‘Daughter, Your Faith Has Saved You’: The Salvation of St. Veronica

The themes of faith and salvation are evident in the literary, historical, and grammatical context of Mk 5.25–34. St. Veronica, or ‘the woman with the issue of blood’, was not seeking physical healing, but holistic salvation, salvation that she received through faith in Jesus. Her story is a classic story of conversion, not only physical healing. Mark’s grammatical use of σῴζω places holistic salvation on center stage in the passage. Veronica was a woman of faith and a daughter in the Kingdom of God, before and after she was physically healed. This paper uses a feminist, disability hermeneutic to argue that the main theme of Mk 5.25–34 is faith and salvation, shown by St. Veronica’s faith and active search for holistic salvation, against the traditional interpretation of the passage being solely about healing.