The participants of the conference, held at the Shrine's Pilgrim Hotel, were welcomed by the rector of the Shrine Fr. Antonio Gentili and by the mayor of Manoppello Giorgio De Luca.The Conference sought to respond to the question of what remains today of those Christian roots, of how they are understood and what the metaphysics of the image can reveal today.
Historical-religious themes were also developed, with the talk given by Father Ceslao Gedacz OFM Cap, who recalled some important figures in the history of the Holy Face belonging to the order of the Capuchins, such as Fr. Donato da Bomba, who had the task of drafting the Relatione Historica (1640), following the donation of the veil to the Capuchins, Fr. Filippo da Tussio, author of the first book on the Holy Face, published in 1875, and then Fr. Domenico da Cese, the first to promote the divine nature of the sacred image. There was no shortage of references to a number of scientific studies and the results of two commissions of medical doctors conducted at the Shrine in 2011 and 2012, the first commission composed of Germans and Austrians, the second of Italians. Fr. Ceslaus himself was present during these commissions, being part of the community of religious of the Shrine at that time.
The research of these doctors was recently published in the book by Sr. Blandina Paschalis Schlömer, entitled "Sali’ sul Tramonto” (He rose above the sunset) her first book published in Italian after several books published in Austria, Germany, Poland and France. The German iconographer was also present at the conference.
Sr. Monika Gutowska, of the Handmaids of the Most Holy Blood in Manoppello, summarized her experience of welcoming and contacting a great number of pilgrims, describing various cases, even of non believers, of people who have seen their lives transformed, as well as the desire of many devotees to return to the Shrine several times a year, from Italy and abroad, from a profound need to keep in regular contact with that Face, whose reproductions are present in many Polish homes. |
| The Conference Hall during the talk by Fr. Cucinelli |
Among those speaking was also Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, former rector of the Shrine, who has been involved in recent years in a number of enthronements of the Holy Face in Poland, including in the Krakow shrine dedicated to John Paul II. As part of the conference, the documentary "The Face of Jesus" (Oblicze Jezusa) directed by Jaroslaw Rędziak, with references to the Shroud of Turin and the painting of Merciful Jesus promoted by St. Faustina Kowalska, and provides extensive insights into the Holy Face thanks to the significant testimonies of the writer and journalist Paul Badde, as well as that of Sr. Petra-Maria Steiner, Sr. Blandina Paschalis Schlömer and Prof. Zbigniew Treppa of the University of Gdansk.
In addition to the aforementioned Prof. Łukasz Murzyn, the following also spoke: Sebastian Stankiewicz, Rafal Solewski, Kazimierz Piotrowski, Bernadeta Stano, Anna Grąbczewska, Agnieszka Daca, Jacek Pasieczny and Stanisław Wójcicki of the Study Group of the Uken University in Krakow.
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| Professors of the UKEN University of Krakow during a break at the Conference |
We summarize the reports presented, whose simultaneous translation was edited by Agnieszka Kledzik, from the University of Warsaw. These same reports may be the subject of more in-depth analysis at the time of publication of the proceedings, which will be edited by Sebastian Stankiewicz, under the title "Beautiful God. The veil of Manoppello and the iconography of the Incarnation", with reference to a theological reflection on the "Beautiful God" present in the Middle Ages, expressed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, during a conference held at the Urbaniana Pontifical University in Rome, a theme to which he returned after becoming Pope Benedict XVI.
The Group's commitment has also led to the creation of the portal https://diafanitas.uken.krakow.pl that collects experiences and initiatives on the study of the transparency of bodies intersected by light from a Christian dimension. Various interpretative readings of the Holy Face have been developed, with the assumption that "he who comes into contact with the Veil of Manoppello attests to its uniqueness and mystery."
