The Veil of Veronica

Das Schweißtuch der Veronika #1

by Gertrud von le Fort

English, German (translation)

Genres: Fiction, Catholic

314 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Gertrud von Le Fort was a German writer of novels, poems, and essays. She came from a Protestant background, but converted to Catholicism in 1926. Most of Gertrud's writings come after this conversion. In 1952 she won the Gottfried-Keller-Preis award.

Her novella Die Letzte am Schafott (The Last on the Scaffold) was the original basis for the opera Dialogues of the Carmelites by Francis Poulenc. She also wrote a book called The Eternal Woman, which was published in paperback in English on March 1st, 2010.

Pseudonymes: Gerta von Stark, Petrea Vallerin

Reviews

[Fonch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen pagan deities are definitely very cruel, especially Cronos (although some say that Aphrodite, or the divine Cypris was the cruellest of the Old Gods) thank God that we abandoned them, 'but what I wanted to say subtly to the users of Goodreads is that time is unforgiving, and it has thrown me over and has not given me time to do everything I would have wanted to do. It is true that it is a mistake to make long-term plans, and that they have to be made in the short term, which does not exclude, that if you are engaged in politics, you should not only think about the immediate results, but also about how the decisions can be kept in force for three or four generations, as Sir said. Winston Churchill https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... but my idea for this week, as I saw him saying to the few users who follow me. My admired Juan Manuel de Prada https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... I would say, to the users who still support him. My idea was to finish the endless review of"A Library in the Oasis" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... (one of the most successful, and for that I want to thank the users of Goodreads, because it is more than I deserve). Then my plan was to write ferenc Herczeg's critique of Byzantium, and my plan included writing the two reviews of the novels of the interesting German writer Gertrud von Le Fort https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , and after that fulfilling the promise I made to my friend and schoolmate Lafu, concluding the criticisms I promised him to write of the books of his father Félix Herráiz García https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... I also owe a criticism to my friend Karina Fabian https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and I also wanted to talk about the penultimate five that I put"Books of Dragons" by the very interesting Roger Lancelyn Green (the most underrated inkling of all) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... but unfortunately I will not be able to carry out my ambitious plans. By the way, in my original ideology was to translate into Hungarian the criticism of"Byzantium" and into German the duology of Veronica by Gertrud von Le Fort. But I've got more rolled into criticism than I expected, and I won't be able to do it. In fact, it will be a miracle, if he concluded"The Veil of Veronica".
The first thing I need to tell the Goodreads user is why I decided to read this book, and how it came into my power. All this was the product of a discussion of a book we are referring to the interesting book by Lucy Beckett"A postcard from the volcano" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... . Unfortunately and I say this to the Spanish language reader is unpublished this great novel in Spanish and it is a pity, because this novel published by Ignatius Press https://www.ignatius.com/ has been one of the most praised novels by the great Joseph Pearce, and you know that I have total confidence in the literary tastes of Joseph Pearce. After all, he wrote what I called my yellow book,"Writers Converts in a Time of Unbelief," https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... perhaps next to the Bible https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... the most important book of my life. When the debate of"A postcard from the volcano" was made I could not read it, since there was no Spanish edition, but from what I could deduce from the debate, and from the conversations with my friend Professor Manuel Alfonseca https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... I came to a conclusion (it should be said that this discussion bore its good fruit, since the result of our discussion led my friend the Professor to read"Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... , which was the book, which inspired "A Postcard from the Volcano" and he really liked it. I had been looking for years for a book to which Professor put a five, and had failed, and that I enthusiastically recommended the books that I had liked the most, and when I was about to give up (in Spanish we would say throw in the towel) I get success with"Brideshead Revisited"). However I did not get my other goal, that the Professor (whose wonderful books, and whose blog on science called Divulciencia https://divulciencia.blogspot.com/ I recommend. The articles are in English and Spanish) be interested in the writer who enthusiastically recommended Gertrud von Le Fort, who I mistakenly believed had written the Brideshead Revisited" in German (you'll see, because this idea is not entirely far-fetched), because one of the flaws I appreciate of"A Postcard from the Volcano" is that it was a story set in Germany told by an Englishwoman, and although Lucy Beckett was Piers Paul Read's playmate https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... one of the few Englishmen, who does not feel rejection by Germany (I will touch on this theme of refilón. I have a Jewish friend, because I love the Jews very much Maria Elena Venant, and as my friend is not left-wing, and she is a very cultured woman, and very intelligent you can talk to her. My friend is engaged in something similar to what I do here, but with TV series, and in one of her latest articles about a series that adapts a novel by Siegfried Lenz https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... worried that the series would whitewash the Germans after the Second World War. Bear in mind that my friend is Jewish, and like many Jews she has suffered at the hands of Nazism, and this reaction is logical, and I share her fears. But for me the problem is not to whitewash Germany, because there are Germans of all kinds. Remember Joachim Fest, when they said that all Germans had served Hitler, and he said he had not. True there were few, but not all