Nike (Veronica)
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Nike is a Woman of the Jewish diaspora. A widow of about forty years old and without children, she comes to settle as close as possible to the Holy City of Jerusalem which she venerates: she chooses Jericho where she acquires land.
She hears about Jesus from his Disciples and then decides to devote her life and her Goods to the poor of Jesus, who accepts.[1] He entrusts her with regularly caring for Elijah the Essene who has retired as a hermit to Mount Cherith, a desert massif near Jericho.[2]
She inherits the care of Eglah, a young enslaved Israelite girl redeemed by Claudia Procula. Nike couldn’t be happier:"She begged me so much, says Jesus, and it is a just prayer. The widow without children will have a holy love, and the girl without parents a truly Israelite [[Parents, Father, Mother|mother]."[3]Nike acquires a house in Jerusalem to be near Jesus whenever he comes for the Jewish festivals.[4]
She collaborates with Zacchaeus, the tax collector of Jericho. After his conversion[5], he embarks on a work of charity aimed at the conversion of sinners and pariahs of society.[6]-[7]
Nike makes available the Fruits of her rich property located on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Disciples.[8] All of them, praising her Home enthusiastically:- "Good Fruits!" says one.- "And a good disciple," says another.
- "A beautiful house, without luxury but without misery," adds a third.
- "And run by a Woman who exercises a gentle authority. Order, cleanliness, respect and also tenderness."
- "What fertile fields she has around! A real wealth!"[9]
Her generosity and compassion are rewarded during the Passion, by the miracle of her veil: she had prepared a cloth so that the condemned could gird it around his loins instead of the rags usually used. On the Via Dolorosa, she meets Jesus, sweating and drenched with blood. She offers him the cloth she had prepared for him to wipe himself. Jesus refreshes himself and returns the cloth to her.[10]
She wants to keep this cloth as a relic, but she fears the threatening crowd stirred by her gesture of pity. Escorted by the friendly Roman women who were also present, she takes refuge in her house in Jerusalem. She collapses in weeping.
The earthquake terrifies her: she faints. Upon regaining consciousness, she wishes to kiss the relic and discovers the Face of the Redeemer imprinted on it. She hurriedly runs to the Virgin Mary just returned from the sepulchre. The sight of the relic comforts Mary to the highest degree.[11]
Nike is present at the Ascension.[12]
During the first persecutions, her property becomes one of the refuges for the Disciples.[13]
Her name[edit | edit source]
Niké (Nique) means "Victory" in Greek. It is the same root that gave its name to the city of Nice in France. The nickname Veronica, by which she is better known, comes from a distortion of the Greek name Béréniké (Berenice), "bearer of victory," which is more consistent with what Maria Valtorta says. An apocryphal writing: the Acts of Pilate, chapter VII mentions her but it is the name of the hemorrhaging woman healed, not of the Woman who wipes the Face of Jesus.
Where is she mentioned in the work?[edit | edit source]
EMV 373 EMV 378 EMV 382 EMV 388
EMV 400 EMV 410 EMV 418 EMV 424 EMV 427 EMV 492
EMV 502 EMV 505 EMV 509 EMV 511 EMV 520 EMV 522 EMV 524 EMV 532 EMV 538 EMV 547 EMV 551 EMV 554 EMV 556 EMV 559 EMV 560 EMV 564 EMV 566 EMV 567 EMV 568 EMV 571 EMV 574 EMV 575 EMV 576 EMV 578 EMV 579 EMV 580 EMV 582 EMV 583 EMV 584 EMV 596
EMV 602 EMV 608 EMV 612 EMV 626 EMV 631 EMV 632 EMV 637 EMV 641 EMV 643 EMV 648
Learn more about this character[edit | edit source]
Excerpts from the "Dictionary of Characters of the Salton Gospel Maria Valtorta" (Mgr René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère, Éditions Salvator, 2012):Saint Veronica is celebrated on February 4th in the West and October 4th in the East.She is not named in the Gospels and the miracle of the veil is not mentioned there, but the 6th station of the traditional Way of the Cross commemorates her act.
The transformation of her name from Niké (Victory in Greek) into Veronica wavers between several hypotheses mixing Greek and Latin. The most common is the amalgamation with the miraculous veil: the Vera Ikon, or true image.
In the Middle Ages, legend and tradition say she was married to Zacchaeus. She would have emigrated with him to Gaul at Soulac-sur-Mer (Gironde). She would have died there in the year 70 at the age of 87.[14] Her Relics are venerated in the Basilica of Our Lady of the End of the Lands. Other sources postulate that her Relics were transported to the Church Saint-Surin of Bordeaux following the Wars[15], but we are in the same region.
By comparing these data with the information from Maria Valtorta, it can be noted that her union, probably platonic, with Zacchaeus is plausible: both are from Jericho and devote themselves to the same apostolate of the afflicted. Their emigration to Gaul is plausible. During the first persecutions, there was a wave of emigration: the Family of Bethany, for example.
According to Saint Methodius of Tyre (3rd century)[16], she would have passed through Rome, where the Shroud healed Emperor Tiberius.
According to Anne-Catherine Emmerich (19th century), Veronica was a virgin of the Temple. Her name was Séraphia.
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
- ↑ EMV 373.4
- ↑ EMV 382.6
- ↑ EMV 388.4
- ↑ EMV 505.1
- ↑ Luke 19:2-7.
- ↑ EMV 522.8-9
- ↑ EMV 524.1-6
- ↑ EMV 578.2
- ↑ EMV 382.5
- ↑ EMV 608.9
- ↑ EMV 612.19-20
- ↑ EMV 638.19
- ↑ EMV 648.1
- ↑ P. Philippe Labbé, New Library of Manuscripts, Volume I, page 629 and Volume II, page 265.
- ↑ Reported by Mgr Gaume in Life of Saints 1880.
- ↑ Mariani Scoli chronicon ad. Year 39.