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This replica of the Shroud, shown folded, has been made so that researchers can study its every detail
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The history of the Shroud of Turin presents an interesting contrast. Over the past several centuries, every movement, study, and display of the cloth has been the subject of intense scrutiny and meticulous documentation. But the early history of the famed Christian relic is -- and perhaps always will be -- veiled in shadowy uncertainty.
The Certain History
The first definite historical appearance of the Shroud comes in a document written in 1389, which describes a public exhibition of the Shroud in 1355 in Lirey, France, by French knight Geoffrey de Charny. That same year, the Shroud is first called a forgery -- a cunning painting -- by Bishop Pierre D'Arcis of
Troyes in a letter to the Pope. The cloth becomes the property of the House of Savoy, Italy's royal family, in 1453, and remains their legal possession until 1986 when it is bequeathed to Pope John Paul II and his successors upon the death of Umberto II of Savoy. Beginning in 1464, the cloth is housed in a special chapel in Chambery, in the French Alps. It was at the Chambery chapel that a fire, on December 4, 1532, damaged the Shroud, and some believe that event affected the 1988 radiocarbon dating of the material. In 1578 the relic is moved to Turin, Italy, and first became known as the Shroud of Turin. The move, says historian and Shroud expert Ian Wilson, "was partly because a Cardinal from Milan [Charles Borromeo] was going to visit the Shroud and was planning to take the journey on foot from Milan to Chambery, so they brought the Shroud to Turin to save him part of the journey." Apart from being moved into hiding during World War II, the Shroud has remained in Turin ever since.
The Uncertain History
Prior to 1389, the history of the Shroud is more nebulous. "You find cloths called 'the shroud' or 'a shroud,' being kept in different places," Wilson says. "There is a shroud referred to in Jerusalem, one in Constantinople in 1204, but there didn't seem to be a clear pattern of anything that could be built up into a history." Historical records dating back to at least the 6th century, however, refer to a cloth (not specifically a burial cloth) with an imprint of Jesus. "These references seem to center on one particular cloth which had been taken to Edessa [now in Eastern Turkey] back in the first century AD," Wilson says. According to legend, "it was instrumental in converting the king of that city, Abgar, to Christianity, shortly after the crucifixion." That cloth, too, dropped out of history, but apparently reappeared in the 6th century, when it was discovered hidden within the walls of the city gates. "It was immediately hailed as being a miraculously imprinted likeness of Jesus and it became known as the Cloth of Edessa," Wilson says. "It was not called a shroud, but it became very celebrated. Artists made their likenesses of Jesus from it."
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This illustration serves as an early example of the public exhibition of the Shroud
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In 944, the Edessa Cloth was removed from the city by the armies of Emperor Romanus I of Constantinople. "He had a collection of relics of Jesus, things like the nails from the cross," Wilson says. "He wanted this cloth to join them," Wilson says. The Edessa Cloth remained in Constantinople until 1204, when Crusaders sacked the city. "Although a crusader describes seeing a cloth with a figure of Jesus on it, he reports that after the city was captured, neither the Greeks nor the French crusaders knew what happened to it." There is no record of the Edessa Cloth after that point -- or, indeed, of any cloth imprinted with the image of Christ -- until the cloth that would become known as the Shroud of Turin turns up in the possession of Geoffrey de Charny in the 1350s. Wilson believes that the Edessa Cloth and the Shroud of Turin are one and the same.
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