Today July 12

Today is the feast of St. Veronica. A long and venerable history attaches to the memory of this saint who wiped the face of Jesus along his long death march. We can focus on her loving and charitable act or we can focus on the supposed result of that act: a beautiful image of the Holy Face on the cloth she used to wipe it, an image also called a "veronica," from the Latin vera icon or "true image." Some have conjectured from that coincidence that that couldn't have been her name, but surprisingly perhaps, there is a long history that that -- or a very similar-sounding name, especially Berenike, or perhaps, less likely, Prounike -- was in fact her name. Nowadays, although a cloth claimed to be the original veil of Veronica exists in St. Peter's in Rome, the focus is less on the relic and more on the compassion of the saint herself.

I've always thought of the image on the cloth (sometimes also called a sundarium) was more the reward of a good God, prefiguring the reward we all will have even if we only gave a cold cup of water to a prophet. Kind of like a bonus, since good deeds are their own reward. But this was the Incarnate God and He may do what He likes, in His own time. By that I mean that it is conceivable that He would give an immediate reward to someone who showed him such compassion -- and, who knows? bravery -- by wiping His face of sweat and blood. I also like to remember that Veronica is the patron saint of those who care for the physically impaired.