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The Face of Jesus
by Janet Brennan
FATE :: September 2007

Every Catholic church has as its focal point a large crucifix: a carving of Jesus dying on the cross. Only one church, though, claims that its crucifix shows an exact replica of Jesus’s face—an extraordinary claim, considering that no one can know for sure what Jesus looked like. But the people of Lucca, Italy, say their sculpture, called the Volto Santo (Holy Visage), is the true likeness of Christ because the carving was begun by a man who knew Jesus, and then the work was finished by angels.

This claim raises an interesting question: Jesus has perhaps the most universally recognized face in the world, but where did that image originate? He was never painted nor sculpted, nor his appearance even described in writing, during his lifetime.

One day in the year 782, residents of the village of Luni, on the Mediterranean coast in Tuscany, spotted an unmanned, open boat tossing in the sea. As it floated closer to shore they could see that the little boat carried a larger-than-life-size crucifix. They ran to get their local bishop, who upon arriving on the beach waded into the surf in an attempt to drag the boat ashore. But each time he got close to it, it drifted out of his reach and back out to sea.

Word of the mysterious boat quickly spread to the nearby town of Lucca. Lucca’s new bishop, Blessed Giovanni, joined the crowd of curious onlookers. As he stood on the beach, the boat floated up to him and he easily hauled it ashore. Giovanni claimed the cross for Lucca. But the Luni bishop begged to differ; since the boat and its cargo had landed in Luni, he felt the crucifix should belong to his town.

Giovanni proposed a solution: Why not put the cross on a cart pulled by two wild oxen, and wherever the beasts should take it, that is where it would remain. The idea sounded fair to the bishop of Luni. What he didn’t know was that the animals were from Lucca, and when yoked to the cart they beat a hasty retreat to their home territory.

And so the cross came to Lucca, and Giovanni had it installed there in the Church of San Frediano.

But the crucifix was not done traveling just yet. One night it disappeared from the church, only to reappear in a field across town. A new church was built on the spot where it was found. That church, San Martino, still houses the cross in a small temple inside its nave. The temple is made of thick marble and grillwork and its door is kept locked—to keep the antique relic safely out of the reach of overly enthusiastic worshippers, or to make sure it doesn’t embark on any more self-propelled travels?

For centuries the statue of Jesus was Lucca’s greatest treasure. Throughout the Middle Ages it was a pilgrimage destination. It was venerated as Rex Lucensium (King of the People of Lucca) and its image was put on coins minted by the Republic of Lucca. Even today, the people of Lucca dress the crucified Jesus in jewel-encrusted robes fit for a king and carry the cross through the town in a candlelight procession every September.

Legends say that the Lucca crucifix was carved by Nicodemus, a follower of Jesus and the man who, according to the Gospel of John, helped Joseph of Arimathea to lay Jesus in his tomb. Nicodemus carved the cross and Jesus’ body, but he kept having trouble carving the face. He just couldn’t get the correct likeness, so he put the sculpture away in his workshop. Years later he decided to try working on it again, but when he got it out he discovered that the face had been miraculously completed—carved by angels, the story goes.

The legend provides no explanation as to where the cross was for the next seven centuries or how it came to be floating along the Italian coastline in an unmanned boat. And when it landed, how did the people know it was carved by Nicodemus and the angels, since there was no one on the boat to tell them of its provenance? Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that any friend of Jesus would have made a sculpture of him, since the Torah forbids Jews to make graven images.

Based on the artwork’s style, art historians say it is probably of Byzantine origin and was most likely made in the 12th century. The origin of the Volto Santo remains a mystery, but one thing is certain: The face corresponds exactly with the most widely accepted image of Jesus. And when we delve into the history of that image, we will see that Byzantium and Nicodemus play an important role.......

Read the rest of this article in the September 2007 issue of FATE

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