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The Pope will make a pilgrimage to a remote monastery in the Abruzzo region east of Rome next week to visit a mysterious icon which many believe shows the face of Christ.

The icon is said by locals to be "Veronica's Veil", a piece of cloth that St Veronica used to mop Jesus's brow on his walk to the Cross and which later assumed his image.

	Veronica's Veil is an icon similar to the Turin Shroud

Measuring 9½ in by 6½ in, the cloth is similar to the Turin Shroud, except that the eyes of its image are open.

Veronica's Veil is said to have been taken to Rome in 1297, but mystery surrounds its later movements. It is mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. People in the highland town of Man-oppello (population 5,000) believe that it was brought to them 500 years ago by a wandering pilgrim.

In recent months, the popularity of the icon has soared, and it has become a destination for coach loads of tourists from Rome. Its fame has persuaded the Vatican to edge closer to recognising it as a holy relic.

"There has been a great wave of people [visiting] - not of pilgrims, but of people coming from other tourist sites," said Father Emilio Cucchiella, a priest at the town's monastery. "There has not been enough time to welcome them all. They arrive from six in the morning until eight at night." The Vatican has stressed that the arrival of the Pope, who treads a conservative theological line, does not amount to an official endorsement of the veil, but his visit will be interpreted as a papal acknowledgement that the relic is genuine.

He will fly to the monastery by helicopter a week on Friday and spend two hours in prayer. "This was a huge surprise for us," said Fr Emilio. "When the bishop told us the pontiff had confirmed his trip we almost didn't believe him."

The local bishop, Bruno Forte, is a leading theologian. The veil has also been visited by Cardinal Joachim Meisner, of Cologne, and Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, of Vienna, two of the Pope's closest allies. Cardinal Meisner is said to have kindled papal interest in the icon.

The veil is stretched tightly between two panes of glass in a golden frame. It shows an almost photographic image of a man, with beard and moustache, and a bruised face. When held up against the daylight, the image disappears. St Veronica, whose name is said to come from "vera icona" or "true icon", has become the patron saint of photo-graphy.

In 1999, a team of scientists from the University of Bari in southern Italy concluded that the image had not been painted or impressed on the fabric in any way that could be explained.

The veil is made from byssus, a fabric once used as a shroud by Egyptian pharaohs, which is woven from the beard-like thread that mussels use to attach themselves to rocks.

Despite the Pope's apparent endorsement, there are still doubters that the veil is authentic.

"I would put it on the same level as seeing the face of Mohammed in a potato," said Keith Ward, formerly Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University.

Fr Emilio said: "We cannot say if it is authentic or not. But at the end of the day, this image has always impressed pilgrims, who have visited it from all over the world."