What if they cloned Jesus — would the same thing happen all over again?
That was the idea I had when I began researching my first novel, “The Sixth Station,” out Tuesday.
I began by exploring the possibility that the DNA of Jesus could be present somewhere — most likely, of course, on the Shroud of Turin. I was surprised and disappointed to discover that the image on the Shroud is only a negative — like an old photo negative. What’s dark is light, and what’s light is dark. The theory is that the image was likely transferred from something other than a body. Therefore no DNA.
Where else then could the DNA of Jesus exist? Then it hit me. The answer was staring me in the face in almost every Catholic church in the world — in one of the stations of the cross.
If you aren’t familiar with them, each station of the cross depicts an event that occurred as Jesus carried the cross. The sixth station, “Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus” shows the miracle that supposedly occurred when Saint Veronica, the wife of a Roman official, wiped the face of Jesus. Immediately, her veil became embedded with His image.
So, did this 2,000 year old piece of cloth still exist anywhere? Yes, but not where we’re told it is. For years, the Vatican said the veil was in a room in the Veronica pillar — the fourth and most important one supporting St. Peter’s basilica, underneath which Pope Julius II laid the first stone in 1506. A version of Veronica’s Veil is displayed briefly from a balcony once a year during Lent to massive crowds below.
Too bad it’s a fake. After an investigation into the veil was published, the Vatican refused to comment on whether theirs was the genuine article.
But while that veil may be fake, the real veil does exist — and more explosively still — this piece of cloth bearing Jesus’ image never belonged to anyone named Veronica.
The real Veronica’s Veil rests in a remote monastery, the Sanctuary of the Holy Face, about 150 miles from Rome. It had been stolen out of the Vatican during the sacking of Rome and was never returned.
In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI himself went to Manoppello, Italy, and prayed before this veil — and came away believing in it so completely that two weeks later he bestowed upon that little monastery the rare honor of naming it a papal basilica.
To find out for myself, I called upon an old friend of mine, Father Peter Jacobs, an 80-year old exorcist priest who was attached to the Vatican. He and I took a road trip from Rome to the Holy Face Sanctuary in Manoppello hoping to see their veil — the one allegedly bearing the image, and perhaps the DNA, of Jesus.
When we got to the monastery we met the Capuchin monks who have guarded the veil known as il Volto Santo for hundreds of years. Without preamble, the good monks, (along with Sister Blandina Scholmer, a hermetic German nun who devoted her life to studying the veil) brought us to the altar to see the relic up close and personal.
The image, made without a drop of ink, dye or paint, is a full face image of a man with bloody bruises on his nose and cheek. The image is embedded on piece of fabric called byssus, woven from the “hair” of mollusks. Were we staring at the real face of Jesus?
But the real surprises were yet to come: As I photographed it, each image on my digital camera bore a different expression. In one, the mouth was open, teeth showing. In another, the mouth was closed in a beatific smile causing Father Jake to faint on the altar.
Still, I couldn’t help but to ask Padre Carmine if he really, really believed, that this was the genuine “Veronica.” What he said floored me. “Veronica,” he said, “is Latin for ‘true image.’ ”
Of course, how could anyone named Veronica have lived in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago? It’s like saying Saint Betty.
So there was no Saint Veronica?
Turns out the story of Veronica’s Veil doesn’t even exist anywhere in the Bible. It’s a story that was created sometime in the Middle Ages — perhaps as a way to explain the very existence of this cloth.
The next day, Sister Blandina showed me her transparent photos of the Manoppello veil and placed it atop an opaque photo of the Shroud of Turin. I was astounded to see that they matched up precisely — and stranger still — formed a full, almost 3-D face!
Why did these two pieces of cloth match up so exactly? I learned that 2,000 years ago, when a Jewish man died, a cloth was placed on his face before a shroud was wrapped around the body. The Shroud of Turin and il Volto Santo are those two cloths for Jesus.
But who took the cloth from Jesus’ tomb? That person had to be the first person to find the tomb empty — Mary Magdalene.
The rest of the hunt took me to six years through Spain, France and even the remote Amazon to complete. All I wanted to do was to write a simple thriller. But when you get involved in sacred, secret things like this, well, nothing’s simple — is it?
Post writer Linda Stasi’s novel, “The Sixth Station” (Tor-Forge Books), is out this week. Twitter: @lindastasi