The Book:
Stories of Mary
The Mother of Jesus Christ
Beautiful stories related to Mary's unforgettable life:
Genealogy of a picture
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Constantine and his entire family, including his mother Helena and much of his court, had converted to Christianity. Because of this, Empress Helena organized the expedition - in which she intended to find the wooden cross of Jesus.
Helena had great success - in addition to finding the wood of the cross, she received, to her surprise, from her Christian women, a great gift: the art piece painted by Luke with the perfect features of Mary.
Empress Helena sent it to her son, Emperor Constantine, who received the gift with immense joy and happiness, having the piece of art placed in her private chapel, where it was kept safely for more than 400 years. That same picture was later sent to a castle in Russia, called Belz, and stayed there for a long, long time.
Luke the Evangelist, miniature from the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany, Queen consort of France (1477-1514) – by Jean Bourdichon (1457 or 1459 – 1521) was a French miniature painter and manuscript illuminator at the court of France between the end of the 15th century and the start of the 16th century, in the reigns of Louis XI of France, Charles VIII of France, Louis XII of France and Francis I of France. He was probably born in Tours, and was a pupil of Jean Fouquet. He died in Tours.
Two of Bourdichon's most famous works are the Hours of Louis XII (now dispersed, begun 1498) and the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany for Louis's queen
Veronica's Veil
Veronica holding her veil, Hans Memling, c. 1470 - Collection:
National Gallery of Art.
The story of the “Veil of Veronica” is not described in the canonical gospels nor expressly in the apocryphal gospels. They are narratives that are part of accounts of Christian oral traditions.
However, there are proven historical facts that this veil was in Rome in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, as there are references to a piece called “Veronica's Veil”.
Ancient scholars in religious writings often assumed that the “Veil of Veronica” was kept in St. Peter's Basilica, in the papacy of John VII, because a chapel was built there at that time and was called “Chapel of Veronica”.
The Chapel of The Holy Face on the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem.
The Veronica Chapel on the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem. Traditionally, the home of St Veronica and site of the miracle.
The Holy Shroud
On the third day of Jesus' death, a small group of women returned to the tomb of Christ - among them Mary Magdalene. This return was just at dawn. However, the small group found the tomb open, without the Roman legionaries’ troop , who had escaped from the site, abandoning their guard posts.
Mary Magdalena, despite being very afraid, was the first to enter the cave, followed, just behind, by the group of women. Minutes before, they had been challenged by an Announcing Angel, who had said that the tomb was empty and ordered them to come in to see what had happened: The Messiah, the Son of Abraham's only God, had risen.
Mary Magdalene was able to see that the interior was empty and that the shroud that enveloped Christ was folded on top of the stone on which his body lay three days earlier - when his hurried funeral had been held.
Secondo Pia's 1898 negative of the image on the Shroud of Turin has an appearance suggesting a positive image. It is used as part of the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. Image from Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne.
Secondo Pia (9 September 1855 – 7 September 1941) was an Italian lawyer and amateur photographer. He is best known for taking the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin on 28 May 1898 and, when he was developing them, noticing that the photographic negatives showed a clearer rendition of the image. The image he obtained from the shroud has been approved by the Roman Catholic Church as part of the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.
