Station VI: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

Legend has it that while Christ was carrying his cross, a woman named Veronica, moved with pity, wiped the sweat and blood from his face with her veil. As a reward for her kindness, his image was left on the veil. Perhaps the rumors of a true image of Christ, imprinted on cloth, lay behind this legend. Does such a burial shroud still survive? The name "Veronica" means "true image."

We are not embarrassed at a legend that tells so well the gospel message. Legends can be lived. Mother Theresa of Calcutta wiped the sores of the hopeless and the dying, because she saw the image of Christ in them, not in her towel. "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me."

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