supported Hitler https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... For me to accuse Germans is just as unfair as accusing all Russians of being communists, and of being on Lenin's side, or Stalin's side.) It is true that not everything that comes from Germany, remember, that, although Luther https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... was nothing original was said in my review of"The characters of the Reformation" https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and that this came from Wycliffe https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., the lollards, and the Hussites. As for the advent of Hitler, it was already presented that someone like him would arrive. Max Nordau anticipated, Gobineau, and Drummont https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... laid the groundwork, also the Dreyfuss, and Stravisky trials, and Russia had been one of the most anti-Semitic countries. Although Trostky https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... was Jewish the Russian Revolution did not improve the treatment of Jews, and Stalin was as anti-Semitic as Hitler https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... Of course, not everything Germany does is fine I think Hegel, Fuerbach, and Karl Marx, but I don't think, that you can blame an entire country because of these people. But it must also be said that there are countries, which one likes better, than others. True, I am concerned that Germany is the locomotive of the EU, and is in a multicultural drift, of gender ideology, and of radical environmentalism, and I am also concerned about some things such as the high incidence of pornography (it is hard, because I am affected by this issue, but it must be pointed out, even if it is hard for me) , and I am also concerned about the liberal measure of the German Catholic Church (today it represents the biggest problem, and many of us think that if not by soon this could do as much damage, as the Lutheran Reformation, and more when we think that the German Church has anachronistic privileges dating back to the Middle Ages, and is more affected than other Catholic countries in cases of pederasty , and I don't like anything that but pays the faithful is thrown. In my opinion, the Spanish system of racaudación is much fairer, and what happens in Germany borders very clearly on simony. I am also concerned about the very high degree of atheism, and religious defencelessness in the country), and the worst thing is that it seems to be the battering ram used to scare countries, which do not give in to these movements, and that is what I do not like, but that does not mean that I do not like Germany. In fact, despite what I have indicated, I really like it. You know my preferences for Polish women, but I must admit that the prettiest girl I have ever met is a German girl from Bonn, who came as Erasmus in 2003. We agree on the subject of European Integration. It will surprise many, but I was a great supporter of the European Union. In fact, he was a fanatical pro-European. Now I'm going through a stage of agnosticism, but I remember when I was studying the race I was anti-American (something I greatly regret), and Pro-European Union. It was apolitical, but because of the anticlericalism of the left, I was never on the left, and I envision what would happen if the President who was elected in 2004 was elected. But going back to the girl I never saw a prettier woman in my life, nor did any woman make such a strong desire, or sexual attraction. As my teacher Don Ramón Bayarri would say about the relationship between Christopher Columbus, and Queen Isabella the Catholic nothing happened. There was a Polish girl, but she was a bit dry, and she wasn't very attractive, although I've always felt a lot of affection for Poland. But I also like Germany very much. My father always wants to do two things to play the piano, and learn German. In fact several of my schoolmates studied it (you know I always use the motes to protect their identities), Kunniotani (one of my dearest friends), Gonzi, and my friend Nefer (in fact Nwefi was the one who spoke it best). I was very happy in the European Integration classes, just to see this girl. He was so shy, that he loved her, but he was unable to talk to him, and as I am a tad heavy because he ended up shuning me, but he never forgot, but that yes this girl was not the girl I loved. Apart from that I also studied several subjects of German history, because like Gertrud von Le Fort I am a lover of its history. In fact I was interested in medieval history, and as I pointed out in other reviews. I always wanted to study the 30-year war, from a Catholic perspective. Not from the point of view of an anti-Catholic Geoffrey Parker https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... but from a Catholic point of view. How could it have been won? Because for me the 30-year war did not represent the triumph of tolerance, but that of secularism, and the de-Christianization of the world. Unfortunately my Faculty fell into MartinLuterophilia, and worship Luther, in fact, my Faculty was key to creating the pink legend around Luther. That is why the subject of History of Modern Germany was one of my greatest disappointments. I could not study with the desire that I wanted neither the 30 Years' War, nor the Aufklaurer.
So I was looking for a writer like Gertrud von Lefgort who wanted to see Germany with Catholic eyes, and from a Catholic perspective, Gertrud von Le Fort was an admirer as a servant of the Holy Roman Empire. In fact he suffered during the enlightenment the same invective as the Catholic Church, and Spain, by the slanderer Voltaire https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . That's why it was so important to read something other than The song at the Scaffold. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... If the Goodreads user read my review of "A Library in the Oasis" he will know that I am very interested in reading "Papa en el Ghetto" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... and "The Weddings of Magdeburg" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... the former might be feasible, but the latter is impossible because Hispanic Americans sell that book at a gold price I guess, what I was looking for was what Sigrid Undset did in "The Burning Bush" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... I thought "The Veil of Veronica" would be that , but I found something very different from that novel and Brideshead Revisited. The question that the Gooodreads user should ask is. Even though "The Veil of Veronica" wasn't what you expected worth reading?

