Veronica in Ugo da Carpi's Panel. Similarities to the Holy Face

 

by Antonio Bini

A work of art can hold many surprises even after centuries. This is the case of the Panel of the Sudarium of the Holy Face by Ugo dei Conti di Panico, known as Ugo da Carpi, commissioned by Pope Clement VII for the Jubilee of 1525, which shows Veronica unfurling the veil of the Holy Face between the apostles Peter and Paul.

The work was intended for the altar of the Holy Face, located in the lower part of the ciborium (freestanding edifice) of the ancient basilica, which in the upper part housed the Veronica, closed in a special chest, with a number of bolt locks controlled by the canons of St. Peter's, while the final key was in the hands of the pope. The ciborium is comprehensible in the illustration, shown below, by Jacopo Grimaldi, canon of St. Peter's, along with a map of the old basilica showing the location of the ciborium close to the Holy Door.

arrow points to the location of the Ciborium

Arrow points to the description of the Ciborium as the altar of the Holy Face and Sudarium 

Da Carpi's work appears destined to arouse new interest thanks to recent diagnostic analyses that have revealed the uniqueness of the work, confirming that it is not a painting, as noted in the margin by the author himself who wrote  "per Ugo da Carpi intaiatore fata senza penello", (by Ugo da Carpi engraver made without a paintbrush) but a masterpiece of engraving produced through multi-layered printing.

The work was at the center of an anecdote told by Giorgio Vasari, who refers to the conversation he had with Michelangelo:

"Ugo da Carpi, though a mediocre painter, was nevertheless, in other fancies, of the most acute genius. And since, as I have said, he was a painter, I will not be silent that he painted in oil without using a paintbrush, but with his fingers, and partly with his quirky instruments, a panel that is in Rome at the altar of the Holy Face; which panel, as I was one morning with Michelangelo to hear Mass at the said altar and seeing written upon it that Ugo da Carpi had made it without a paintbrush, I laughingly showed this inscription to Michelangelo, who also laughingly replied "It would have been better if he had used the paintbrush and done it in a better manner" (Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Most Excellent Architects,  Italian painters and sculptors).                                              

Both Vasari and Michelangelo expressed their critical judgment by dwelling on the artistic value of the work, not understanding the meaning of the artist's message, who evidently wanted to experiment with a mode of reproduction that would allow him to respect, in some way, the acheropite nature of the Holy Face, which Ugo da Carpi had certainly been able to see.

Vasari also speaks of the "Holy Face" and the episode he describes highlights the importance of that altar at the time, where only the work of Ugo da Carpi was visible.

This hypothesis regarding Ugo da Carpi's intention to respect the acheropite nature of the Holy Face had already been put forward by Giovanni Morello, even before recent scientific examinations, on the occasion of the display of the work in the exhibition The Face of Christ, inaugurated on December 9, 2000 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, which concluded the Great Jubilee of 2000.  For that exhibition Morello wrote that "the realization  cannot be connected to the mere whim or extravagance of the artist,  but rather to the very nature of the work, which was to reproduce the Veronica, an acheropite image, that is, not made by human hands" (cf. Il Volto di Cristo, Electa, Milan, 2000, p. 111). And Morello, at the time director of the Vatican museums, wrote with full knowledge of the facts.              

The panel was exhibited in Turin from June 16 to August 22, 2022, at the Medieval Court of Palazzo Madama and was exhibited again in Carpi, five hundred years after its creation, in Ugo's hometown.

The work, which has lost its original brightly colored quality, is considered by Pietro Zander, head of the Artistic Heritage section of the Fabrica of St. Peter's Basilica and curator of the two exhibitions, to be one of the most important works in St. Peter's.

I was able to visit the exhibition in Carpi and see the work up close, on display in the Museums of Palazzo dei Pio from February 24 to June 29, 2024. In the exhibition, several panels illustrate in detail the note written by Ugo da Carpi, to emphasize how the work was executed "without a paintbrush".

Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer opined that Ugo da Carpi was inspired rather by the Mandilion, which at that time was preserved in the Church of San Silvestro, rather than by the Veronica (Holy Face), as it would have been "easier for him to imitate an icon than the image on the Veil which varies continuously and which presents itself with a different appearance according to the illumination and angle of the observer" (Il Volto Santo,  ed. Carsa, Pescara, 2000, p. 23).

