The Origins and History of the Shroud of Turin

The history of the Shroud of Turin begins in the middle of the 14^th century. In 1357 it was first put on display in the church of Lirey, France, in the Diocese of Troeys, by the widow of French knight Geoffrei de Charnay. How the Shroud came into the hands of de Charnay is not known: it is reported to have first come into his possession somewhere between 1354-55, only a year or two before his death.

Shortly after the Shroud first came to be publicly displayed in Lirey, Henri de Poitiers, the Bishop of Troyes, prohibited veneration of the Shroud claiming it to be a fake. According to his successor, Pierre D'Arcis, Bishop Henri de Poitiers had done his own investigation of the Shroud and had gone so far as to gain a confession from the artist responsible for the creation of the artifact.

After the prohibition of its public display, the Shroud went into hiding for a little over 30 years before it began to be once more displayed in 1389. Following in the footsteps of his predecessor, the new Bishop of Troyes Pierre D'Arcis attempted to stop the public display and veneration of the Shroud but was unsuccessful. In 1389 he wrote a memorandum to the Avignon Pope Clement VII, detailing the situation.

In his response, Clement VII did not ban veneration of the Shroud, but rather stated that it could be displayed publicly as an object of devotion so long as those displaying the Shroud did not make any claims that it was the True Shroud of Christ, but informed those viewing the image that it was only a man-made representation, not a true holy relic.

The skepticism of the first Bishops of Troyes to view the Shroud, as well as Pope Clement VII, recognizing the Shroud as a forgery, would not last forever. Despite early attempts to suppress it, the longer the Shroud remained as an object of the people, the more its claims to legitimacy stuck in the minds not only in those viewing the Shroud but in the Catholic hierarchy. By 1506, Pope Julius II took its authenticity for granted, declaring May 4^th as the Feast Day of the Shroud.