Madam, – I see that the Turin shroud, which relatively few people in this country can have seen in the reality but a number are prepared to argue about, is in the news again. It has cropped up recently in both your Letters page (October 8th and 14th) and in the TV listings, suggesting that we are in for another round of give-and-take controversy on the subject.
The historical facts about the shroud, at least, are known and on record, whatever fresh aspects modern carbon-dating and other tests may bring forth. They were investigated rigorously a century ago – in 1900 to be exact – by an eminent French scholar and medievalist, Canon Ulysse Chevalier, who traced the relevant documents and duly published his findings.
The shroud itself is a length of linen, measuring roughly four by 1.4 metres, which first surfaced at Lirey, in Champagne, about 1360. The claim that it was the original cloth in which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Christ was disputed on behalf of rival shrouds in Besancon, Cadouin, Champiegne and Xabregas. However in 1389 the Bishop of Troyes, in whose diocese Lirey lay, appealed to Pope Clement VII to put a stop to the scandal raised by the spurious claims made for it. He asserted that it was well known the cloth had been painted by a local artist with a likeness of the supine Christ (the ingenious method used, by the way, has been analysed in the Art Newspaper).
A compromise apparently was reached by which the Pope allowed the Lirey clerics to go on exhibiting the shroud, on condition that each time it was shown publicly the presiding priest should declare “in a loud voice” that it was not the true shroud of Christ, merely a painted representation. This directive seems to have been obeyed for a time but eventually it fell into disuse. Relics, after all, were prestige possessions and were also a useful source of tourist revenue from visiting pilgrims.
Later the Lirey Shroud passed to the Dukes of Savoy, who built a chapel in Chambery for it. With the Counter-Reformation there was a new wave of enthusiasm for relics and in 1578 it was bought to Turin, the capital of Savoy, so that it could be seen and venerated by a wider public. At first it was housed in the ducal palace and then in the cathedral, until finally in 1668 the great Baroque architect, Guarino Guarini, was given the task of designing a special building for it.
The result was the remarkable chapel of Santissima Sindone, where the shroud still rests. And at this stage, perhaps most of the controversy should rest too? – Yours, etc.
BRIAN FALLON,
Manor Kilbride,
Co Wicklow.