The Roman hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia and the cult of the Vera Icon

Abstract

The genesis of the Roman hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia and the local Order of the Holy Spirit provide the context for this study of the cult of the Vera Icon and its link to the hospital. As a consequence of Pope Innocent III's decree of 1208, the church of Santa Maria in Sassia became a site for the performance of stational liturgy, which included a procession with the Veronica icon from Saint Peter's Basilica. This article deals first with the question of the symbolic communication the Veronica represented for the hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia and then, conversely, clarifies the Order's role in the spread of the Veronica cult in the city of Rome. Second, the author introduces the Order's Liber Regulae, focusing particularly on its splendidly illuminated Rule originating around 1340–1350. The study demonstrates that some motifs in the Liber Regulae's miniatures do not match contemporary reality and assumes that the divergence of the Veronica image represented an intentional part of the illuminations' program.