These are certainly well-founded hypotheses, even if some details closely related to the face, examined a few centimeters from the Panel, such as the eyes, open, but with pupils of different sizes and the nose, which is swollen, suggest that the artist was inspired by the Holy Face.

 

 

25 Years Since the Historic Press Conference in Rome of Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J. Announcing that the Veronica is in Abruzzo

 

Fr. Germano di Pietro, O.F.M, Cap., Antonio Bini, Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J.

May 31, 2024 marked the 25th anniversary of the Press Conference held in Rome by Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J., distinguished professor of the history of Christian art at the Gregorian University of Rome which announced to  the world press the rediscovery of the Veronica in Abruzzo, at the shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello.  https://holyfaceofmanoppello.blogspot.com/2019/07/twenty-years-ago-world-heard-that.html  

It is fitting at this time to remember the devoted work of Fr. Pfeiffer which established with great erudition the rediscovery of the Veronica and that the same cloth was also the "facecloth" (sudarium) that was on the face of Jesus in the tomb.

To that end I would like to post a Holy Face prayer card printed by Fr. Pfeiffer in the year 2000 which was provided to me by Antonio Bini, a close collaborator and friend of Fr. Pfeiffer.  The prayer card includes an inscription "to Antonio and the family" alongside a prayer to the Holy Face composed by Fr. Pfeiffer himself, along with a short history of the Holy Veil in Manoppello.  Fr. Pfeiffer's recounting of the history  of the Veil in Manoppello has now been superseded by more recent research showing that the Veil disappeared from Rome around the time of the Sack of Rome of 1527.  and that research on the whereabouts of the Veil from 1527 until 1608 is now ongoing

Text from the cover of the prayer card:

The Sacred Veil of the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello

According to tradition it was brought to Manoppello in 1506 by a pilgrim who then vanished from sight.  Recent historical studies instead have reached the conclusion that it is the “Veronica”, smuggled out of Rome in 1608, sold in Manoppello in 1618, given to the Capuchin Fathers in 1638, and exposed for the veneration of the people in 1646.  It is a most subtle veil, with the dimensions of 17 x 24 centimeters.  The image of the face is seen identically from both sides, a characteristic that makes it an object unique in all the world.  It is perfectly superimposable over the face of the Shroud of Turin in such a way that it shows a single image.  Researched conducted with a high resolution 3D scanner has revealted the lack of color among the threads and within any of the threads.  

Inscription in Fr. Pfeiffer's handwriting:  To Antonio and the family best wishes for the celebrations of Christmas and New Year’s Day under the gaze of Jesus.

Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J.

Prayer of Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J.

"Et sudarium, quod fuerat super caput eius" (John 20:7)

"And the cloth (sudarium) which had covered his head"

The Lord wished to leave us his eternally imprinted Face so that everyone might remain steadfast

in love and in Love unite their own gaze with His, so that in the meeting of their gazes –

everyone might recognize the Divine Spirit, Light that illuminates the mind, and that they might

have Love in their heart.

O Mother of sorrows, Virtue shining and permeated with grace, impress this Face within me,

implore for me Purity, Beauty and Light. And as man doubts that the Lord has given us his face,

to remain among us and to let Love flow from our hearts, cast your gaze upon us, O Face of the

Father in the Son, and give us peace at last.

Also to pay tribute to Fr. Pfeiffer I would like to quote from a recent article entitled "The Church, Testing of Relics and the Holy Face"  written and posted on her very beautiful blog by Patricia Enk of New Orleans, an artist who is highly knowledgeable about the history and current state of devotion to the Holy Face throughout the Church. https://illuminadomine.com/2024/05/30/the-church-testing-of-relics-and-the-holy-face/

"The late, highly respected Heinrich Pfeiffer S.J. was an eminently qualified teacher of art history and Christian iconography at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was also an expert “sindonologist.” Sindonology is the study of the Shroud of Turin, which is its own branch of science. In the course of his many years of research he traveled to the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello. Upon seeing the Veil for himself, he immediately recognized it as the “proto-image” or original from which most icons, paintings, and other representations of “the Veronica” had been derived. The incredible “Veronica” of Manoppello was believed to be the veil that covered the Face of Jesus in the tomb. 

