The women behind Christ’s face: appropriations, performances and ambiguities of Veronica

Abstract

In this article, I analyse the cultural appropriations and ritual transformations of Veronica, the vero icon, character linked to the dramatization of the Passion of Christ, which refers both to the woman who would have helped him in the Way of Sorrows, wiping his face covered in blood and sweat, as the cloth which would have been printed the face of Christ. Connecting my own ethnographic data about Holy Week celebrations in Ouro Preto (Minas Gerais) with others research works, I investigate the relationship maintained among Veronica’s interpreters and their audience, and between these women and the character/artefact manipulated by them. By analysing the techniques of performance and ambiguities that we can draw from the ritual pragmatics involving such character, I conclude that Veronica (i.e., the “shroud”) can be understood as a kind of “mask”, a persona that allows both mobilize and express certain inner states of its performers, as well as connecting profane corporeality of these interpreters with ambiguous sacredness of Christ’s face.

Keywords
Veronica; Shroud; Performance; Holy Week