The Holy Shroud of Turin

The Holy Shroud of Turin is the ancient linen cloth, venerated by many of the faithful as the burial shroud in which the body of the Lord Jesus was wrapped after his death on the Cross. Marked with the faint, mysterious image of a man who has been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified, and pierced in the side, exactly as the Gospels describe the Passion of Christ, it has been an object of deep devotion for centuries, kept since the sixteenth century in the cathedral of Turin in Italy.

The Church has never obliged the faithful to hold the Shroud to be authentic, leaving questions of its origin to study and inquiry, but she encourages the devotion it inspires, for whatever its history, the image draws the mind and heart to meditate upon the sufferings and death of the Redeemer and upon the immense love that moved him to endure them. Honored as a silent witness to the Passion and a summons to contemplate the wounds of Christ, the Holy Shroud is commemorated on 4 May.