(Author Paul Badde has written much about this search for the “rediscovered face” in his books: The Face of God – the Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus, The True Icon: From the Shroud of Turin to the Veil of Manoppello, and The Holy Veil of Manoppello: The Human Face of God.)

When, as a scholar, Fr. Pfeiffer joyfully and dutifully reported the fruits of his research, “all hell broke loose.” Instead of being met with rejoicing over the historic discovery of the “proto-image” of the Veronica–a miraculous image that corresponds to historic accounts and countless works of art in museums and churches around the world–Fr. Pfeiffer was roundly vilified by persons who, while accusing him of perpetrating fraud, also refused to look at his evidence. Any requests that Fr. Pfieffer or other scholars and researchers made to look into the authenticity of the relic veil held in the Vatican were declined by bureaucrats.

The indisputable abundance of centuries of art history, that even a child can see, points to the Veil of Manoppello as the original proto-image. But piles of comparisons are not enough to satisfy the outraged critics. Fr. Pfeiffer’s vast research that led him to Manoppello continues to be rejected out of hand, and ignored by those who refuse to look at the data. Unless the relic at the Vatican is examined, the controversy between the two relics of the Face of Jesus will remain at a stalemate, and continue to be a unhappy source of division in the Body of Christ. It was the cause of much suffering for Fr. Pfeiffer in his lifetime, but he was committed to speaking and writing about what he had discovered until he died in 2021."

May the upcoming Holy Year of 2025 bring Fr. Pfeiffer's vision of the Holy Face of Manoppello to the whole Church, through the diligent and loving work of each of us who are devoted to the Holy Face, but also through the honest and free investigation by the Vatican authorities of  this important matter utilizing the life's work of Fr. Pfeiffer and that of other reputable scholars and researchers.

Pope Benedict XVI, Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J., Paul Badde and Sr. Blandina Schlömer
at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello on September 1, 2006

Photo by Alexandra Prandell

From the Sunday Times of London May 30, 1999 edition

 

Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

 

Photo by Paul Badde

O God of Hosts Let Your Face Shine, and We Shall be Saved!

Psalm 80

Live Streaming of the Holy Face of Manoppello

It is now possible to see the Holy Face of Manoppello Livestreaming on the YouTube channel of the Basilica.  What a blessing to see the Face of Jesus constantly! By scrolling through the previous moments of the Live Streaming anyone can see how the vision of the Holy Face changes over time depending on the light.  Thanks to the Capuchin Friars of the Basilica and all who have made this possible!

 https://www.youtube.com/@santuariodelvoltosantodima7344/streams

Feast of Omnis Terra at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello

Video filmed by Esther Dinh, provided to me through the courtesy of Paul Badde, of the Procession with the Holy Face following the Mass of Omnis Terra last Sunday January 28 at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello.  Archbishop Bruno Forte of the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto carries the monstrance of the Holy Face assisted by the Rector of the Shrine, Fr. Antonio Gentili.  A video of the complete Mass and procession including Archbishop Forte blessing the faithful with the Holy Face can be seen on the Facebook page of the Shrine https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=search&v=402624955616425 .  

At the conclusion of his homily Archbishop Forte recited the following prayer which he composed.  

PRAYER TO THE HOLY FACE 

Lord Jesus, Face of eternal Love, in this holy place, guardian of the veil upon which You reveal Yourself in the signs of suffering and let the infinite mercy of Your divine Heart shine through, grant us to live with ever new fidelity the journey of faith, charity and hope that you call us to walk together with you.

May your gaze fill us with the light that comes from the Father to illuminate our steps and lead us to the pastures of heaven, and pour into our hearts the Holy Spirit, the fragrance of your grace and the imprint of your beauty.

 

And Mary, who was the first to look upon your face and kiss it with the tenderness of a Mother, she who saw you close your eyes upon the arms of the Cross, contemplated you risen from the dead and now contemplates you in glory, help us to seek with ever new desire your Face as a King crucified for love, victorious over evil and death, to meet you in the embrace of your Church, to recognize you in your sacraments and to bear witness to you in the works and days of our lives.

