The Shroud of Turin: Icon of Easter

Gospel Reflection for Resurrection Sunday, April 20, 2025 - John 20:1-9

And on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen cometh early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre; and she saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

She ran, therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith to them: They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

Peter therefore went out, and that other disciple, and they came to the sepulchre.

And they both ran together, and that other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; but yet he went not in.

Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying,

And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place.

Then that other disciple also went in, who came first to the sepulchre: and he saw, and believed.

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. (John 20:1-9 DRA)

Today is the holiest day of the year, the day that changed everything: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Our Lord, when sin, death and Satan were defeated forever by the indomitable power of divine love. Lent has now ended and Holy Week concluded, but the lessons of Christ’s temptation, Passion, Crucifixion, transformation of Abraham’s bosom into Paradise and recreation of humanity in the Resurrection should be at the heart of our faith every day of the year, inspiring us to live with the Wisdom of the Word and the Love of the Holy Ghost as we become ever more conformed to Christ and draw all men closer to Him.

Last year, for this reading, I focused on how this Gospel reading, as well as the Epistle from St. Paul, call us to focus on “the things that are above,” to have a spiritual worldview and to no longer treat the things of Creation as our final end, as idols substituting for God who alone is our true happiness. In 2023, I wrote about how this same passage reveals the condition of the Church Militant ever since, called to have faith in the resurrected Lord while journeying as wayfarers in the imperfection of this present darkness. (The Catholic Corner also contributed a brilliant guest post for Saint Tolkien on this reading, entitled “Tolkien and Easter.”) This year, I would like to focus on another element, one of the greatest miracles in history and the most studied relic of all time: the Shroud of Turin.

One of the clearest proofs for Jesus’s resurrection is not only the empty tomb itself but the burial shroud found by St. Peter and St. John, as narrated in today’s Gospel. If thieves simply took Jesus’s body, they would not have removed the burial cloths first, much less neatly folded them up in a corner. For centuries, the Shroud of Turin has been recognized by popular piety as this same shroud once used, according to Jewish custom, to wrap Jesus’s body after it was removed from the Cross by Joseph of Arimathea, in whose tomb He was laid, and anointed by the holy women. According to the most probable historical accounts, it was held by the Byzantine emperors at Constantinople, where it was likely used as the basis for iconographic images of Jesus over the centuries, before being taken during the Sack of Constantinople in 1204. It was eventually transferred to Turin in 1578 and has been displayed in a chapel there since the late 17^th century.

The Shroud of Turin is utterly unique:

· Negative: Photographic studies conducted by Secondo Pia in 1898 revealed an outline of a man imbedded in the 14x3 cloth, as Christians had always believed.

· Body: The man of the Shroud, who lived approximately 2,000 years ago, was about 5’10” and weighed roughly 176 lbs.

· Cloth: The material of the Shourd consists of flax fibers designed in a three-to-one herringbone twill pattern common in the ancient Middle East but unknown in medieval Europe when the Shroud first appeared in historical records.

· Incorrupt: No trace of decomposition was found on the cloth, meaning the body was unwrapped during rigor mortis, which usually lasts less than 48 hours after death – or the approximate period He was in the tomb.

· Pierced: On the right side, between the 4^th and 5^th ribs puncturing into the pericardial sac is an oval-shaped cut, like a spearhead, with uncoagulated blood indicating it was made postmortem.

· Blood: Samples of blood found on the Shroud indicate that the body was bloody at the time of death, since they are uncoagulated, and that He had recently been beaten due to high levels of bilirubin. Like many Eucharistic miracles, the blood was also type AB.

· Flagellation: On the chest, back and legs of the man are over a hundred rounds markings which caused the skin to tear and bleed, indicating that He was flogged with the Roman flagrum, a wooden stick with strings tipped with metal balls. Evidence shows that there were two torturers, one on the left and right, and that the one on the right was taller, left-handed and especially vicious.

· Carrying the Cross: Below both shoulder blades and atop the right shoulder blade are rectangular bruises where a heavy weight was carried – the horizontal beam of the cross.

· Nails: Bloodstains on the visible left wrist, which was positioned over the right, support the theory that He was nailed to the cross through His wrists. On the sole of the right foot, a bloodstain can be seen over a wound where a single nail was driven through both feet placed atop one another. This is largely unique to Christ: most victims of crucifixion were tied to the beams with ropes, not nailed.

· Crown of Thorns: Bloodstains on the man’s head from fifty puncture wounds are consistent with the crown of thorns which was forced onto Him. Shaped like a true crown covering the whole skull rather than merely a circlet, it would have caused a profuse amount of blood. Again, based on the historical record, only Jesus was given such a crown at His crucifixion.

· Light: But how did the image of the Shroud get there? No known physical cause can explain it – chemicals, vapors in the air, etc. – and the amount of UV radiation required to produce such a negative image would cause enough heat to instantly vaporize the cloth fibers, which are unscorched. Additionally, the image is only on the front and back, not the middle, and even shows some internal structures of the body like bones, akin to an X-ray. Apparently, the body became transparent and emitted billions of watts of light to imprint on the cloth without burning it, before being removed, rolled up and laid in the tomb.

TgPadova Telenuovo YouTube

The most rational – in fact the only rational – explanation for the Shroud is that the man of the image is Jesus Christ, whose resurrection so transformed His body that its suffusion with the light of glory caused, by His will, a miraculous image to become imprinted onto the cloth for all time, a permanent sign of Easter. While no proof can cause faith and skeptics can always find a reason to doubt, the Shroud is what the Church calls a “sign of credibility,” an indication that faith and reason are perfectly harmonious and that the truth of the Gospel is beyond reasonable doubt, requiring instead an act of the will to reject it.

This Easter – which, like Christmas, is a whole season, not just one day! – as we celebrate with our families, may we remember the true magnificence and eternal joy of Christ’s resurrection, the same resurrection promised to those who are conformed to His likeness through grace, and may we seek always to share this great joy with all the world.

Happy Easter and thank you to all readers of Missio Dei!

For more information on the Shroud, see this recent video from Michael Knowles in discussion with Shroud expert Dr. Jeremiah Johnston:

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