VERONICA. The popular Tradition is this; that as Jesus Christ was going to Calvary, a Woman, called Veronica, or, perhaps, Berenice, lent him her Handkerchief to wipe his Face; which when our Saviour had done, he left the Image of his Face imprinted upon the Handkerchief. This is the Representation of the Head of Jesus Christ, which is called The Holy Face, or The Veronica.
One b Vide Plin. Theophrast. Dioscorid. Vitruv. One of them is preserved at Rome, one at Jerusalem, and another at Jernes in Spain: Probably one of ‘em has been taken from the other. Some of the Moderns have put Veronica into the List of the Saints, on the fourth of February; but she is not in the Roman Martyrology, tho’ it is pretended she died at Rome, and that her Body is still there. Marianus Scotus, who wrote about the End of the eleventh Century, says several things of her, which he quotes from one Methodius, whom some have taken for St. Methodius of Tyre. But others maintain, that the Author we now have under the Name of Methodius, is much more modern. ‘Tis plain, he tells a great many Stories, and that St. Veronica was unknown to the more genuine Ancients, before the Tenth Century. There are also some of opinion, that the very Name is fictitious, being taken by way of Anagram from vera icon, the true Image of our Saviour, of which they have made the Name of a Woman. See Bollandus upon the 4th of February, p. 449, &c. and M. De Tillemont, Note 33, upon Jesus Christ.