Manoppello: the Volto Santo (Sacred Face)
Where does this mysterious relic come from? According to the tradition based on a historic account written by Father Donato from Bomba in 1640, it arrived in Manoppello on an unknown day in the year 1506, when the physicist and astrologer Giacomo Antonio Leonelli, while was talking with some people, met a foreign man. He was invited to follow him into the Church. He received a mysterious wrapped veil. He should have taken care of the mysterious object. In return he would have got material and spiritual advantages. While Father Donato was unrolling the veil, thus discovering the image of Christ, the foreign man disappeared.
The veil stayed at the Leonelli family for almost one hundred years; but in 1608 the several heirs started to contend for it. Pancrazio Petrucci, a soldier, one of the heirs' husband (Marzia Leonelli's husband), carried the veil away with force. Since that day the Leonelli family started falling down. Pancrazio was arrested and imprisoned in Chieti; his wife was forced to sell the precious veil to Donantonio De Fabritiis in order to free her husband.
As De Fabritiis was not well, he showed the veil to the Capuchin Friars to verify the real value of the veil. The Friars were happy with that relic and put it inside a frame (today you can still see it) in order to protect the veil. In 1683 De Fabritiis gave it to the Capuchin Friars who showed the relic for the public veneration in 1646, after the notarization.

However throughout the years many experts and ecclesiastics have looked for the historic truth. Father Heinrich Pfeiffer, Jesuit and Professor of Iconology and History of Christian Art at the Gregorian University of Rome, thinks the veil of Manoppello is the Roman Veronica. According to the historic reconstruction, Veronica, called "acheiropoietos", reached Constantinople in VI century (coming from Jerusalem and then from Camelia, in Cappadocia). It stayed there until 705, when it disappeared mysteriously, perhaps to save it from the iconoclastic movements of the time. It was in Rome under Pope Gregorio; after several vicissitudes, it was carried into St Peter's Cathedral, becoming an important destination for thousands pilgrims. After the demolition of the chapel where Veronica was held, in 1608, no trace of the veil was found. The veil appeared in Manoppello is thought to be the historic and legendary Veronica.
In 1978 Sister Blandina Paschalis Schloemer, a clever iconographer, said on account of some researches and investigations that the sacred face in Manoppello and the sacred face of the Sacra Sindone (the Holy Shroud) in Turin are exactly superimposable. Indeed, their features are the same: oval face, a bit round and asymmetric; long hair, a tuft of hair on his forehead; his mouth slightly open; his look upwards. Further researches were carried out by Pfeiffer and Father Blust, an expert of the Holy Shroud. The connection between the Sacred Face and the Holy Shroud is almost sure. Inside the Sanctuary you can see a permanent exhibition devoted to Pfeiffer and Father Blust's researches (tests and photos).
In addition, according to historic chronicles, The Holy Shroud would have had an historic/geographic route very similar to the Veronica's one. This would confirm the two experts' hypothesis. According to them, both the Shroud and the Veil would have been put on Christ's face. Their superimposability would depend on that aspect. Then they would have been carried away separately from Jerusalem to Camelia and afterwards to Constantinople. From there their routes would have been different.
www.gditaly.com/…/volto_santo.php

Padre Domenico da Cese (1905-1978), Stigmatist Capuchin Who Gave the Holy Face Back to the World
holyfaceofmanoppello.blogspot.com/…/padre-domenico-…
Padre Domenico, friend and fellow Capuchin of St. Padre Pio, also bore the Stigmata, marks of the wounds of Christ. From 1965 to 1978 Padre Domenico was the Rector of the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello. During those years he devotedly dedicated himself to the spreading of the knowledge of the Holy Face, which he considered not sufficiently known. In 1977 Padre Domenico had the foresight to bring to the Eucharistic Congress of Pescara a large photograph of the Holy Face so that it might be brought to the attention of all at that important gathering. A journalist from Switzerland in attendance at the Congress was so moved, that he wrote the first article in German about the Holy Face. It was this article that caught the attention of Sr. Blandina Schloemer and caused her to begin her great mission to share the knowledge of the Holy Face with the world. But it was to Padre Domenico that we all owe our deepest gratitude for this most precious gift of the world's first sight in 400 years of the Holy Face. In these days the cause for the beatification of Padre Domenico will be opened in the Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto. (The photograph and information on Padre Domenico's life is taken from an article by Antonio Bini which appeared in the magazine of the Shrine of the Holy Face)

Santa Maria Arabona is a Cistercian abbey in Abruzzo, in central Italy. It is located at Manoppello in the frazione also called Santa Maria Arabona. In Roman times the area was sacred to the goddess of fertility and virginity Bona Dea. The most important of the abbey buildings still extant is its church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whose construction began in 1208 with the transept and the apse. The edifice remained partly unfinished, due to financial and political troubles within the order. The church is built on the Latin Cross plan, with the nave ending in an apse housing the high altar. The aisles support the ceiling. The interior is very sober, apart from the richly decorated tabernacle and Paschal candle in Gothic style. The choir contains frescoes by Antonio Martini di Atri dated 1377. The church, which was restored in the 1950s, is surrounded by a park from which the rest of the abbey is accessed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_Arabona