[Josephine (Jo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book about faith. Although written in the 1930's it is still just as relevant as it was then. Veronica is being brought up by her Aunt Edelgart at the request of her dying sister, Veronica's father complies with the request with the understanding that Edelgart does not try to impress her Catholic faith upon the child. Also living in the beautiful apartment in Rome are Veronica's grandmother, an unbeliever and Edelgart's dear friend Jannette a devout Catholic and governess to Veronica. The relationships between Edelgart, her sister and Veronica's father are complicated as the father first loved Edelgart, but being unable to come to terms with her strong faith, leaves her and marries her sister. There remains a lot of resentment on the part of all threeas the sister resents her husband and Edelgart because she knows that he never really loved her as much as Edlegart. Veronica's father is bitter and blames the Catholic faith for the loss of his love.
The author understands so well the gift of faith. She relates the story almost as if it is a ballet with complicated choreography, the characters searching for faith, finding it, losing it, longing for it and then rejecting it only to be bereft at its loss.
It gave me so much to think about. As a 'cradle Catholic' I did not have the struggle to find my faith it was a gift at birth. However I have often envied the person who has that wonderful 'road to Damascus' moment when they realise that they believe! This, I know, is an ungrateful thought as I have had the gift all my life and have not had to go through all the difficulties of maybe changing faith or having a family who object to my new belief. Having seen the joy of someone who is newly converted and watching their zealous practice of their shining new faith, makes my own faith feel a little 'dusty' or taken for granted, my own fault. The feeling that one has plodded along for over 60 years without recognition (except by Him, unseen), keeping the rules, can briefly cause a longing for that burst of revelatory joy. I then feel ashamed of my ingratitude at having always had this great gift. So much to think about!
The descriptions of the wonderful monuments and beautiful churches in Rome awoke in me such curiosity that I had to take to Google and look at the blue start studded ceiling of the Basilica of Maria sopra Minerva. It has a beautiful Bernini elephant statue topped by an obelisk outside. Also described in detail is the Basilica di san Clement. There are flights of steps going down from the sacristy into an ancient temple to Mithras. Von Fort talks of the beautiful frescos and crucifix at the ruins of Santa Maria Antiqua. She says that since the grandmother arrived in Rome they have faded and grandmother hopes that one day they will be preserved, maybe by glass, or they will disappear. I have never had the good fortune to visit Rome but the author describes the old streets where you could walk, in those days, and pick up pieces of roman ruins covered in ivy and grass.
This book, as you can probably tell gave me much to think on and taught me a great deal about Rome. I loved it, although a little old fashioned I found that part of the charm.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book. I don't think there will be another book out there that will hit me like this one did. I read The Veil of Veronica at a time in my life that mirrored my spiritual journey. After reading many non-fiction theology books this year and last, I have been craving a fiction that brings the spiritual battles we face daily with the throes of life.

