This devotion, as revealed to Sr Marie de St Pierre (1816-1848) in the 1840s, is a devotion specifically to the Holy Face of Jesus of the Veil of Veronica. Like the devotion to the Sacred Heart, it is a devotion of reparation.
In the 1840s Our Blessed Lord revealed to the humble Carmelite of Tours that He desired that we make reparation for the sins which offend God the most in these modern times, the sins of blasphemy, the profanation of Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, and Communism. This reparation was to pray and honour the Holy Face as revealed in ‘the Veronica’ (vera – true; icon – image).
In January 1849, Pope Pius IX had the relic of Veronica’s veil placed for public veneration in Rome. During these days the image of the Holy Face was illuminated by a soft light and appeared as if living. Artists then replicated the image upon the veil, which were then touched to the veil, and sent abroad for veneration. Several were sent to the nuns at Tours.
The holy Carmelite had a great devotee and supporter in the work of reparation, and that was Venerable Leo Papin-Dupont, known as the Holy Man of Tours. After her death he turned his drawing room into a chapel where he hung the Holy Face relic image and a sanctuary lamp, the oil from which occasioned thousands of miracles.
The devotion and work of reparation was desired by Our Blessed Lord to be a work of the Church, and in 1885, Pope Leo XIII recognised and erected the association of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face to incorporate ‘in the whole world’, all those who in venerating Christ’s outraged Face, wish to unite themselves to the act of love by which He has saved the world.
PROMISES
of our Lord Jesus Christ in favour of all those who honour His holy Face
1. They shall receive in themselves, by the impression of my humanity, a bright irradiation of my Divinity, and shall be so illuminated by it in their inmost souls, that, by their likeness to my Face, they shall shine with a brightness surpassing that of many others in eternal life. (St Gertrude, Insinuations, book iv, ch. vii. )
2. St Mechtilde, having asked our Lord that those who celebrate the memory of His sweet Face should never be deprived of His amiable company, be replied: “Not one of them shall be separated from me.” (St Mechtilde, Of Spiritual Grace, book i, ch. iii.)
3. “Our Lord, said Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, has promised me that He will imprint His Divine likeness on the souls of those who honour His most holy countenance.” (January 21st 1847.) “This adorable Face is, as it were, the seal of the Divinity, which has the virtue of reproducing the likeness of God in the souls that are applied to it.” ( November 6th 1845.)
4. “By my Holy Face you shall work miracles.” (Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, October 27th 1845.)
5. “By my Holy Face you will obtain the conversion of many sinners. Nothing that you ask in making this offering will be refused to you. If you knew how pleasing the sight of my Face is to my Father!” ( November 22nd 1886. )
6. “As in a kingdom you can procure all you wish for with a coin marked with the prince’s effigy, so in the kingdom of Heaven you will obtain all you desire with the precious coin of my holy Humanity, which is my adorable countenance.” (October 29th 1845. )
7. “All those who honour my Holy Face in a spirit of reparation, will by so doing perform the office of the pious Veronica.” ( October 27th 1845. )
8. “According to the care you take in making reparation to my Face disfigured by blasphemies, so will I take care of yours which has been disfigured by sin. I will reprint therein my image and render it as beautiful as it was on leaving the Baptismal font.” (Our Lord to Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, Novr 3rd 1845.)
9. “Our Lord has promised me, said again Sister Saint-Pierre, for all those who defend His cause in this work of reparation, by words, by prayers, or in writings, that he will defend them before His Father; at their death He will purify their souls by effacing all the blots of sin and will restore to them their primitive beauty.” (March 12 1846.)
The Golden Arrow Prayer
May the most Holy, most Sacred, most Adorable, most Incomprehensible, and Unutterable Name of God be always praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified, in heaven, on earth, and in the hells, by all God’s creatures and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.
Work of Reparation 