Touching the Hem: The Thread between Garment and Blood in the Story of the Woman with the Haemorrhage (Mark 5:24b-34parr)

Abstract

In this article I start from a particular passage in the New Testament that will touch on biblical threads and paradigms related to textile. Mark 5:24b-34, Luke 8:42-48, and Matthew 9:19-22 tell the story of the healing of the “woman with an issue of blood,” the Haemorrhoissa. This story (and its Nachleben in commentaries and iconographies) pulsates with a delicate energy relating to textile, cloth, and the magical impact of touch. I will firstly investigate upon those textile-related dimensions by situating the passage in what I term its narrative, iconic, and anthropological space. This will finally lead to a hypothesis on the origin of the medieval assimilation of the Haemorrhoissa to the Veronica, the woman who carried the imprint of Christ's face.

Keywords:

• Haemorrhaging Woman
• Christianity
• textile
• cloth
• hem
• visuality
• vera icon