This book delivered. I rented it from the library. This is the first book that I want to purchase and read again and again each year.

On Grace
pg. 256 - "The rest of my story, in so far as it concerns myself, resolves itself into one thing only. There exists for every human being a history of his life and a history of his soul, but there exists for each also a history of his soul with God. And this last, however curiously woven it may seem to be with the other two, is always at bottom a simple tale that follows its own straight path. For it is not so much a question of our fighting our way through to God, as of God fighting His way through to us, and ultimately everything seems to happen outside and above ourselves.¨

On Sorrow
pg. 266 - ¨I felt the Cross of our Lord´s love as something that applied to me personally in quite a special way. It was that fateful solemn hour in which the soul realises for the first time that the Divine love demands to be loved not only with happiness, nay, not only with love, but also with suffering, even as itself became suffering, and that just as with the Divine love everything hangs on this, so with the soul does everything depend on this last absoluteness of love.¨

On Loving your Neighbor
pg. 279 - ¨Often she told me to get out of her sight, that she never wanted to set eyes on me again. But when I sent Giulietta to take my place, she drove the willing girl away and insisted that I was to wait on her. It was as if something similar were taking place in her to what had happened before, when she went on perpetually talking about the Church after she had fallen away from it, and as if the whole process she went through then were now being reversed. This thought gave me great consolation; as did also the fact that my aunt confined her attacks to me. It was for me a constant source of mingled hope and happiness to be able to feel that I could in a way shield our Lord from the hostility which she in reality meant for Him, and, as it were, take upon myself the heavy cross which He had to bear on account of this soul; and I hoped, too, that I might thereby, perhaps, be helping towards the salvation of that soul itself.¨

On Prayer, Intercession, Hope, Purpose
pg. 281 - ¨Just recently I had come across the finely carved Crucifix which my aunt had banished from her room - I found it stuck away in an inaccessible plank partition in the loft. It now hung over my bed, as it had once hung over hers, and whenever I looked at it, it always seemed to me the visible symbol of everything that was fighting in my soul for the destiny of hers.¨

On the Spiritual Battle that is waged daily
pg. 299 - ¨Suddenly I felt how the strange priest was fighting for her soul, as if against a mysterious peril that was again raising itself up in the depths of her contrition. ´No, my daughter,´ he said in a quiet, almost matter-of-fact tone of voice, ¨you have not offended God more grievously than have countless other people: remain humble even in the acknowledgement of your guilt! Grace alone has been great in your life-there is nothing great anywhere save grace! Sin itself, your sin, is small and common. It is something that happens daily, it is the terrible strength of that which in actual fact has no strength-it is the sin of the world generally....¨

The confession of Aunt Edelgart at the end is reason enough to put this book on your to-read shelf.

Thank you, Gertrud von le Fort. Thank you for responding to the Grace of God and writing this book. Your words have spoken to my soul who longs for Love. This is a great weapon for me in my daily battle to have not I live but Christ live withing me.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The dark night of the story of a soul staying in an interior castle on holiday in Rome, city eternal.
Not much of a story though it starts well enough with the author's obvious enthusiasm for describing old Roman places.
Feels very much like it was intended as a Catholic Woman's Novel. I expected more.

[Ignacia Manterola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odio derrochar mis estrellas pero con esta escritora nada que hacer

[Winona · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The union of those who are destined to help each other on the way to God is deep and mysterious like nothing else on earth...For when someone is given to us for whom we feel we must pray very earnestly, it always means at the same time and in the first place that we must surrender our own souls to God with a more complete abandonment."

