The Holy Face of Manoppello is in the frame above the altar
In The Face of God: The Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus, Paul Badde reports in tantalizing detail on his exciting quest to discover the truth behind a rare cloth, housed in small church in the remote village of Manoppello, Italy. Better known as the Holy Face of Manoppello, this is a relic recently rediscovered and rumored to be “Veronica’s Veil” — a cloth used to wipe the face of Jesus as he carried his cross on the way to Golgotha and His crucifixion.
Badde’s research and reports on the Holy Face of Manoppello prompted a 2006 visit to the relic by Pope Benedict XVI — in spite of counsel against it by others in the Vatican. He compiles and expands on those dispatches in The Face of God.
Among others, readers will meet Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer, OSCO, whom many outside of Italy recognize as the first person to truly rediscover the Holy Face of Manoppello. Her meticulous research and investigations helped convince Badde and others that the Holy Face provides a “positive” image of the same face shown as a “negative” on the Shroud of Turin.
The image of a man’s face on the cloth in Manoppello is clearly visible. Most astonishing — when the face of the Shroud of Turin is laid over the Holy Face of Manoppello, the two images form a perfect match. As Sr. Blandina proved with her work, they are the same face.
Readers will learn about a cloth made of unique and rare fabric — byssus — that is the “canvas” for the Holy Face. Yet, Badde explains that byssus, also is known as sea silk, is a rare and delicate fabric woven from a silky filament produced by mollusks that is so thin and delicate it is impossible to paint on.
In the book, Badde reports the conclusion by experts that the cloth of Manoppello is not Veronica’s veil, but rather a burial cloth of Jewish tradition that was laid over the face of Jesus in the tomb. In fact, in the chapter he calls “Holy Blood,” Badde makes the compelling case for the existence — with locations — of all the elements of the traditional Jewish burial wrap used in Jesus’ time.
The book recounts Badde’s thrilling journey of discovery as he travels to research this remarkable relic, tracing the turbulent history of the Holy Face from ancient times to the historic visit to Manoppello by Pope Benedict XVI.
(Quoted from the website of Ignatius Press)
For more about this intriguing book, see the Face of God website.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
the goverment when tony blair was held responsable for insisting the weapons of mass destruction were not found in aran, so he turned his mass destruction on the l c p and the kings fund lurking in the background conductig to billy liar blair, when will the people of great once britain get to realise its not doctors and nurses at fault they are obaying orders from parliament, and cameron has taken over the barbaric crime against humanity, and the so called independant enquiry the chairwoman picked and backed by the governement is a staunt supporter of the liverpool care pathway, so how can it be independant, whitewashed under the carpet. its a scam and disgusting thing another back door fix.
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You’re Eccle’s bother Bosco in disguise, and I claim my £5, or whatever the going rate is for minor detectives.
But, thank you for revealing this gem from times past . If only I could write like you 🙂
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This post by joyfulpapist makes me sad, thinking about Veronica, my granddaughter, who flew thousands of miles away yesterday, and who her grandparents won’t see again for some months… and thinking about joyfulpapist who never comes by here any more…
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Plenty of good, knockabout, fun to be had daily on Joyful’s blog. You’d be welcome, I sure.
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…And what a wonderfully ridiculous post it is! Somehow missed it first time round.
Probably too busy worrying about naughty old priests and cardinals and small boys.
However… “…Badde explains that byssus, also is known as sea silk, is a rare and delicate fabric woven from a silky filament produced by mollusks that is so thin and delicate it is impossible to paint on.
Really? Then how come somebody has? !!!
Maybe it all depends on what we mean by “paint” on it.
Is it then impossible to dye or colour sea silk in any fashion?
And, if that is the genuine face of Christ, Toad is not very reassured. Looks a bit “shifty” to him. Something about the eyes; the way one is much nearer to the nose than the other……
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http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-900-1&va=Artistic+painting+on+sea+silk
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I do not see how this cloth could be the ‘face cloth’ placed over the Holy Face of Jesus when He was carried to the tomb. This relic (known as the Sudarium) is supposedly held in the cathedral of Oviedo in northern Spain.
http://www.shroud.com/guscin.htm
Besides, Veronica’s veil was not left with Jesus as He made His way to Golgotha. This holy woman (mentioned only in the apocryphal gospels) used her veil simply to wipe the face of Jesus – whereon His Sacred Image was left – and He then continued on His Via Crucis without it.
