Didn’t intend to confuse you, MP, and I take your point about saints and blesseds’, although I’m not sure if Margaret’s body has remained incorrupt...
As you probably know and can see from this woodcut, Margaret’s body was small and bent, and she was also blind. She was generally portrayed as stooped, holding a walking stick and her other arm reaching out.
In the stations painting the woman in blue is depicted as Margaret. (Notice her hump back).
Is she blind? Hard to tell, but she is shown with only one eye. Neither is she reaching out or carrying her walking stick. Instead her hands are held in prayer.
Instead it is the Roman soldier, also shown with one eye, who walks with a stick, his arm outstretched and hand on Veronica’s shoulder. It first appears that he is holding Veronica back from approaching Jesus but in reality he is using her shoulder as support and guidance because he is blind! (This is also probably a reference to Longinus, the Roman soldier whose eyes were opened at the Crucifixion)... eyes opened in faith.
In fact, the whole scene is about blindness in all sorts of ways... blindness to the needs of others... blindness to our own sins... blindness in faith...
Notice the horizontal beam of the cross and how the eyes of three men (two soldiers) are set level on the beam. Notice also all are one-eyed... blind. The beam and blindness is a reference to Jesus’ teaching about first removing the beam from our own eye.
The tall man on the left edge of the frame represents one of John the Baptist’s followers, who came and asked Jesus if he was the Messiah they had been expecting. Notice he doesn’t look at Jesus but at the cloth held by Veronica. We can ask if Veronica already wiped the face of Jesus or is she about to. John’s disciple gives the answer. He has seen the face of Christ on the cloth. He is our witness to what has happened even though we cannot see the transferred image.
So this brings us back to Margaret... We cannot see her face in full, her stick or outstretched arm. Just as we cannot see the face of Jesus reflected in the cloth. But we can see signs of Margaret attributes in the soldier... his halberd and outstretched arm leaning on Veronica’s shoulder. Her shoulder bears the cross of the blind man.
The man wearing the green hat with the red fur trim and being prevented by a soldier from approaching Jesus is the Italian poet Dante. His guide through Hell, Virgil, is further down the line wearing a green hat and one eye resting on the beam. Virgil is unable to attain heaven because he wasn’t baptised.
The other man wearing a green hat behind Margaret is Simon of Cyrene. You can see his two sons under the cross between Veronica and the soldier. But that’s another story...