 

We beseech You, answer our prayer and grant us what we ask of You in faith. You, who with God the Father live and reign in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen!

+ Bruno Forte
Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto

In San Francisco Archbishop Cordileone Calls Attention to the Feast of Omnis Terra and the Veil Bearing the Holy Face of Jesus

 (photo: Screenshot / Archdiocese of San Francisco)

Archbishop Cordileone at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello January 20, 2019
(Photo by Antonio Bini)

On January 20, 2019, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, together with Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Archbishop Bruno Forte celebrated Holy Mass at the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello on the feast of Omnis Terra.   Exactly five years later, on January 20, 2024 Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone began his homily during the annual Mass celebrated at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco just prior to the Walk for Life West Coast by drawing the attention of the faithful coming from all over the West Coast, who filled the massive church to overflowing, to the historical roots of the feast in Rome of Omnis Terra and its relationship with the veil bearing the Holy Face of Jesus. 

 

photo credit:  Jose Aguirre/Catholic San Francisco.

The Archbishop began:
"The entrance chant for our Mass today – “All the earth will worship you, O God, and will sing to you, sing to your name” – happens to be the same entrance chant prescribed for last Sunday’s Mass, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, popularly referred to as “Omnis terra” Sunday, taken from the first words of the chant in Latin, as we just heard it at the beginning of Mass, “Omnis terra adoret te, Deus.” Every Mass has a prescribed entrance chant, usually a Scripture verse, very often from one of the Psalms, and the Mass gets its name from the first word or two of that chant (such as “Gaudete” Sunday and “Laetare” Sunday).

The Holy Face of Jesus

Why do I bring this up? It recalls a bit of Church history that underscores why Jesus came into the world. The story is told that in pre-Christian Rome the Emperor decided to have all Roman residents originally from other places take soil from their homeland and deposit it in a designated place close to the Vatican Hill, less than a quarter of a mile away. There he built a temple to honor the pagan Roman gods, as it contained soil from all the earth, “omnis terra.”

After Rome became Christian, the Pope built a church over that spot, which we know as the church of the Holy Spirit, and every year on that Sunday, “Omnis terra” Sunday, he would process from St. Peter’s Basilica to the church of the Holy Spirit with a veil bearing the face of Jesus. The veil in question was preserved from antiquity as one of the burial cloths that covered Jesus’ face, and was believed to be such an accurate representation of his face that it was called “the true icon of Rome,” in Latin, vera icona Romana: “vera icona,” whence the name, “Veronica.” This is how the story circulated later in the Middle Ages of a woman by that name who wiped our Lord’s face as he carried his Cross to Calvary.

There are many truly remarkable, even miraculous, features about this cloth that point to its authenticity, but that is a subject for another discourse. The point for us here today is that that procession instituted in the Middle Ages was to claim Jesus Christ as the one Savior of all the world, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the one, true God to whom all the earth owes worship and allegiance. This is the spiritual lesson of the ritual that developed around that veil.

The story of Veronica, though, also bears for us a spiritual message. As Pope St. John Paul II reflected in his meditation on the sixth Station of the Cross, every act of charity done in the name of Jesus Christ, with the spirit of his love, leaves the imprint of his image. This is how we translate the universality of the salvation Jesus won for us into language people can understand in our own time and place. The love of Christ is truly a universal language, understood everywhere and in every culture, leaving his image and thus changing both persons involved in that encounter of authentic Christian charity."

Archbishop Cordileone continued his homily giving a masterful explication of the Church's teaching on marriage and its meaning as seen in the Word of God and its centrality to the development of the human person.

The Archbishop concluded his homily:  

“All the earth will worship you, O God, and will sing to you, sing to your name.”  Let us be in that number, let us be among those who acknowledge Jesus Christ, God’s Only Begotten Son, as the one Savior of the world, the way, the truth and the life, the one who teaches us the path to the fullness of life.  Let us worship him by obeying his mother and do whatever he tells us: taking what he teaches us seriously, living it in our own vocations, and sharing his love through self-giving acts of charity to the hurting, the broken, and those living in darkness and the shadow of death, shining the healing light of his face upon them.  May God grant us this grace.  Amen."

link to the complete text of Archbishop Cordileone's homily https://sfarchdiocese.org/do-whatever-he-tells-you-and-you-will-spread-the-face-of-his-love-to-the-whole-world/

This year the Feast of Omnis Terra, presided by Archbishop Bruno Forte of the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto, with Holy Mass, procession and blessing with the Holy Face will be celebrated at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello on Sunday January 28. 