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I share your doubts, Kathleen
[…]
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@Toad:
Although, based on past experience reading JP’s comments, I’m sure her own blog is a very good one, I don’t like contributing to more than one blog. It’s too time consuming, which is why I never, or infrequently, contributed here when I was still an habitué chez Thompson. I must say that I’m glad to be here now, instead of there. His blog posts were entertaining, granted, but rarely enlightening; and the commentary below the fold could get downright vicious, as we all know. Here, the banter is lighter and pleasanter (I no longer wake up in the morning knowing that I went over the top the evening before); but the real bonus, for me, is that I’m learning so much more about the riches of our Catholic Faith [as I’m sure you will agree ;)] than I did over there. I do miss many of the old regulars (Heracletian, Becs, Annie, mmmm, Alba…) but now, when I click on Damian’s site, I hardly recognize anyone anymore. I see Micky
MouseRoss is still plugging/digging away.___
A blessed and peaceful Palm Sunday to you and yours, Toad (and to everyone else). I’m just about to get ready for noonday Mass. Did you go today, Toad? Was Fr Santiago (?) well enough to celebrate it? The weather over here is just about perfect. Looking forward to resuming my afternoon walks along the river.
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What a kind thought JH, Yes we went and Don Santiago was back in his usual cheerful form.
We brought rosemary sprigs to be blessed, this not being palm country, by a long shot..
But enjoyed no sun. It was, as Pope Francisco would say, Mono Laton* weather here this morning. Cold, wet and windy. March, in fact.
Your point about multiple blogs is taken.
*Brass Monkey
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We don’t get “Mono Laton” weather down here in the Costa Blanca, Toad, or even “Burro Laton” weather (since Morris donkey had his bollocks chopped off last October). I certainly envy you your very balanced village church in Moratinos. Whenever I have attended Mass there, it is clearly a true cross-section of the village community, and you and Reb are very much part of it.
Here in the larger village of Finestrat, increasingly urbanised and removed from its rural traditions, a dozen older women of the community are the only congregation now. Plus a somewhat out of place rabit, whose only claim to fame has been to carry on assisting at Mass without being put off by the fact that nobody ever speaks to him, even after two and a half years.
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“…nobody ever speaks to him, even after two and a half years.”
Has he tried smiling? Or what was that cute thing he used to do with his furry little paws…? Ah, yes: “zzzing”, wasn’t it? Or was that when he lifted one of his hind legs? The Spanish abuelas at Mass would certainly speak to him then!
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I read Catholicism Pure and Simple most days, John Henry, and keep its team of dear people in my prayers. But you’re quite right about the demands of contributing to more than one blog – and if as a commenter, how much more as a contributor!
Meanwhile, real life isn’t lived on the blogosphere; during my mother’s final year, I needed to spend more time in the offline world. Indeed, in the last part of last year, I even dropped out of the Joyful Papist blog for several months.
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May God bless you and those you love, JP. May God protect you from evil and serious harm, according to His will.
But, after almost exactly four years of blogging, I must emphatically state that life in Blogdom is indeed “real life”, and the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had in it are very real. It’s just that there is another world outside this cyberworld. A world of flesh and blood – not just intellect – but still, a real world, a world of intellect – not always, or even usually, of the highest sort – but a real world nonetheless. If it wasn’t, people like you and Teresa and Raven and Gertrude, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc., would never come here. We must not let it consume all of our energies, however.
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True, indeed, JohnHenry. And I don’t mean to disparage the interactions I’ve had, or the friendships I’ve made, online. Thank you for your prayers.May God bless you and yours, keep you always in His loving care, and bring you safely home at journey’s end.
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JH, while your encyclopaedic knowledge of rabit customs is appreciated, “zizzing the paws” is not encouraged during the peace for health and safety reasons. None of the Valenciano ladies who make up the congregation would regard a conejo as “cute”, but simply lunch.
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“Zizzing”. Right. How could I forget that bodily function? Well, friend (can we be friends again?) I looked up conejo, and was not impressed. We Finns (quarter Irish) don’t go in for that sort of thing.
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“May God bless you and yours, keep you always in His loving care, and bring you safely home at journey’s end.”
