Saint Veronica is venerated as a person who wiped Jesus' face with her veil. The story begins with Luke 23:27-31, which tells us that certain women lamented as Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha. At this stage, there is no mention of Veronica or of her wiping Jesus' face.
An early medieval story expanded on Luke's brief passage, saying that one of these women offered a cloth to wipe the face of Jesus which then resulted in a portrait on the cloth (a reproduction of which is now kept as a relic in Saint Peter's basilica in Rome). Her name was given as Veronica (vera + ikon = "true image"), and she now has a place in the popular exercise of the Stations of the Cross.
It seems unlikely that the medieval authors, well known for their pious creativity, could have known something that the author of Luke did not know. It is even more unlikely that the woman's name happened to coincide with what she was famous for in this story - wiping Jesus' face and receiving a true image of his face. We can say with some certainty that St. Veronica never lived, but she remains important in Catholic liturgy
Chat with our AI personalities