St. Thomas Aquinas writes about how "We pray, not that we may change the divine decree, but that we may impetrate that which God has decreed to be fulfilled by our prayers." (ST II-II, 83, 2c.) The Veil of Veronica is a powerful story about how sometimes God not only intends to save others through our intercession, but also ourselves through the very person we are called to intercede for. Like Veronica's veil which received the imprint of the suffering Christ, this story is composed of teenage Veronica's impressions growing up in Rome, which led to her conversion. The characters wrestle with metaphysical questions, arising from their experience of Rome - the Eternal City - in all its change and decay and yet also in its enduring presence. (Some of these descriptions, though beautiful and lyrical, became a bit tedious and a bit dense for me at times - hence the four-star rating).
Enzio, a young poet who had come to stay with Veronica's family, came to conclusions about reality (or non-reality) from his experience of Rome, which are perhaps best summed up in the phrase "the All is Nothing". Though Veronica relates to this vision of Rome and is at times almost overcome by it, by grace, she is given to experience the Love that holds everything in existence, the love of God who is All in All, and who has lovingly been waiting for her total surrender. And in her surrender to this Love there lies a lot more at stake...
The last chapter was very profound - in fact I couldn't put it down and had to re-read it. It made me realize how even the most hidden sins wound not only ourselves and our relationship with God, but also those around us.
This powerful story has caused me to overall think more deeply about the nature of grace, of total self-surrender, of intercessory prayer and of conversion. Highly recommended.

[María Antón Sancho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iniciado en ca Piñazuela Agosto '13... Interrumpido, sigo Fombuena 2.XI.13 - interrumpido... - Fin 26.III.14.
Bueno, deja un poso, requiere sensibilidad (complejidad de la sensibilidad espiritual -no sensiblería- no entendible por todo el mundo).
Refleja muy bien las consecuencias de no hacer la Voluntad de Dios (a pesar de hacer muchas cosas por El: "le daba a Dios todo -que no era poco en sacrificios y prácticas de piedad-, salvo aquello que precisamente El me pedía.
Cuesta seguirlo porque es arduo y refleja el sufrimiento interior de una persona muy sensible, pero me ha merecido la pena seguirlo leyendo, me ha aportado mucho: además de la importancia de hacer la Vtad de Dios -El no obliga nunca, ni tampoco castiga -somos nosotros-; la eficacia de la Gracia Sacramental; la devastadora fuerza del pecado contra el Espíritu Santo -la desesperanza-...

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this novel has been described as brilliant and maybe it was seen so in 1931, but it seems to have lost its shine for me.

The book follows a family and the draw or recoil from Catholicism. At the heart of it is a teen age girl who has come to live with her grandmother and aunt. There were parts of it that were truly beautiful and did capture those moments of God's grace that brings one to their knees or to conversion. They were about 5% of the book.

I am pretty sure I have read 1,000 page novels that did not seem as long as this one did. Whew!

My first read of 2023. I am trying to read more spiritual books this year. Glad I got that one under my belt.

[Borja Mora-Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

«Todos los hombres tienen una historia de su vida y una historia de su alma, pero, pero, además, tienen también una historia de su alma con Dios. Y ésta, aunque parezca tan maravillosamente entrelazada con las otras dos, en realidad es siempre clara y sencilla».

Este libro cuenta el viaje espiritual de un alma joven y de un puñado de personas que le acompañan en este camino, que no será fácil, ni sensiblero: con una compleja red de relaciones con familiares, amigos y personajes varios, a través de una traumática historia familiar, y en la majestuosa Roma de inicios del siglo XX.

Una historia sencilla contada con una sensibilidad sublime. Una joya a valorar mejor.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good parts to this book, but I don't know if it was worth reading to get to those gems. The book was like one big run-on sentence. I will say the book helped me fall asleep on many occasions which made it hard for me to finish.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So well written! Love the Rome of the 1920s and this family.

[Beatriz Palacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hermoso relato de la búsqueda en la vida de una joven. Hermosa descripción como trasfondo de Roma.