JP, thank you for that which, because it comes from you, I take to my heart as a solemn blessing, and which I will remember tomorrow when my gastroenterologist tells me the results of my first colonoscopy. I scorn that sort of thing – prophetic medical tests – but my GP was insistent I have one at my age. She looked at my medical history on her computer and saw that I was her only patient who’d never had a lab test in the 30 years I’ve been under her care. She has not been negligent – it’s just that my philosophy is decidedly anti-interventionist, probably learned from my dear father, another GP, under whose care I almost died from appendicitis, but who finally clued in that I wasn’t trying to play hookey. The thing is, I had that procedure at the end of February, and the follow-up appointment to discuss the results was scheduled for the day of the Last Supper (symbolic or what?), but then was moved up to the the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th (now transferred to April 8th…explain that to me, God…is Jesus going to be premature?), so at 15:45 GMT tomorrow (your today) I would ask all of my friends to pray for me when I step into the office of Dr Agustine Nguyen (Vietnamese, probably Catholic, speaks excellent English, thanks be to God) when he tells me why he thought it important to speed up our meeting by three days.
___
You know, it’s always been my hope, when I die, to receive the gift of forewarning. Is that not what all sinners, Catholic or otherwise, should hope for?
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My thoughts and prayers will be with you, John Henry. It’ll be 3.45 on Tuesday morning, here in New Zealand.
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God be with you at the doctor’s, and thereafter.
May your Cross be lightened, and your soul strengthened.
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Prayers and a Mass offering for a happy result of the colonoscopy from me too John Henry. (Please let us know the outcome.)
If you need a ‘second opinion’, perhaps we could package up and send you our Dr. Brother Burrito, huh? You’d be in good hooves….. eh, hands, with him! 😉
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Way up the thread Toad says:
“I share your doubts, Kathleen (as always) It seems to me a lot of these things are “made up,” shall we say?”
“Doubts”??? “Made up”, Toad? Who ever said any such things? You obviously did not understand what I was saying; nor did you look into the link I gave about the Sudarium held in the cathedral in Oviedo for the last 1.000 years.
The well-documented (and IMO, quite over-powering) evidence, is that this was the cloth that was placed over the Holy Face of Jesus after His death. It coincides with the blood stains, blood group etc. of the Holy Shroud of Turin too, and all the most modern technological experiments point to this conclusion.
To my mind, another fascinating detail is that the two items (i.e. the Shroud and the Face Cloth) followed completely different trajectories before ending up where they are now kept – in Turin and Oviedo – yet the information gathered from them concur that they were placed over the same crucified Man……. Who had been scourged, crowned with thorns, beaten and nailed to a Cross, and Died.
Conclusion?
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I was under the impression you, like Toad, were seriously doubting the Manopello image, Kathleen. If I was mistaken, I apologise.
Yes, I do have my doubts about the shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo, (which I have seen for myself.)
I am not in the least impressed with the “scientific” evidence for – or against – either of them.
My doubt is simply based on the undeniable fact that each looks exactly the way one expects a medieval fake to look.
Maybe this is a cunning “ploy” on God’s part to test our faith.
Who knows?
However what is also undeniably true is that, fake or not, both articles have brought fame, many visitors, and very considerable material wealth to their fortunate host cities.
Which is nice for them.
As with Fatima and Lourdes, of course.
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Oh, and …“Conclusion?” Kathleen asks Toad.
Well, if the scientific evidence provided is indeed correct, one conclusion would be that both items were faked at the same time, by the same medieval forger…
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Dear Joyful, nice to see you again! I’ve also visited your blog from time to time but due to time pressure last months I was not so active in my online activities.
All my best wishes to you and your family.
And all my best wishes to John Henry as well.
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Erm, Kathleen, I work strictly above the diaphragm. Sorry.
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FYI: All’s well down below. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Looks like you’ll have the *benefit* of my input for sometime yet 😉
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Excellent news, John Henry. Thanks for the update.
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Toad, I would only suggest that all the information to date on the very real authenticity of the Sudarium and the Shroud of Turin, as being those placed over the sacred body of Jesus Christ, as being pretty powerful.
Perhaps you have a theory of how a pre-Medieval man of the said cloths (as they parted company well before the Middle Ages) could have invented such a forgery that even modern day scientists have no means of dong?
You are such a “doubting Toad” – is there anything you do not doubt?
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Great news JH, and an answer to our prayers! Deo Gratias.
And I also join in everyone’s delight is seeing Joyfulpapist over here again. 🙂
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