The Holy Face on the Netflix platform

Photo by Paul Badde

Millions of people – in over 190 countries around the world – were able to watch the documentary "Mysteries of the Faith"

by Antonio Bini

On November 1st, the series of four documentaries entitled "Mysteries of the Faith" was made available on Netflix, an entertainment platform on a global scale, with over 286 million subscribers, broadcast simultaneously in more than 190 countries around the world and presented as an unprecedented access to sacred places around the world.  with exploration of the most legendary treasures of Christianity, precious relics, steeped in myths and legends, often credited with miracles, which have inspired millions of people over the centuries. Popular religiosity has several sources of inspiration, among which the relics of Jesus Christ are of particular importance.

The screening of the series, which takes place in the perspective of the Jubilee of 2025, was anticipated by a considerable flow of international communications, together with a two-minute trailer conveyed on You Tube by Netflix itself, which recorded thousands of contacts and numerous comments.                              

For the American press, the newspapers USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal are worth mentioning, among others. On the latter newspaper, John Anderson, perhaps taken by the power of the images, wrote on October 31, 2023 that "One needn't be a true believer to be fascinated by the holy relics of the Catholic Church, objects credited with the ability to facilitate miracles and even provide access to the divine." AlsoThe Tribune of India newspaper, in an article by Nonika Singh, speaks of "an engaging journey into the world of faith, the series offers wealth of information on the priceless relics." Regarding the Holy Face of Manoppello, the thesis is supported that it is the Veronica.

Until now, not many Catholic media have covered the broadcast. The Australian weekly The Catholic Weekly of  November 1 stands out, claiming that the docuseries "shines a light on Christianity's most cherished relics."

The documentary, narrarated by actor David Harewood - begins with the alleged crown of thorns, kept in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, saved from the devastating fire of April 15, 2019, and then sets out on the trail of the Holy Grail and later treats of the various relics of the cross on which Jesus died. The perspective of the production seems to be oriented towards giving a demonstration of the manifestations of faith proper to popular devotion that originates from the veneration of saints and in particular of the relics of Jesus Christ, considered "sources of light for pilgrims".                            

 A concept confirmed by the academic Nicola Denzey Lewis, professor at Claremont Graduate University, who affirms that "relics are like beacons for pilgrimages". 

A significant space of the entire series is reserved for the Holy Face of Manoppello, re-proposed in different parts, assuming a particular centrality, connected above all to prolonged close-ups of remarkable quality in terms of images.             

I had the opportunity to collaborate with the production team by answering questions, providing documentation and a series of articles on the Holy Face. I think that they kept it on a general level, also with the aim of creating a work that would stand out from others done previously.

The testimony of Fr. Antonio Gentili, rector of the Shrine of the Holy Face,  was something they concentrated upon.    Fr. Gentili affirmed that from his first encounter with the sacred image he felt very loved, expressing the conviction that it is truly the Face of Jesus imprinted in the first moments of the resurrection.    

This statement was followed by an effective graphic reconstruction of the entrance to the tomb where Jesus had been buried, found empty by the apostles, with the boulder moved and with the only remaining traces represented by the burial cloths and the sudarium, in correspondence with what is narrated in the Gospel of John. The hypothesis was clearly supported by Fr. Domenico da Cese who wrote about it for a holy card that he had printed in the 1970's.

The footage shows the Shrine, trying as closely as possible to frame the façade – which is awaiting extraordinary maintenance work – zooming in on the town, shown from above and in its historic center. In some passages, Sister Blandina also appears on the Via Santarelli.

The choice to follow the paths of faith has led the director to privilege several testimonies of devotees, as well as opening a window on the nature of the fabric in which the face of Jesus (the true-icon "vera-icona") is imprinted, landing upon the thesis of the so-called "sea silk", expressed by Chiara Vigo, a master in the art of the weaving of byssus, from the island of Sant'Antioco,  in Sardinia.

