Shroud of Turin Brings Pilgrims from Around the World

Millions will journey to set their eyes upon the holy burial cloth as did Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved.

GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) - Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy Israelite (Mt 27:57), a "good and a just man" (Lk 23:50), "who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God" (Mk 15:43). His search for the Love beyond the world brought him to Jesus of Nazareth, a Man whom he would come to know and love in an unexplainable way. Little did Joseph know that his new Master, sinless and innocent and filled with heaven´s wisdom, would soon be sentenced to a brutal death reserved for condemned criminals.

On that Friday, as Jesus Christ was tried, beaten and scourged, Joseph was struck with love. Yet the terrible tragedy was far from over. His Master was nailed to that hard, unyielding wooden Cross; his heart was pierced by that cold and invasive Roman sword; and his lifeless, Sacred Humanity was, at the end of a most brutal and terrible Passion, gently removed from the instrument of his death, and embraced in the arms of the sweet, sinless Virgin Mother who had nursed him so carefully as a Babe. There, surrounded by black skies, kneeling in the dust of the Place of the Skull, sweet Mary cried the tears of a pierced heart. Joseph of Arimathea´s heart, too, was pierced on that Friday. Tears, too, fell from his eyes.

Burning with a love and sorrow of indescribable depth, Joseph was moved to provide for Christ´s burial before the Sabbath began. Unmindful of the considerable danger which existed, Joseph boldly requested that Pilate allow him the body of Jesus. His request was granted (Mk 15:43-45). Along with Nicodemus, who brought spices, Joseph took Christ´s body and "wrapped it (in) clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed"(Mt 27:59-60).

Joseph of Arimathea could not have known that some twenty centuries later millions of men and women who also love that same Master would make pilgrimage to Turin, Italy— the current display location of that fine linen in which he so lovingly wrapped Christ´s body.

Prior to June 2, 2008, the next scheduled exhibition of the Shroud of Turin was to occur in the year 2025. However, after receiving the Archbishop of Turin´s request, Pope Benedict XVI agreed that the exhibition date should be moved ahead. As a result, the Shroud of Turin will be displayed from April 10 through May 23, 2010, in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist—its first public exposition in 10 years.

The Shroud is permanently stored in a climate controlled, lighted case, which was built by the Italian aerospace company Alenia Spazio. The upper surface is made of bullet-proof glass, and weighs about 1,000 kg. The cloth is surrounded inside the case by a mixture of 99.5% argon and 0.5% oxygen in order to preserve the Shroud and protect it from aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. When the Shroud is not on display, the case is stored in an alcove of the Cathedral where the faithful may pray and venerate this most well known relic.

"On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ´They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him.´ So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, . . . " (Jn 20:1-6).

As John´s gospel tells us, Peter and John laid their eyes on Christ´s burial cloth "on the first day of the week" after the Crucifixion. From that moment on, the Shroud´s location had remained a mystery to the world until we first came to hear of it in the year 1360, where it can be traced to the Lirey in the Diocese of Troyes. In 1453 it was held at Chambery in Savoy, where, in 1532, it narrowly escaped being consumed in a fire which charred the corners of the folds. Since 1578, the Shroud has remained at Turin, Italy, where it is venerated by the faithful.

Jesus Christ is the most well known Person in the entire history of the world. Billions of men and women love him; still more billions know of him; and the Shroud of Turin, that linen placed around his lifeless Body and laid in the tomb, is the single most studied artifact in human history.

On that mourning twenty centuries ago, John stood silently outside the tomb for a few moments, pondering all that had happened. Where was his Master? Who had removed the burial cloths from his Lord´s body? There was a stillness and anticipation in the air that was reflected in the light itself which streamed inside the opening hewn from stone. Breaking the profound silence, Peter, the first of the apostles, first entered the shadowed tomb of Christ´s burial. Then "the other disciple also went in, . . . and he saw and believed" (Jn 20:8).

This April, millions of souls will journey from afar in order to set their eyes upon the holy burial cloth as did Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. They will come from distant horizons, crossing land and sea; they will come with hearts that yearn for God as a mountain stag yearns for clear, running streams. Why do they come? They are drawn by hope and love, by the call of Salvation which resonates within their hearts. They may stand or kneel, but each person will feel an incomprehensible wonder at it all, at the fact that their eyes are looking upon the very linen in which the Son of God was buried. What draws them? They are drawn not by what they see; rather, they are drawn because they, too, believe.

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F. K. Bartels is managing editor of catholicpathways.com. He believes the Catholic Faith is one of the greatest treasures a man could ever be given. He is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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