The relic to which the legend is attached, the Veil of Veronica, has been venerated at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican since at least the early eighth century, kept in the pier of Saint Veronica and shown only rarely. In the later Middle Ages it was among the most celebrated relics of Christendom, a chief object of the Roman Jubilee pilgrimages, and copies of the Holy Face, the vernicle, were carried by pilgrims across Europe.
Its modern state is genuinely obscure. The cloth at Saint Peter's is displayed so seldom, and is reportedly so faded, that its condition cannot be publicly assessed, and a rival image at Manoppello in central Italy has been claimed by some as the true original. The atlas records the object in its Artifact dimension as debated: an image of unestablished origin and history, venerated as miraculous but not authenticated.
The figure and the relic are thus mutually dependent. The woman exists to explain the cloth, and the cloth carries the woman's name; neither can be verified independently of the devotion that produced both. The atlas relates Veronica to the Veil of Veronica on exactly that footing, a legendary saint named for a "true image," honestly labelled as such.