After 500 Years: Poor Clares Give Up on Holy Face of Alicante

Because of a lack of vocations, the Poor Clares of Alicante, Spain, cannot continue guarding the famous Holy Face. They will, therefore, abandon the Monastery of the Holy Face in Alicante on July 2.

The Poor Clares will be replaced by eleven contemplative nuns of the Blood of Alicante who were based until now in the centre of Alicante. They will move into the Monastery of the Holy Face in order to be the new guardians. Nine of the sisters are aged between 30 and 40.

The Holy Face, one of the three faces of Christ recognized by the Vatican, is a linen cloth with blood stains representing a face. It is placed in a reliquary with an image of the Holy Face in front and an image of Our Lady behind. The Holy Face came around 1480 from Rome to Alicante and may go back to the welding cloth of Veronica.

During the Spanish Civil War, the relic narrowly escaped the Communist assault on the church in July 1936.

Picture: Monasterio de la Santa Faz (Alicante), #newsIiywhvaota