From Flow to Face

The synoptic Gospels record a remarkable story about an anonymous woman - the 'Haemorrhoissa' in further tradition - suffering from incessant uterine bleeding who, without Jesus' intention or knowledge, was healed by his power (Mark 5:24b-34parr). The Haemorrhoissa motif had an important place in early Christianity, and from its earliest manifestation as synoptic narrative it developed into a multifarious motif embedded in a variety of contexts. One of its most remarkable developments was its transformation into the Veronica motif, the roots of which thus lie in early Christianity. This historical-anthropological investigation of the early Christian Haemorrhoissa motif hence is driven by two primary research questions. The first: why was the early Christian Haemorrhoissa motif so richly represented and did it develop so multifariously? The second: what did the early Christian constellation of the Haemorrhoissa motif contribute to the genesis of the vera icon and its constitution as image paradigm and, intrinsically linked to this, as anthropological paradigm?