- Is this the holy face of Jesus
Christ?
- or, the
face of Jacques de Molay (Knights Templar leader)?
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The "Holy Face" of
Christ photographed!
In Search for "Veronica's Veil" in Rome ...
One of the four principal relics of the Passion
preserved in Saint Peter's in Rome is a cloth believed to be miraculously
imprinted with the image of Christ's face. |
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Since the Middle Ages, the most venerated relic of
Rome and St. Peter's Basilica is the so-called “Veil of Veronica”.
- click picture to enlarge
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The Veil of Veronica
- by Italian artist Domenico Fetti
- 1589 - 1623 A.D.
It is possible
that Fetti saw the actual veil when it was installed in the crossing of Saint
Peter's in 1606. |
According to the legend, Veronica was a pious woman
from Jerusalem who encountered Christ on His way to Calvary. Deeply moved by His
suffering, looking into His face pouring with sweat and blood, she wiped it with
her veil - and found His portrait imprinted on the cloth when she got it
back. The white, almost transparent veil measures about 6.5 by 9.5 inches and bears dark red features of a bearded man with long
hair and open eyes. The face on the veil is that
of a young man who has suffered greatly. He looks tired. The marks of blows that
have struck him are clear: bruises and other scars on the forehead, clotted
blood on his nose, one pupil slightly dilated. Yet, in spite of the evident
signs of suffering and pain, the look is that of a serene man enduring his
suffering with patience.
The legend continues claiming that Veronica later
traveled to Rome to present her “Holy Image” to the Roman Emperor Tiberius,
healing him from some severe illness. The story
of Veronica and her veil does not, in fact, occur in the Bible, though the
apocryphal "Acts of
Pilate" gives this name to the woman with a blood flow who was cured by
touching the hem of Jesus' cloak. Critics of the incidents historicity point to
the very name of the saint: "Veronica" is a combination of Latin and Greek words
meaning "true image." Nonetheless, the story has been a part of popular
Christian culture for centuries. As early as the 300s, there were documents,
which spoke of the existence of the veil, but only in the Middle Ages was it
strictly connected to the Passion of Jesus Christ. Catholics have honored this
tradition in their 6th Station of the Cross.
It is startling to note that the similarities between the image on
Veronica's Veil and that on the Shroud of Turin only became apparent after the
Shroud was first photographed in 1898. History
records the existence of this relic from the fourth century, but only from the
Middle Ages was it strongly linked to the Passion of Christ. From the 12th
century until 1608, it was kept in the Vatican Basilica as a popular goal of
pilgrims, mentioned in Canto XXXI of Dante's "Paradise." In 1297, by the order
of Pope Boniface VIII, the image was brought to St. Peter’s. On the occasion of
the first Holy Year in 1300, the Veil of Veronica was publicly displayed and
became one of the "Mirabilia Urbis"' ("wonders of the City") for the pilgrims
who visited Rome.
When the part of the Basilica containing the relic
was scheduled to be taken down for remodeling, the relic disappeared overnight.
In 1616, Pope Paul V prohibited copies of Veronica's veil not made by a canon
of St. Peter's Basilica. Next, Urban VIII (Pope
from 1623 to 1644) not only prohibited reproductions of Veronica's veil, but
also ordered all existing copies to be destroyed. These actions suggest that the precious relic wasn't in the Vatican
anymore.
In fact, all the copies made
after this period showed the image of Christ with his eyes closed, though
earlier images show Christ with his eyes open.
Almost four centuries after the mysterious
disappearance from the Vatican of the legendary veil of Veronica - with which
Jesus is said to have wiped his face on the road to Calvary - German Jesuit Fr
Heinrich Pfeiffer claims to have rediscovered it. Fr Pfeiffer, a professor of
Christian Art History at the Pontifical Gregorian University, says he found the
relic in the Abbey of Monoppello, Italy, high in the Apennine Mountains.
- Unknown to the lower levels in Masonry
membership, Jacques de Molay, who denied Christ, is probably
thought of by Masons as the last of the royal line of King David. In
the 31st degree ritual, known as the Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander"
the letters "JM" (in memory of Jacques de Molay) are hung
above the pedestal of the principal presiding officer, who is known
as the Thrice Illustrious Commander. The new candidate for this
degree is then told the "Royal Secret of Jacques de Molay".
