Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🕊️ A burial cloth 🧣 A holy cloth ✝️ A church cloth
sudarium

sudarium

9.9
A cloth people use to wipe a person's face and sometimes keep as a holy relic
  • noun
  • /suˈdɛəriəm/
  • Archaic
translation icon : sudario
  • Many religious devotees believe that the sudarium of Veronica is a miraculous cloth that bears the image of Christ's face.
  • sudarium of Veronica

Examples

  • Veronica had captured the first and "true" image of Christ, the "vera icon" imprinted without human hands on the sweat cloth (sudarium).

    Academic text (2011)

  • These are images, like the sudarium of Veronica or the image of the Santissima Annunziata of Florence, that were held to possess a degree of participation in the essence of the supernatural being they represented.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Counter-posed to such diabolical artifice is the sacred prototype of holy icons, pictured on the painted frame above the idol: the sudarium of Veronica.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The museum displayed the sudarium, which is considered a holy relic by many Christians around the world.

  • During the ceremony, the priest used a sudarium to wipe his brow as he blessed the congregation.

Synonyms

washcloth
vssudarium
  • US
22 1.0

A small square cloth to wash your face and body

is treated as a relic or ceremonial cloth rather than just for washing
face cloth
vssudarium
  • UK
1 1.0

A small soft towel you use to wash your face or body

is regarded as a sacred relic or object used in religious practice
washrag
vssudarium
  • US
1 2.7

A small cloth used to wash the face or body

is seen as a holy relic rather than a simple bathing accessory

Surface Forms

sudarium singular
sudaria plural

Etymology

Sudarium comes from the Latin sudor 'sweat' and originally named a small cloth used to wipe the face, like a handkerchief; since some of these cloths were kept because they touched a holy person's face, sudarium can also mean a religious relic.