Holy Face Devotion
The purpose of this devotion is to make reparation for blasphemy against the first three commandments: denial of God, profanation of the Holy Name of God, and the non-observance of Sundays and Holy Days. After many years and struggles, the devotion was approved by the Church authorities. The Confraternity of the Holy Face Devotion was established on October 25, 1884, and elevated to an Archconfraternity on October 1, 1885, by Pope Leo XIII.
What Exactly is Veronica's Holy Veil?
The Veil of Veronica is a veil upon which the adorable face was miraculously impressed without paint nor artificial colors, but by the power of the divine Son of God during His passion.
33 AD - The Passion of Our Lord
​As Our Lord carries His Cross to Calvary, man and wood fall to the ground. A woman named Berenicia (now known as St. Veronica) courageously pushes through the soldiers and crowd to reach Jesus. She falls on her knees before Him and presents her veil. Jesus takes the veil, wipes His bleeding face, and returns it with gratitude. After Berenicia escapes the chaos of the crowd, she looks at her veil to see that miraculously, Our Lord has left an image of His Face on the veil. It is only afterward that Berenicia is known by the name of Veronica, which name is given from the words VERA ICON, meaning "true portrait", to commemorate her bravery.
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Veronica later passes the relic of the veil to Clement I (the 3rd successor of St. Peter). The Holy Veil is hidden away in the catacombs for the next 3 centuries during the persecutions of the Church. The Holy Veil is finally placed in the church that was constructed over the tomb of St. Peter, which is now the Basilica of St. Peter. Throughout the centuries, Veronica's Holy Veil has remained there where it is protected and venerated to this day.
Resources for the Holy Face Devotion
This is the website of Mary Jane Zuzolo. She is the great-great-great niece of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre. Mary Jane Zuzolo wrote the forward to Fr. Carney’s book: “The Secret of the Holy Face”
The Holy Face Adoration website is hosted by author Vicki Schreiner. It states a mission “to share the message of the Holy Face Devotion as Our Lord Jesus Christ requested through His Divine Revelations to Sr. Mary of St. Peter; to open hearts to a deeper understanding of this beautiful Devotion through its prayers and promises; and to enlighten all God’s children of Our Lord’s desire that we show reparation of sin through Adoration and Devotion to His Holy Face.”
Here is the original Manual of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face published in 1887.
Fr. Robert Altier: The Holy Face Mass of Reparation and Devotion Homily 3-4-2025
The Secret of the Holy Face
Fr. Robert Altier 3-8-2025
Holy Face Devotion: Perfect Reparation - Explaining the Faith w/Fr. Chris Alar 1-11-2025
The Chaplet of the Holy Face Devotion is Like a Mini Exorcism with Fr. Carney 8-6-2023
Holy Face Devotion with Fr. Lawrence Carney
Pt 01 1-30-2023
The Golden Arrow with Fr. Lawrence Carney
Pt. 2 1-31-2023
This is an interview with Fr. Carney, the author of the book: The Secret of the Holy Face.
Fr. Robert Altier: The Holy Face Mass of Reparation and Devotion Homily -Sept 2023
Holy Face Presentation by Vicki Schreiner
The Devotion to the Holy Face
by Fr. Robert Altier, CPO Spiritual Director
Over the past few years, Catholic Parents OnLine has embraced and promoted the devotion to the Holy Face. This devotion, given by our Lord to a Carmelite nun in Tours, France in 1846, is intended to make reparation for blasphemies against the Holy Name, for the failure to keep Sunday as the Lord’s Day, and to combat Communism. Today, all three of these areas have reached unprecedented levels.
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People use our Lord’s Name in anger, in surprise, or for emphasis in making a point. The Holy Name is used lightly in conversation and it seems Hollywood cannot put out a movie unless it uses God’s Name wrongly on at least a few occasions, but usually many more.
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Sunday has become the largest shopping day of the week. Many businesses are open on Sundays, forcing employees to work. The NFL has taken over Sunday for half the year and many youth sporting events are held on Sunday mornings when people should be at Mass. Rather than be a day set aside for prayer, study of the faith, and recreation, Sunday has just become another day of carrying out our own pursuits while paying little or no attention to the Lord.
At Fatima our Lady told us that Russia would spread her errors throughout the world. The evil of atheistic communism has indeed spread, as our Lady said it would, and has now infiltrated into or completely taken over most of the world. Even worse, it has infiltrated into the Church and is exerting profound influence, even in the highest levels of the Church.
Given this brief outline of the areas our Lord asked us to address with this devotion, we can see the absolute necessity of this spiritual exercise in our own day. The devotion has been fully approved by the Church and was spreading quickly, but then fell into decline. For many years it was almost unheard of, but now it is suddenly and inexplicably (on the natural level) exploding in popularity. Why?
