I have just spent two amazing days in the hilltop town of
Manoppello, in Abruzzo, about two hours outside of Rome, on the trail of a holy
relic which is not very well known, yet may be just as important as the Shroud
of Turin.
The “Holy Veil of Manoppello” is a rectangular cloth, approx.
17” x 11”. At first glance, it appears
to be a piece of linen with a face imprinted upon it. Not just any face, of course. It is believed by the faithful to be the face of Jesus. Now, I know what you’re already thinking:
it’s a painting from the middle ages, or even earlier, but it is certainly an
artistic creation. That’s what I
thought, too. In fact, I initially was
quite convinced that no one would change my mind on this. In a number of places,
it looks just like a pen and ink drawing.
The open eyes and partially opened mouth are disconcerting, but they also
appear to be an artist’s rendition. Yet
on closer inspection in person, and upon weighing some very interesting
evidence, I am now even more convinced of the opposite conclusion - this is not
a drawing or painting. I cannot yet
state definitively what I believe it is, other than a completely unique,
extraordinary and utterly baffling image.
It is in the very least something super-natural. You can draw your own conclusions about whether
or not it is divine.
There are so many anomalies around this piece of “art” that
it is hard to know where to begin. I
will state that the following are the facts I have obtained from reading what
has been written about the veil in English and from spending two days at the
basilica where it is housed. These are
preliminary findings only, and I will be digging deeper into this mystery going
forward - indeed, I am already in pretty deep. But here are some highlights of
what I have learned and observed so far.
The fabric that the image is impressed upon is completely transparent
when there is light behind it. It is
displayed between two panes of glass so that this can be viewed in the space
above the altar where the reliquary resides.
The image of the face can be seen on the front and back. I took the photo above in the morning light
on my phone – you can get some idea of the transparency based on the stained
glass window images bleeding in from behind it.
But the strange thing is that the image is identical on both sides. In other words, there is no front and no
back. The image is equally and
identically visible on both sides of the fabric. When you step away from the image with light
behind it, it becomes 100% transparent.
The image disappears completely.
I have photos where it appears that you are looking into an empty reliquary
and can see the window panes on the wall approximately twenty feet behind it. (I am on the road in Bosnia at the moment, so
can’t upload those photos, but will add some later).
As to the fabric itself, this is the real stunner. It isn’t linen. It isn’t any kind of fabric that I even knew
existed until we started doing research into the Manoppello veil. It is byssus, also called sea silk or mussel
silk, a very rare and ultra-costly fabric that is woven from the fibers that
are secreted by mussels – as in the delicious mollusks that you eat at the
beach in France with frites. Although apparently these are an endangered mussel from the Mediterranean which we should NOT eat. There is
only one byssus master artisan left in the world, in Sardinia, and she has
confirmed that the veil is made of mussel silk (this is a lovely article on Chiara
Vigo and her mastery of this sea silk, and the ancient “sea oath” that she took:
http://www.gonomad.com/alternatives/1008/sardinia-sea-silk-weaver.html).
So here is the thing about mussel silk: the fabric has a
consistency that resists all attempts to paint on it. It is like the deep sea version of
Teflon. Nothing sticks to it. It cannot be painted. It cannot be printed upon. It has a natural coating that protects the
fibers, and although a master can dye it, individual images cannot be
transferred to it. From what I
understand, it can range from white to golden brown, with the rarest and most
valuable being the white, but all of them shimmering and transparent in the
light. It was sold in the ancient world
as a gossamer veil, something which could only be attained by the very wealthy
or elite. There are fewer than 30 pieces
of mussel silk on display in the world’s museums.
Mussel silk cannot be carbon dated – it doesn’t contain
carbon - thus it is impossible to know the age
of the fabric. It is known that it was
available in the ancient world, sold through Alexandria and Damascus. Although it was not made in or sold in Jerusalem as far
as what is recorded, someone wealthy enough to own mussel silk would also be
wealthy enough to have it imported to Jerusalem.
There have been other scientific tests done to the fabric,
and microscopic analysis shows no evidence of pigment of any kind. None.
When viewed under a microscope, the fabric appears pristine and
untouched.
As to the image itself, when viewing it up close it is quite
arresting:
The eyes follow you and it
always appears to be about to speak. But
it is the similarities to the Shroud of Turin which make the image truly
extraordinary. The nose is broken in the
same place as the image in the shroud.
The right cheek (the viewer’s right) is swollen and there is an “off”
dilation of the pupil in that eye. There
is some bruising on the face and what appear to be puncture wounds on the
forehead – they are light, but they’re there. I had to go back specifically to
view the image to see these because I missed them in the first viewings. Modern
forensic investigators have confirmed that the image is consistent with a man
who was beaten severely and had his nose broken. There is no blood on the veil
– remember that there is no pigment of any kind on the veil – but you can make
out around the forehead and temples that there were bloodstains on the face of
the man who made the impression upon the cloth.
There is an extraordinary woman, Sister Blandina, who
through her devotion to the Holy Face since 1970 has inspired exhibitions on it
(one of which we viewed in Lourdes in July). She did the first detailed study
of the similarities between the Manoppello Veil and the Shroud of Turin in
which she proved ten “points of congruence” which indicates that the images are
of the same face. More recent computer
analysis shows that when the image from Manoppello is overlaid on to the image
from Turin, they fuse into one face.
The Manoppello veil is most often referred to as a “Veronica”veil, a reference to the woman who gave Jesus her veil to wipe the sweat and blood from his face as he shouldered his heavy burden to Golgotha. But I do not believe this veil fits well into that story. What I do believe is that these gossamer veils were very precious in the ancient world, not just because of their costly fabric, but because they could only be worn by a particular type of holy woman. This silk that emerges from the sea, like Venus herself, is the fabric of the High Priestess.
The great Renaissance master Fra Filippo Lippi was famous for painting transparent gossamer veils on his Madonnas. Was he painting mussel silk?
There is another story behind this amazing artifact, and one
we have yet to fully uncover. But I am
well on the path of doing just that! Stay tuned...
The Holy Face and Me, September 3, 2012, Manoppello, Italy.
