Wars in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and scores of other places could suddenly become much more destructive, or peace could be declared. We are in a suspended time, a time when it seems the direction of our future could turn suddenly much worse, or suddenly much better. Springtime of 2022 is a time when God seems to be silent again. But on Saturday, while Jesus lay dead in the tomb, nothing happened. The following Sunday is the day of resurrection and new life. In the New Testament gospels, Friday, the day of crucifixion, is when God responds to Jesus’ death with earthquakes and darkness. Pope Benedict XVI called the Shroud of Turin “the Icon of Holy Saturday.” Holy Saturday in the Bible and in classical Christian teaching is the day when God is silent, even dishearteningly silent. The responses from guests as they leave the gallery center not on the Shroud but on the man of the Shroud, the one who endured such pain and suffering before being put to death. The interactive and technology-rich experience focuses on this famous image and the devotion, veneration, and history of the Shroud and its image of a crucified man. “Mystery and Faith: The Shroud of Turin” recently opened as a special exhibition at Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. People are still drawn to the places and the image of the man who was crucified. Though the exact locations of these sites are sometimes debated, the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus are not. ![]() With the easing of COVID restrictions, pilgrims are again returning to these places to reflect on the suffering of Jesus. For centuries pilgrims have journeyed to these traditional sites marking where Jesus of Nazareth suffered, died, and was buried. I write these words from the Old City of Jerusalem, just before Holy Week and steps away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Golgotha, and further away, Gethsemane. His side has stains from both blood and a clear substance (John 19:34). Bloodstains mark the places where nails would have driven to fasten him to a wooden cross (John 20:25). The body is scarred by the bloody marks of the whip. On his head is a crown made of thorns, with blood from the piercing wounds staining the cloth (Matthew 27:29). The crucified man wears no saintly halo in the Shroud. The Shroud of Turin carries the image of a man who was crucified. Yet it is not a beautiful image, or appealing, or artistically pleasing. Very little peer-reviewed scientific study has been dedicated to the Shroud, though the results point to a late medieval date of origin.īut whether authentic or pious copy, the image of the Shroud of Turin is the most familiar and well-known image of any figure from the Bible. The image of the man of the Shroud has been on the cover of national news magazines and the subject of television documentaries. ![]() His photo negative glass plates revealed for the first-time details of the face, images still used devotionally in the Roman Catholic tradition as part of the devotion of the Holy Face of Jesus. In May of 1898, amateur photographer Secondo Pia took the first photographs of the Shroud. Copies were made of the Shroud and pressed against it, to be displayed and reverenced in churches and cathedrals around Europe. It became an object of intense interest and devotion in 1578 when it was brought to Turin, Italy, so that Saint Charles Borromeo could pray before it in thanksgiving for the city of Milan being spared the ravages of the plague. This famous linen cloth became part of the historical record in the 14th century when it was viewed by throngs of pilgrims. The ghostly, haunting image of the crucified man on the Shroud has shaped how we depict Jesus still today. The Shroud of Turin is the first viral image. A negative version photo of the Shroud of Turin, Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, revealing a face commonly associated with Jesus Christ, taken in August 1978.
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