St. Veronica: History or Likely Fable?
Kevin R. Henke
September 15, 2022
In Henke (2022a), I list four hypotheses to explain the Talking Snake story of Genesis 3. Hypothesis #3 compares the Talking Snake story to an ancient work of fiction or a “campfire story” that was mistakenly taken by the ancient Israelites as being real. I also linked to a webarticle by Jimenez (2014), which argues that some Roman Catholic saints are likely examples of works of fiction that were eventually taken as being true. Here is the relevant section from Hypothesis #3 from Henke (2022a):
3. The Talking Snake of Genesis 3 was part of a made-up campfire story, a parable or based on a pagan myth that eventually was taken as fact by the ancient Israelites, like how President Reagan and his fans mistook fictional stories from World War 2 as real. William Tell (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-search-of-william-tell-2198511/ ) and a number of Roman Catholic saints (https://listverse.com/2014/05/17/10-beloved-saints-with-fictitious-biographies/ ) are probably also myths.
Lundahl (2022c) then responded to this section from Henke (2022a):
“Modern scholars dispute the historicity of William Tell and Protestant scholars dispute that of lots of Catholic saints (and the modern scholars you provide are culturally Protestant. I may take up separate posts when trying to deal with these links, but Smithsonian Mag is not my best academic resource for European History of the Middle Ages and Listverse is trusted when providing lists, but not quite as trusted with backing up each detail on each list with good scholarship.”
This statement is from an individual that relies on Wikipedia (e.g., Lundahl 2022d; Lundahl 2022o), deliberately avoids using the actual peer-reviewed references that I give him, and shuns providing bibliographies (e.g., Henke 2022at; Henke 2022e). Mr. Lundahl has no idea of what good scholarship is.
In Henke (2022b), I replied to Lundahl (2022c):
“In my discussions of Hypothesis #3 in Henke (2022a), I mentioned that stories about William Tell and some Roman Catholic Saints are additional examples of works of fiction that are now widely misinterpreted as historical fact. I linked to the following webarticles:
In Search of William Tell (Robert Wernick, Smithsonian Magazine)
Listverse: 10 Beloved Saints the Church Just Made Up by Larry Jimenez and fact checked by Jamie Frater.
Lundahl (2022c) complains about the reliability of my references (Smithsonian Magazine and Listverse). He also states that he may give a separate response on these topics later.
Granted, my preliminary links on William Tell and some of the Roman Catholic saints were not articles from peer-reviewed journals. They simply provided some background information on how these individuals were probably not historical. Nevertheless, Mr. Lundahl could consult Jean-François Bergier’s Guillaume Tell (1988), which is mentioned in the Smithsonian Magazine article, if he did not like the summary in the article. The Listverse article on the Catholic saints also contains links with additional information and documentation. Nevertheless, here’s a journal article that discusses more about the origin of William Tell:
Hughes, S.C. 2012. “The Limits of Cultural Nationalism: Italian Switzerland from a Risorgimento Perspective”, Nations and Nationalism, v. 18, n. 1, pp. 57-77.”
I further discuss the William Tell story in Henke (2022ek). In this and subsequent essays, I’ll reply to comments in Lundahl (2022n) about ten Roman Catholic saints discussed in Jimenez (2014) and how they might not have ever existed. Of course, Mr. Lundahl, being a conservative Roman Catholic, does not like any Bible stories and probably not any Roman Catholic saints being identified as likely myths. I’m really curious to know if there are any Roman Catholic saint stories that Mr. Lundahl would consider unreliable and probably fictional. Nevertheless, Lundahl (2022n) attempts to defend the authenticity of the stories about the ten questionable saints identified in Jimenez (2014).
St. Veronica or Berenike in Greek is #10 on the Jimenez (2014) list. This is what Lundahl (2022n) says about St. Veronica:
10) St. Veronica - In fact, Greeks call here Berenike, and Veronica is a nickname with reference to vera icon, the cloth she obtained by wiping Our Lord's face. And it is in Oviedo, and agrees in facial features and blood group (I think) with the Shroud of Turin (there is yet another not manmade icon, sent to king Abgar of Edessa).
There is no specific reason to doubt her existence except that the Latin version of her name is an anagram, and that she is not in the Bible, neither of which is a reason. There are general reasons presented above, which do not hold ground.
Once more, Lundahl (2022n) fails to realize that the first reaction to any claim must be skepticism (Henke 2022b; Henke 2022dv) and not to simply and blindly accept the historicity of St. Veronica just because Roman Catholic tradition says so. Mr. Lundahl must produce evidence to demonstrate that she was a real individual and not a fable. Otherwise, her existence is only a possibility at best. Unfortunately, there are millions of gullible people that form a long procession going back over hundreds of years that simply and unquestionably accept whatever their religious, political or other authorities tell them. Whether atheist, agnostic or theist, no one should accept any claim without good evidence.
For interested readers, Molinari (2014) discusses St. Veronica and her face cloth in some detail. The first specific mention of St. Veronica is in a 4th to 6th century edition of the apocryphal Acts of Pilate, also called the Gospel of Nicodemus. The Acts of Pilate seems to have originated in the 2nd century AD, but was revised up through at least the 4th century. We don’t know when the Veronica story was added to the apocryphal document. Mr. Lundahl and other Roman Catholics should be highly suspect of any story whose earliest and best account comes from a fake acts/gospel. Now, it’s possible that someone named Bernice or Bernike, later called Veronica, met Jesus. Molinari (2014), however, points out that there are a lot of contradictory stories about Veronica and her supposed face cloth with the image of Jesus. Thus, it’s difficult to accept any of them as historically reliable. The contradictory stories about St. Veronica and their believers demonstrate that people can mistake fiction for reality. Mr. Lundahl needs to be more thoughtful and skeptical of his Church’s traditions.
References:
Jimenez, L. 2014. “10 Beloved Saints The Church Just Made Up”, Listverse, https://listverse.com/2014/05/17/10-beloved-saints-with-fictitious-biographies/ (accessed July 25, 2022).
Molinari, A.L. 2014. “St. Veronica: Evolution of a Sacred Legend”, Priscilla Papers, v. 28, n. 1, spring, pp. 10-16.