Legendary saint

I saw this beautiful statue of St. Veronica in the studio of an artist friend who had just finished retouching it and was about to send her back to her home parish in the province of Bataan. Veronica is the woman who was supposed to have wiped the face of Jesus while he was carrying his cross to Golgotha. The event is commemorated in the 6th station of the traditional form of the Stations of the Cross, which many Catholics all over the world are now going through because it is Lent. The story goes on to say that Jesus' face was imprinted on the veil that Veronica used (not to be confused with the shroud which supposedly covered his body during his burial). There is actually no historical evidence of nor scriptural reference to this woman or the via crucis event, though a few other miraculous legends circulated in Europe during the Medieval Ages about Veronica (if you are interested, you can read the discussion in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, Catholic Online and Wikipedia). So why call a probably non-existent person a saint for what is probably a non-event? I like how the Catholic Encyclopedia put it: "…there is no reason why the belief that such an act of compassion did occur should not find expression in the veneration paid to one called Veronica…."