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Our Lord spoke to Sister Mary of St. Peter, giving to humanity the means to defeat communism a year before Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto. Our Lord told Sister that the chastisement for our failure to love and serve the Lord was going to be brought about through “revolutionary men.” We are not speaking about something that affects only a small country like Israel, but that affects the whole world. The world cannot be brought into exile like the Israelites of old when they forsook the ways of God. In those times, God used the enemies of Israel as the means to purify them. Today, He is using the enemies of the Church and of humanity to purify and to punish our widespread disobedience.
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The devotion to the Holy Face was given before Communism began. In other words, this was not a devotion that someone developed years later as a means to combat such a heinous evil. If this had happened, although the devotion may be good, we would be trying to fight a praeternatural evil with human or natural level means. Instead, we have the means to combat a praeternatural evil with a supernatural response. God has allowed things to get as bad as they are so that each person has a clear choice to make. Do we want to continue along the path we have been on or do we want to get onto the path God has set out for us? One is the wide and easy path that leads to perdition and the other is rough and narrow, but it leads to life.​
Veil of Manopello
The Church has three miraculous images of our Lord: the Veil of Veronica, the Shroud of Turin, and the Veil of Manopello. Going in reverse order, the Veil of Manopello, above, is an image of our Lord at the moment of His resurrection.​
The Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin is an image of our Lord in death.
The Veil of Veronica
The Veil of Veronica is an image of our Lord from His Passion, but before His death. The image from the Veil of Veronica is the image associated with this devotion.
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It should be noted that this is an image made by artists. The actual Veil has become discolored over the centuries and the image can no longer be seen on it. However, during a crisis in Rome in 1849, the Pope declared that the Veil should be exposed for public veneration, and prayers should be offered to bring the crisis to an end. A candle was placed before the Veil and a white silk sheet was hung behind the veil. On the third and final day of prayer, an image was seen being projected onto the white silk sheet. The Pope ordered that artists should be brought in to draw or paint what they saw. So, the image we have today is an artist’s rendition of the miracle that occurred that day.
Although the devotion was well received a century and a half ago, I believe it was really intended for today. It was necessary, as we have seen, that it was revealed before the formal inception of communism so we know it is endowed with divine power and the promise that this will defeat communism. It was also necessary for the devotion to become popular so it could be accepted by the popes and bishops, thus preparing the way for when the devotion would truly be needed.
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The point of speaking of the three images we have of our Lord and the idea that this devotion was actually meant for our day are very much connected. The image from the Veil of Veronica is, as mentioned, from the time of our Lord’s Passion: from the time when He was carrying His Cross on the way to His death. This is important to this devotion because today the Church is undergoing her passion. Our Lord will not abandon His Spouse in her time of suffering. She will be crucified and she will rise to be more glorious than ever, but today she is being condemned, beaten, and scourged.
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As she carries her cross on the way to her crucifixion, God is asking for heroic souls, souls who love Him and love His Church, to be like St. Veronica who ignored the crowds and the soldiers and offered charity to our Lord in the form of wiping His Face with her veil. As the Church undergoes her passion, as it happened with our Lord, the majority will abandon her. When our Lord was crucified and buried, the Faith remained alive in one person: the Blessed Virgin Mary. No one else believed in the resurrection except our Lady. This time, the Faith will be maintained by a small number of people who are willing to suffer with the Church and remain faithful, trusting in our Lord’s promise that the jaws of hell will not prevail against her.
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Make no mistake. Two thousand years ago Jesus really died and He was really buried; on the third day He really rose from the dead. In our time, the Church is going to be appear dead and buried, but she will rise again by the power of God. Are we willing to unite with our Lady and remain faithful? This might appear to be a simple and obvious question, but when things get tough, the Church is rocked by scandals or as false accusations are brought against her, she is being persecuted and those who remain faithful will be persecuted; it might become very difficult. Looking back, it should have been pretty easy to remain faithful to Jesus, but even his Apostles, with the exception of St. John, ran away and locked themselves in a room.
We are coming to the Church’s greatest hour, an hour that will appear on the surface to be her worst hour. We have been given a privilege that is the single greatest privilege to be given to anyone since the time of our Lord’s Passion, death, and resurrection. God has you alive today in a time when the Church will be crucified. Pray and ask the Lord if He is calling you to be like our Lady, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. John; the few whose love and fidelity brought them to the foot of the Cross. If this is your calling, take up the devotion to the Holy Face, pray for the grace to remain faithful, and be part of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart; that is, share with our Lady in crushing the head of the enemy of our souls. This will only take place in the resurrection of the Church. When she dies, we can unite with the image on the Shroud of Turin, in her resurrection, we can unite with the image on the Veil of Manopello, but today she is in her passion, so unite with the image on the Veil of Veronica and take up the Holy Face devotion.
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If you would like more information about this, there are several books available. The Golden Arrow is about the messages of our Lord to Sister Mary of St. Peter; The Secret of the Holy Face by Fr. Lawrence Carney outlines the devotion and the call to unite in defeating the enemy; and Unveiling the Sixth Station by Mary Jane Zuzolo goes into greater depth about this devotion. There is also a group called the Martinians, named for St. Martin of Tours, that is working to spread the devotion and establish prayer groups.