Jubilee 2025
Although the 2025 Jubilee will be a celebration of Christendom and pilgrimage all around Italy, Turin and Rome will be the focal points of many religious tourists. Rome, for obvious reasons, will be the epicenter of events and pilgrim itineraries. However, Turin should not be skipped. Turin is the capital of Piedmont and home of the most famous Christian relic in the world, the Shroud of Turin. This Jubilee will be on full display during the months of May and June at the Turin Cathedral. This is a rarity and should not be missed if you are planning to be in Italy early summer.
What is the Shroud of Turin?
The Shroud or Sindone is the supposed burial cloth of Jesus. After Jesus died by crucifixion his body was cleansed with oils per Jewish tradition, wrapped in a long swath of linen, then interred in a tomb. These events are according to the passion narratives found in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Shroud today resides in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist located in Turin, Piedmont. It is the most studied relic, and its existence is often clouded in mystery and controversy. We know that the faithful do not question the Shroud’s origins and the beauty of relics as archaeological artefacts is that they persist in their primary functions. Relics are venerated and used today just as they were intended centuries ago.
Is this the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ?
Most scholars accept Jesus as a historical figure and the textual evidence supported by the gospels is what we would call a stable text. This means the story of the trial, crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus has endured even while multiple Christian cults were coexisting from the 1st to 4th centuries. So now that we have established the mythos associated with the Shroud, what does the physical evidence tell us? There have been periodic publications on the Shroud, the most famous being the 1988 investigation casting doubt on its declared origins. The conclusion of this publication was that the relic could not have been older than the 14th century and was indeed a Medieval/Renaissance novelty.
The Shroud for years was considered controversial and therefore was shunned by academics. In the 2010s renewed interest and advanced technology opened the door to additional testing. A multi-national team of scholars found that the 1988 examination of the Shroud had been flawed for multiple reasons. The early scrutiny investigated parts of the linen that were sewn onto the Shroud after a horrific fire in 1532. Before the Shroud had made its way to Italy, it had been under the charge of the Poor Clares at Saint Chapelle in Chambrey, France. The fire had burnt the reliquary and the Shroud itself. The Poor Clares are nuns of the Franciscan order who helped mend the Shroud with linen that was contemporaneous to their 16th century time period. The church fire and the mending of the Shroud was mentioned in the Duke of Savoy’s letters explaining his purchase of linen cloth for the Shroud’s restoration and a new reliquary to house it.
There have also been studies of floral and pollen remains detected on the linen bringing the date to at least the 8th century A.D. concluding the pollen was native to the area around Jerusalem. Further studies of the Shroud, most notably in 2020, revealed that the injury patterns along with markings on the forehead support the textual description of the torture and crucifixion of Jesus. Questions arise with the bloodstains’ persistent red hue; however, it was concluded some blood elements detected on the Shroud were in fact consistent with chemicals released in the body under great stress or torture, one of them being "bilirubin" which may have contributed to the enduring red color.
The newest 2022 publication used technology called WAXS (Wide Angle X-ray Scattering) to examine the overall degradation of the Shroud and concluded that it was almost 2000 years old and originated from the Levant area of the Middle East.
In Conclusion:
We must ask ourselves; what kind of artefact is important enough to keep for 2000 years and whose image portrays vial torture, crucifixion, and the wearing of a crown of thorns? Regardless of one’s faith, the Shroud of Turin continues to amaze, inspire, and promote multi-disciplinary investigations into its origins. It is rare for the Shroud to be on display so make 2025 the year to explore some of Italy's most sacred treasures.
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