesuit priest Heinrich Pfeiffer had announced, in a press conference at the Foreign Press Office in Rome, on the initiative of Antonio Bini, the revolutionary hypothesis that the Holy Face of Manoppello was really the veil of the image that for centuries, until 1999, had been called "Veronica" in St. Peter's in the Vatican. The wealth of arguments in favor of his argument was convincing and overwhelming.

In a documentary about the event, however, I see today that 7 English, 18 German and 68 Italian newspapers reported on the press conference at the time, as well as a French magazine and two Spanish and two Polish newspapers. Five agencies, the world broadcaster BBC and television networks of Spain, Holland, Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Mexico also spoke about it.

But I also realize that none of the colleagues I knew went to Manoppello at the time to verify with their own eyes the bold hypothesis of Father Pfeiffer. I myself was still living in Munich in 1999 and in Jerusalem in 2000 and had heard nothing of the whole affair, even though I had to follow the press closely every day at the time.

The Vatican remained very cautious about the whole affair. It coldly rejected Father Pfeiffer's hypothesis in an essay by Dario Rezzi, canon of St. Peter's Basilica, in the magazine "30 Days" and granted a certain Roberto Falcinelli generous access to the relic of the Roman Veronica, only to have him spread the news in another essay in an anthology that the veil painted in Manoppello is the work of Albrecht Dürer. How did this come about and how should it be understood?

The reasons are fundamentally varied.

First, in 1999 the Roman Veronica had a 791-year history of well-documented veneration behind her, which began in 1208, when Pope Innocent first personally and publicly carried the veil from St. Peter's Basilica to the nearby Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia.

Secondly, on April 18, 1506, Pope Julius II laid the cornerstone of the new - current - St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican right under the so-called Pillar of Veronica. This is one of the four pillars that support the dome of St. Peter's and was designed by the architect Bramante from the beginning as a security safe for the veil of Veronica. This veil of the "Sanctissimum Sudarium" with the "human face of God" (Benedict XVI) was in some way conceived as the foundation of the largest and most important church in Christianity.

Thirdly, however, a term coined by the great Catholic theorist and philosopher of communication Marshall McLuhan in 1964 comes to our aid, when in the first chapter of his book "Understanding Media, The Extensions of Man" he categorically stated: "The medium is the message".

What did he mean?

First, perhaps, this: packaging is what makes a gift a gift, my wife says!

Here are three examples:

I am almost certain that the Eucharistic monstrance originates from the frame that was once used to carry the Holy Face through Rome. In fact, how could one think of creating an elaborate frame for an image between two crystal discs that could be seen from two sides and that would show us an "image" of the treasured God? I just can't imagine that this idea was possible without the model with which the Holy Face was first carried around Rome. But unlike the original frame of the Holy Face, the monstrance needed an elaborate and precious halo of rays, each of which seemed to say above the small white host in the center: "Behold, it is the Lord!" THIS IS THE MEDIUM, which here is, so to speak, the message itself: it is the Lord!

The same goes for the entire Column of Veronica by architect Bramante in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. You won't find a more precious safe anywhere in the world. Overall, this is a grand monstrance for the so-called Veil of Veronica! And that's not all: it also has its bells in the column and its liturgy for the time when the veil is displayed once a year.

And that's not all. Unlike the original frame of the Holy Face with two transparent crystal plates, which can still be admired today in the Treasury of St. Peter's, the Vatican's "Veronica" was suddenly presented to the faithful in this Veronica Column by Pope Urban VIII (1623 - 1644) through a completely different means (i.e. the medium). It was an extremely precious and heavy frame, which was to emphasize the immeasurable value of the relic with gold and silver and the most precious stones. It had only one flaw compared to the original old frame. It was no longer transparent, because suddenly the new relic was no longer transparent either. However, the whole mounting should make every pilgrim think: It is the Lord who shows himself here!

All this is perhaps surpassed only by the Cathedral of Orvieto, which makes the entire Umbrian city a unique monstrance among all the wonderful Italian cities. This basilica, with its wonderful chapel of the treasure, was built entirely for the corporal of nearby Bolsena, on which blood dripped in 1264 when a certain Father Peter of Prague doubted the presence of Christ in the host transformed during Holy Mass! Later and from then on the Cathedral of Orvieto and with it the entire city were built as a single MEDIUM for this corporal, as already mentioned, as a large monstrance.

Even so, the corporal originates from the liturgical cloths of the altar and was once called a sudarium. It is in fact the cloth that is separated from all the other cloths of the altar after coming into contact with the transformed host (that is, with Corpus Christi), just as the real sudarium came into contact with the face of the Lord on which it had been placed at the time of his burial.

And if we now compare this cathedral of Orvieto with the Basilica of the Holy Face of Manoppello, where the real Sudarium is venerated, we see something different, which we can also study in the magnificent church of San Camillo di Lellis in nearby Bucchianico. It is the oldest Baroque church in Abruzzo, which since its foundation has attracted pilgrims to venerate the saint, although he himself is not even buried here, but in Rome in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena, behind Piazza Navona. In Bucchianico, therefore, only this splendid "means" has remembered the saint for centuries, while in nearby Manoppello the human face of the God has been mostly hidden in the simple church of Saint Michael of the Capuchins and where even today these centuries of continuous and appropriate veneration of the most precious relic of Christianity are lacking!

But unlike all these examples, in Manoppello the medium is not the message. In the Holy Face, the message speaks to us as "the human face of God among men" even without the beautiful, freshly cleaned frame. Perhaps the prophetic Rector Germano was right in the year 2000 just a little wrong about the year, and that only the Holy Year 2050 will be the true jubilee of the Holy Face. Because this face in the Holy Sudarium shows not only the way and the life - but also the truth. But the truth is not in a hurry. The truth can certainly wait.