In a few days, we will celebrate the Holy Face (Tuesday, February 21). Let us prepare for this occasion with an imaginary tour of various Italian cities, following the traces of depictions of the Holy Face—that is, images of Christ’s face, considered acheiropoietic, meaning not made by human hands.
Turin: the Shroud
For more than four centuries, the Holy Shroud (from the Greek sindon, sheet) has been kept in Turin Cathedral. It is a large linen cloth bearing the double human figure, frontal and dorsal, of a tortured and murdered man. An ancient tradition, confirmed by historical and scientific investigations, identifies this man as Jesus Christ. A recent study, based on a new method for dating ancient linen threads, concludes that the Shroud’s fabric is much older than the seven centuries suggested by radiocarbon dating. The experimental results are compatible with the hypothesis that the Shroud is a 2,000-year-old relic, as Christian tradition maintains.
The image of the body is yellowish in color, differing from that of the underlying cloth only in its greater intensity, while the bloodstained areas appear reddish. The transfer onto the cloth occurred in two different ways: examinations show that the bloodstains formed through direct contact, whereas the body image is a kind of projection. The most plausible hypothesis regarding its formation is that the image is the effect of an extremely brief but highly intense burst of ultraviolet radiation released from Christ’s body at the moment of the Resurrection.
The Holy Face of Manoppello
In Manoppello, an Abruzzo town at the foot of the Maiella, the relic of the Holy Face has been kept since 1638. It is the face of a man imprinted on both sides of an almost transparent cloth: the face is “like that of a living person behind the fabric, looking through this extremely thin cloth: a person with wonderfully shining hair, falling in two loose locks on both sides. But what speaks most powerfully in this face are the eyes, an exceptionally intense white.
The gaze is gentle. There is something like a smile in the expression, something inexplicable and utterly unusual. In the same way, the human face that can be seen on this cloth appears once with an intensely vivid complexion, its hair and other details precisely delineated - one is confronted with an image that appears compact, in a dark, partly greenish ochre tone - and then one is surprised to see instead a white fabric, almost like a breath, so thin is it. If the Veil is held up to the light, when it passes directly through the fabric from behind, the image disappears as if the threads had absorbed it» (Father Pfeiffer, a scholar of the relic of Manoppello). According to the scholar, this relic “photographs” the face of the risen Jesus and can be compared with the Shroud: «We have two authentic images of Jesus of Nazareth that testify to his presence inside the tomb in which his dead body was buried and from which he rose after three days with his glorified body».
The Crucifix of Lucca
The Holy Face of Lucca is a large wooden crucifix housed inside the Cathedral of San Martino. The tradition surrounding its arrival in Lucca is fascinating: the crucifix remains hidden in Palestine until 782, when it is discovered in Jerusalem by a bishop who is there on pilgrimage.
Following a vision, he decides to protect the statue from the infidels: he loads the crucifix onto an unmanned boat in the hope that, through divine intervention, it will reach a safer place. The crucifix crosses the entire Mediterranean unharmed, miraculously reaching the port of Luni.
Luni no longer exists, as the Normans razed it to the ground in 860 AD, but at the time it was a lively port city. When the crucifix arrived there, neither the pirates nor the people of Luni could approach it. Only the bishop of Lucca, Giovanni, alerted in a dream, went to receive the cross and was able to touch it. He transported it to Lucca, where it was initially placed in the Church of San Frediano, but disappeared during the night and then reappeared near the Cathedral, where it has been preserved ever since.
According to the Leobino manuscript (12th century), the body of the crucifix was carved by Nicodemus, a disciple of Jesus and witness to the Passion, who created the work, except for the face, which he did not consider himself worthy to make and which was carved by angels while he was sleeping.
The Holy Face or Holy Mandylion of Genoa
The Holy Face of Jesus, preserved for about six centuries in the Church of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni, is traditionally believed to be the oldest portrait of Jesus and to derive from direct contact with his face. The core of the relic consists of a cedar tablet, which initially had a larger surface than the remaining one, onto which a linen cloth bearing the imprint of Jesus’ face is glued.
An extremely precious finding that emerged from the studies and analyses conducted on the relic is the discovery of fragments of ancient Persian and Arab fabrics, glued to the back of the wooden support: these fabrics date back to centuries before the year 1000. These fragments are defined as “contact relics”, meaning that these fabrics had probably wrapped the Holy Face.
The Holy Face has led us, step by step, on a mysterious and fascinating journey, in which we can once again rediscover the immense love of Jesus, who gave his life for us! Let us reflect on this with renewed wonder and gratitude.
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