The Shroud of Turin (Italian: Sindone di Torino) is a length of linen cloth bearing the faint image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma consistent with crucifixion. Venerated by Catholics as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, the Shroud has been in Turin since 1578 when the House of Savoy transferred it to their new capital. It is now housed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (Duomo di Torino) in a climate-controlled case. The Shroud is displayed publicly only during rare ostensions (expositions) authorized by the Pope. The liturgical feast of the Holy Shroud is celebrated on May 4th.
Life According to Tradition
The Shroud enters documented history with the House of Savoy, which received the cloth in 1453 when Marguerite de Charny handed it over at the Savoy court. It had earlier been kept at Chambéry, where the Catholic Encyclopedia places it from 1432, the cloth having come there from Lirey. In 1578 Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy transferred the Shroud from Chambéry to Turin, the dynasty's new capital, so that St Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, could venerate the cloth without completing on foot the pilgrimage he had vowed. A first ostension in Turin followed the arrival. On May 28, 1898, the photographer Secondo Pia took the first photographs of the Shroud. On his glass-plate negative appeared the face of the man in the cloth — an image that had been invisible to the naked eye for centuries. During the Second World War the Shroud was hidden from 1939 to 1946 at the Benedictine sanctuary of Montevergine near Mercogliano, protected by Benedictine silence. At the death of Umberto II, the last king of Italy, the Shroud passed in 1983 by testamentary bequest from the House of Savoy to the Holy See. It is today the property of the Holy See, kept in Turin under the custody of the Archbishop of Turin as Pontifical Custodian. A fire in 1997 severely damaged the Chapel of the Holy Shroud behind the cathedral. The Shroud itself, taken out while the chapel dome was under repair, escaped harm, and the chapel reopened in 2018 after restoration.
Feast Day
May 4 — the liturgical feast of the Holy Shroud. Pope Julius II approved the proper liturgy of the Mass of the Shroud in 1506. Writing in 1912, the Catholic Encyclopedia records the feast as a double of the first class with an octave, kept in Savoy, Piedmont and Sardinia as the patronal feast of the royal House of Savoy. In Turin it is observed today with a Mass in the cathedral presided by the Archbishop of Turin.
Relics
The Shroud rests in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (Duomo di Torino) in a climate-controlled, bulletproof reliquary designed by Alenia Spazio. It is shown publicly only in ostensions authorized by the Pope; between ostensions a life-size replica is displayed nearby.
- The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, designed by Guarino Guarini and completed in 1694, joins the cathedral to the former Savoy palace; its dome rises in six tiers of arches to an oculus shaped as a twelve-pointed star. - The Museum of the Holy Shroud stands on Via San Domenico in Turin. - A copy of the Shroud, donated in 1946, is kept in a church in Krakow, Poland. - The dated ostensions of the last century: 1931, for the wedding of Prince Umberto II and Princess Maria Josè; 1933, for the extraordinary Holy Year; 1973, the first live television ostension; 1978, the four-hundredth anniversary of the transfer to Turin; 1998, the centenary of Secondo Pia's photograph, with about 2.4 million visitors; 2000, the Jubilee year; 2010, the first after the conservation restoration of 2002, with more than 2.5 million pilgrims; 2013, a televised ostension on the Easter vigil; and 2015, granted for the bicentenary of the birth of St John Bosco, with more than two million pilgrims and the visit of Pope Francis on June 21-22. No public ostension was held in the Jubilee year 2025. The Shroud is studied together with two other cloths of the Passion. The Sudarium of Oviedo is reported to carry the same type AB blood as the Shroud, pollen consistent with Palestine, and about seventy points of correspondence when overlaid on the Shroud's face. The veil of Manoppello bears an image of the living face of Christ that aligns with the face on the Shroud.
Iconography
The cloth bears the faint image of a man whose wounds are consistent with crucifixion: Christ in death, his eyes closed. The image is subtle rather than painted in aspect, and the face became fully visible only in the photographic negative, as Secondo Pia discovered in 1898. Devotion has long set this image of Christ in death beside the veil of Manoppello, which shows him alive and risen.
Further Reading
Paul Badde. The True Icon: From the Shroud of Turin to the Veil of Manoppello - a study of the Shroud and the veil of Manoppello together. Mark Guscin. The Oviedo Cloth - the Sudarium of Oviedo, the other cloth of the Passion linked to the Shroud.
Sources
Catholic Encyclopedia — The Shroud of Turin — the 1912 article on the Shroud. (New Advent) Sindone.org — La Sindone — the Shroud on the site of the Custodian in Turin. Sindone.it — Storia — the history of the Shroud, from its transfer to the House of Savoy to the bequest to the Holy See. Archdiocese of Turin — the Mass of May 4 in the cathedral. The ostensions from the twentieth century to today — the dated ostension record. On this site: the destination guides to Turin, Oviedo, Manoppello, Mercogliano and Krakow.