The testimony of Rocco Rulli is of particular importance, embracing three generations, united by a solid devotion to the Holy Face, starting with his father, a miner in Marcinelle (Belgium), who escaped the mining disaster of 8 August 1956 due to a fortuitous change of his work shift, to Rocco himself, saved by pure chance from the devastating earthquake in Friuli on May 6, 1976 which took place while he was doing his military service in Gemona, the epicenter of the earthquake, and then that of his daughter Francesca, who in 2003 had been given up for dead following a severe cerebral hemorrhage. The story is accompanied by images of the tragedy of Marcinelle and of the earthquake in Friuli.                                       

As a sign of devotion and gratitude, Rocco Rulli, ever since 1976, has been one of those who carry the Holy Face  and as such has been filmed by the cameras during the procession. Another testimony is that given by Rossella Olivieri, a woman from Manoppello, who states that she survived, to the disbelief of the doctors, a cardiac arrest that lasted five minutes.

The narrative reproduces the images of Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Manoppello on September 1, 2006, showing the visible emotion of the German pope in front of the relic. In this regard, Robert Cargill, professor of biblical studies at the University of Iowa, weighs in, affirming how the visit of Pope Benedict XVI has undoubtedly contributed to giving credibility to the Holy Face, and implicitly to the studies developed so far. In another contribution, Jason Horovitz, Rome correspondent for the New York Times, called the Veronica a symbol of devotion.

In this regard, it seems appropriate to recall what the recently deceased Australian Vatican correspondent, Desmond O'Grady, wrote in his book of essays"25 Jubilees. Stories and secrets of Rome in the holy years from 1300 to 2000", ed. Piemme, 1999, in which, pointing to the identification of the veil of Veronica with the Holy Face of Manoppello affirmed by Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer, he states: "it is not known how and when the relic reached Rome, but it seems that it produced an impact comparable to that which Christ himself would have achieved."

An isolated position doubting the authenticity of the Holy Face is expressed by Roberto Falcinelli, who is mistakenly presented as "among the few art historians who have been allowed to study the Holy Face", since he is a Roman photographer who claims to belong to the Giulio Ricci Diocesan Center for the Study of the Shroud in Rome. 

The direct relationship between the Shroud and the sudarium of the Holy Face is, on the other hand, asserted by Guy Hayward, one of the founders of the British Pilgrimage Trust.                                                                      

A subsequent follow-up does not fail to recall, for that matter, the doubts about the authenticity of the Shroud itself, especially with reference to the well-known study carried out in 1984 with the radiometric technique of carbon 14, which led scientists to date the cloth to sometime between 1260 and 1390, without this changing the attitude of the Church.

Returning to the power of relics, we find the profound testimony of Rabbi Gabriel Hagay, director of the Rabbinical Institute in Paris - who speaks while the images of the Holy Face are scrolling - stating that "where there has been a miracle, there is a relic. It connects you to the power of the relic and suddenly something goes into action that uplifts you. You're here, but your mind, your spirit is up there. You are connected to God." Here it is appropriate to recall how Hagay was very impressed by the Holy Face, arriving as a pilgrim in Manoppello on the occasion of the feast of the Holy Face in May 2014, together with Roberta Collu-Moran, professor of anthropology of religions at the Catholic Institute of Paris (cf. Bulletin of the Holy Face, no. 1/2014, p. 34 ff. and  https://holyfaceofmanoppello.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-rabbi-and-holy-face-of-manoppello.html).

The prolonged shots of the Holy Face are certainly to be appreciated, even in the foreground and in different contexts, inside and outside the basilica, in different light conditions, which make the veil, even without any comment, an inexplicable "object", unrepeatable and impossible to replicate. Of particular effect are the sequences of the Holy Face with the reflections of the fireworks.              

Mysteries of the Faith privileges the aspects related to faith and miracles - leaving to the audience possible answers - regarding the historical and scientific method, sometimes barely hinted at, putting in the background the complexity of some events of the past that do not allow everyone to easily understand - for example - the still prudent attitude towards the Holy Face on the part of the Church,  which has never admitted the disappearance of the Veronica (True Icon) from St. Peter's.