e was going to Calvary. There are many
versions of this legend, as for instance that it was this woman whom
Christ had cured of the bloody issue, whilst again it is maintained
that she was no less a person than Berenice, niece to King Herod. It
is also related that after the dispersion of the apostles, St
Veronica went in company with Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Lazarus,
to Marseilles, where she wrought many miracles with her kerchief.
The Emperor Tiberius heard of these miracles, and having fallen ill,
he summoned Veronica to Rome. She cured him in a moment, and was
rewarded with great honours and rich presents. The remainder of her
life was spent at Rome in company with St Peter and St Paul, and she
bequeathed the miraculous kerchief to Pope St Clement. It must,
however, be observed, that this legend has not obtained the official
approbation of the Roman Catholic Church, though St Veronica is
acknowledged and has a place in the calendar for the 21st of
February; and it is said she suffered martyrdom in France. With
regard to the large sudaries or sheets upon which the whole body of
Jesus Christ is impressed, and the absurdity of which Calvin has so
clearly exposed, the most celebrated of these is that at Turin. Its
history is curious, inasmuch as it shows that the efforts of
enlightened and pious prelates to prevent idolatrous practices
invading their churches proved unavailing against that general
tendency to worship visible objects, so strongly implanted in
corrupt human nature, that even in this enlightened age we are
continually witnessing such manifestation of its revival as may be
compared only to that of the dark period of the middle ages. The
most striking instances undoubtedly are those of the holy coat of
Treves, and the relics of St Theodosia, which have been recently
installed at Amiens, with great pomp, and in the presence of the
most eminent prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, who seem now to
be as anxious to promote this kind of fetishism, as some of their
predecessors were formerly to repress the same abuse. But let us
return to our immediate subject--the _holy sudarium_ of Turin. It is
a long linen sheet, upon which is painted in a reddish colour a
double likeness of a human body, _i.e._, as seen from