A fragment of the “mourning veil” used to cover the Lady of Altötting.

[Touch relic]. Trauer-Schlaÿr mit welchem diß heil. Gnadenbild am Charfreÿtag bekleidet war. ao. [blank]. Vera Effigies Statuae B. V. Mariae Oetingae. S.l. [likely Altötting]: s.n., [late 18^th century]. [14.5 x 10.1 cm], [1] f. etching with a piece of black textile affixed by an etched lettering strip. Minor toning and edge wear, staining where lettering strip was affixed.

Unrecorded late 18^th-century devotional etching to which is affixed a piece of the “mourning veil” (“Trauer-Schlaÿr”) that on Good Friday was placed over the much-venerated statuette of Our Lady of Altötting (Bavaria). The fragment of the black textile veil is attached to the print by a glued strip of paper with etched text explaining the origin of the textile. At the end of the text on this strip is a blank space to be completed in manuscript with the year. This example was never filled out. The inscription at the foot of the print assures us that this is a “true likeness” (“Vera Effigies”) of the statue.

Adolph Spamer remarks that the practice of producing devotional “veil images” was adopted at German pilgrimage sites in the 1760s following the earlier tradition at the Santa Casa di Loreto, and that the addition of a veil fragment made these items “especially miraculous”: “Unser Blättchen gehört zu den sogenannten ‘Schleierbildern,’ die aus Loreto (dort mindestens seit den 40er Jahren des 18. Jh.’s üblich) nach Deutschland kamen und seit den 60er Jahren besonders in Altötting beliebt wurden. Ein Stück des Schleiers, mit dem Gnadenbild am Karfreitag umhüllt war, wurde über die Andachtsbilder geklebt worauf es als besonders wunderkräftig galt” (Spamer, p, 326-7, no. CCX).

The veil here is an example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ relic), i.e., an item that contacted or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item) or another holy item. The touch relic carries with it some of the efficacious ‘charge’ of the original holy item/person.

The Gothic-style Lady of Altötting was produced in the Upper Rhine region around 1330 and has been wearing her distinctive “mercy skirt” (“Gnadenröckln”) since 1518. Altötting remains a principal pilgrimage site in the region.

The print is not recorded in OCLC, KVK, OMNIA or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, nor have I seen it in the literature on the topic, but similar items are certainly known.

*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert; Horst Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett, p. 97, plate 148 (a similar piece).