The Gospel Account
The healing of the woman with the issue of blood is preserved in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-48). In each account she had been afflicted with a flow of blood for twelve years and had exhausted her means on physicians without being helped.
Coming up behind Jesus in the press of the crowd, she touched the hem of his garment, saying within herself that if she could only touch his clothing she would be healed. The flow of blood stopped immediately. The Lord, perceiving that power had gone out from him, turned and asked who had touched him; and when the woman came forward in fear and told him the truth, he answered, "Daughter, your faith has made you well."
Because the Gospels leave the woman unnamed, the name Veronica attached to her in later tradition. The apocryphal Acts of Pilate (the Gospel of Nicodemus) names her Berenike, the Greek form behind the Latin Veronica, and recounts that she sought to testify on Jesus's behalf during his trial.
The Memorial at Caesarea Philippi
Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in his Ecclesiastical History (Book 7, chapter 18), reports that the woman healed of the issue of blood came from Caesarea Philippi, also called Paneas, where in his own day her house was still pointed out and memorials of the Savior's kindness to her remained.
Among these was a pair of bronze statues said to have been set up by the woman herself: an image of a kneeling woman with her hands stretched out as though praying, and opposite her an upright figure of a man clothed in a double cloak who extended his hand toward her. Eusebius records that a strange plant grew up to the hem of the bronze cloak and was held to be a remedy for diseases.
By tradition the monument is said to have stood until the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate, who attempted to replace it; according to the church historian Sozomen, the substitute was destroyed and the original fragments were recovered by Christians.
Veneration and Tradition
The Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Veronica on July 12, honoring her as one of the righteous who came to faith through the healing power of Christ. The Synaxarion relates that she remained faithful to the Faith of Christ until death and reposed in peace.
In the medieval West a separate and later legend developed in which a woman named Veronica wiped the face of Christ as he carried the cross to Calvary, leaving his image imprinted on the cloth (the Veil of Veronica); this Western narrative, which first links Veronica to the Passion procession only in the late fourteenth century, is distinct from the Eastern identification of Veronica as the woman with the issue of blood.
