Collection Publications: Reflections of the Passion (y1957-60)

The receptacle used to house the blessed wafers, or Hosts, is a tabernacle. It has been suggested that this wooden relief was the door of a tabernacle, for which images of Christ's body would have been meaningful. Accordingly, the central image is the Crucifixion. At the top is the Annunciation to the Virgin, which marks the Incarnation -the moment when Christ assumes a bodily form. At the bottom, two angels support a cloth bearing an image of the holy face: this is the sweat-doth, or sudarium, a relic purported to have been used by Saint Veronica to wipe Christ's face as he carried the cross and, by means of a miracle, to have been imprinted with his features. The sudarium is a tangible and lasting reference to Christ's human body.