For representatives of the disciplines of the arts, many questions remain open: the origin of the image and its history, the relationship between relic and image, the role of the veil of Manoppello in the creation of iconographic models in Christian art and in the evolution of the ways of depiction in Western culture, the role of the veil among other depictions considered acheropite or the formal similarities with the images of Christ depicted in the art of the ancient masters, e.g., Dirk Bouts, Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, among others, and in the tradition of the East. For contemporary art scholars, philosophers, theologians and anthropologists, the encounter with the Holy Face raises questions such as the relationship between sensual beauty and transcendent beauty, the idea of transparency and lights, the Christian sources of the idea and concept of the person, the meaning of the gaze and of the encounter, the presence and contemporary reception of religious themes in art and in sacred art or the importance of metaphysical references in contemporary art.
In my speech, I recalled the studies of Fr. Heinrich Pfeiffer (1939-2021), former professor of history at the Gregorian University in Rome, who identified the Holy Face with Veronica (vera ikon) on the occasion of the International Conference of the Institute for Research on the Face of Christ, presided over by Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, and then during a press conference held in Rome on May 21, 1999, in the time just prior to the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, which spread knowledge of the Abruzzo Shrine throughout the world
Some sequences of that press conference, with interviews of the German scholar on Italian and foreign television have been reproduced in a video which the organizers wanted to have screened at the opening of the works. The thesis of Fr. Pfeiffer was then an isolated position, opposed for a long time, more or less openly. But his thesis was later shared by Benedict XVI, who visited the Shrine on September 1 2006, composing a prayer that he dedicated to the "human face of God who entered history through unveiling the horizons of eternity".
Also under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, in a statement from the Holy See on July 11 2011 it was reported that "Veronica had disappeared from St. Peter's following the Sack of Rome in 1527”. This circumstance was confirmed by the then director of the Vatican Museums, Prof. Antonio Paolucci (former Minister of Culture of the Italian Government), in an interview with the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino of August 11, 2011.
The admission put an end to almost five centuries of silence that fueled for so long a time doubts and uncertainties, also through works of disinformation carried out also through changes made to the original image, through the reproductions that presented the "Veronica" with eyes closed. In this regard, the Veronica Route Project, launched in recent years by a group of Milanese scholars, has led to a collaborative research, still in progress, of 6200 ancient depictions, collected in a multimedia catalog, of the true icon of Christ (Veroniche) with his eyes open,.
Despite this, on April 6, an article appeared on the Vatican News website that the presence of the Veronica in St. Peter's (or, rather, a copy of it, on a black background in which one does not perceive images), while the Holy Face is indicated as a "sudarium", reiterating, moreover, its acheropite nature. Evidently the writer was ignorant of the painful path that had led to the 2011 admissions. Fr. Pfeiffer would still be committed to making his case.
Finally, as part of the conference, an exhibition of artists-teachers and students with the title “Face to Face", entered the space of the Shrine in a respectful way, offering a forum unique for interdisciplinary dialogue.
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| Poster for the Exhibition |
"At the basis of the concept of the exhibition," said curator Prof. Stanislawa Wojcicki, "there is the face-to-face encounter with the image of the Veil, treated by scholars as a prototype for other representations of Christ. We would like our works to be considered a votive offering, something we leave here to express gratitude for the fact that we were able to find ourselves in this place which is particularly important to us."
At the end of the conference we asked Fr. Arturo Alcàntara Arcos, professor of spiritual theology and associate of the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, also in Manoppello for the occasion, for an overall judgment who said: "It is particularly interesting to consider multidisciplinary points of view from a secular university. Here you can appreciate the different areas in which theology can be present, both directly and indirectly. The UKEN of Krakow, inspired by the National Commission for Education established in eighteenth century by the Polish king Poniatowski, opens the doors for a new dialogue between theology and the different artistic and aesthetic disciplines of our day in the contemplation of the Face of the Lord."
From what emerged during the conference and on the basis of the same conclusions of Prof. Lukasz Murzyn, the conviction that the Holy Face can still represent for art the reference to the contemporaneity of Christ. A perspective of analysis that the professors of the University of Krakow – the first to organize a similar event in Manoppello - intended to offer to the art world.
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Work Exhibited in the Basilica by Jacek Pasieczny "Not matter but image"
as Part of the Exhibition "Face to Face" |
This artist describes his work in the following manner. They are reflections of light, with the author who used a glass with a particular color reminiscent of golden byssus, and specifies that it is not a copy of the original, but an attempt to paint a picture with the light.
