Laura Freeman Laura Freeman

The first-century saint who went viral

Laura Freeman reflects on art’s – and Twitter’s – fascination with Veronica and her sudarium

Proto T-shirt tout or early Christian super-fan: ‘Saint Veronica’, c.1470–5, by Hans Memling. Credit: Bridgeman Images 
issue 03 April 2021

Earlier this year, Saint Veronica went viral. A tweet observing that every painting of the saint made her look like a merchandise seller at the Crucifixion was liked more than 35,000 times and retweeted more than 6,700 times. Not bad for a first-century saint. I disagree slightly. Veronica doesn’t strike me so much as a proto T-shirt tout, more as an early Christian super-fan.

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