This is speculation, but Molay was nailed to a door by the Kings
torturers (but not killed), and perhaps to these Masons, in this "Secret"
they equate this with Christ's suffering on the cross. Molay met
his death not too much later when King Phillip had him slowly roasted
to death. As a sidebar here. Partly because the Shroud of
Turin showed up during this period, many Masons believe it is actually
a depiction of Jacques de Molay after he was nailed to a door, and not
Jesus.
Carbon 14 analysis, although questionable, also dates the
Shroud to the time of Jacques de
Molay. Read more about
Freemasonry here
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Face on back of the Shroud also found
This photo released on April 13, 2004 by the Journal of Optics shows the
new face found on the back side of the Turin shroud, as revealed by
the studies of Italian scholars Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo.
The discovery that the ghostly image on the back of the linen
cloth matches the face that adorns the front is likely to reignite
debate over whether the shroud is genuine or a skillful medieval
fraud.
“The fact that the image is two-sided makes any forgery difficult,”
Professor Giulio Fanti of the University of Padua.
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The Shroud of Turin just got More Interesting!
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| The discovery of a second face on the Turin Shroud has again divided opinion. Does this mean it is real after all? Or does it mean it's an even better hoax than was previously thought? Some people, and not just the faithful, never stopped believing in the first place. Scientists are now talking about electrical fields and corona discharges. "It is extremely difficult to make a fake with these features," they say. Other scientific investigations have also been undermining the carbon-dating conclusions. Though carbon-dating performed in 1988 suggested that the shroud dates from between 1260 and 1390, Mechthild Flury-Lemberg found that the fabric was woven in a three-to-one herringbone pattern, used for high quality cloths in the ancient world. One scientist also says she saw stitching patterns (in the Shroud) surprisingly similar to material from Masada, the Jewish fortress destroyed in AD 74.
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Compare the Shroud with
this Jewish face
Some people have suggested the face depicted
on the Shroud of Turin looks too European to be
the first century Jewish face of Jesus.
The Lord was made to stay awake as He was beaten
all night before being crucified. After a
gruelling walk to Calvery, He hung on a cross
much of the afternoon the next day.
This "European" look could very easily still be
the "puffed up" and hurt Jewish face of the
Lord. |
| Ghostly image may be of Jesus Christ, one
researcher says.
This photo released on April 13, 2004 by the Journal of Optics shows the
new face found on the back side of the Turin shroud, as revealed by
the studies of Italian scholars Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo.
The discovery that the ghostly image on the back of the linen
cloth matches the face that adorns the front is likely to reignite
debate over whether the shroud is genuine or a skillful medieval
fraud.
“The fact that the image is two-sided makes any forgery difficult,”
Professor Giulio Fanti of the University of Padua. |
Read more about the
Shroud of Turin
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Below angle on
the Shroud shows a man who's face had undergone much
pain/swelling:
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NEWS - 29 Jan 05
A chemist who worked
on testing of the Shroud of Turin says new
analysis of the fiber indicates the cloth that
some say was the burial linen of Jesus could be
up to 3,000 years old.
The analysis, by a scientist who was on the
original 1978 team that was allowed to study
tiny pieces of the cloth, indicates the shroud
is far older than the initial findings
suggesting it was probably from medieval times,
and will likely be seized on by those who
believe it wrapped the body of Jesus after his
crucifixion.
"I cannot disprove that this cloth was the
burial shroud that was used on Jesus," Raymond
N. Rogers, a retired chemist from the University
of California-operated Los Alamos National
Laboratory in New Mexico, said in a telephone
interview Friday from his home.
"The chemistry says it was a real shroud, the
blood spots on it are real blood, and the
technology that was used to make that piece of
cloth was exactly what Pliny the Elder reported
fort his time," about 70 A.D., Rogers said,
referring to the naturalist of ancient Roman
times.
"It's a shroud from the right time, but
you're never going to find out (through science)
if it was used on a person named Jesus," said
Rogers, whose findings were published recently
in the scientific journal Thermochimica Acta.
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