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Show WINDING SHEET OF OUR LORD j THE LINEN IN WHICH OUR SAVIOR SA-VIOR WAS WRAPPED. Perfect Outline of the Savior of the World Appears On Its Surface Recital of Its History. Several rather vague accounts have appeared recently, from time to time, ' regarding Our Lord's winding sheet. As the statements made in most of these were far from correct, we repro-. repro-. duce the following account published a short time :dnee by a learned Benedie-j Benedie-j tine. Dr. P. George Koch, and trans-I trans-I lated from the Alte and Neue Welt. I The holy linen in which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of Our Lord, which is one of the precious be- longings of the House of Savoy, is made of a fine linen, which from its texture has been judged by experts to belong to the first century after Christ. , It consists of but a single piece, about , thirteen feet in length and about five ! feet in width. Each half of the wind-I wind-I ing sheet bears the impression of the sacred body of Our Divine Lord and I Savior, in such :i manner that one-half hears the obverse and the other half: the reverse of the body. The impre-s- j sions'of the head on each half of the j sheet are in juxtaposition to one an- ; 1 other, as they naturally would be in ' case the sheet on which the body had first been placed had been stretched ; back over the face and down over the body to the feet. This is in accordance with the accounts in the gospel. Matthew, Mat-thew, Mark and Luke state that Joseph of Arimathea wrapped the body of I Jesuri in fine linen, and John says that i the Redeemer's body was bound in linen lin-en clothes, "with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury. J This linen sheet is also mentioned in i the narrative of the resurrection both I by St. Luke and St. John, the latter of I whom, especially, mentions the sudari-j sudari-j urn, which was placed over the face of ; the Divine Savior. If, therefore, other linen clothes besides the one at Turin ! are venerated as sacred relics of the passion and death of the Redeemer for instance, at Maastrich, in Holland; Besancon, in France it is entirely in harmony with Sacred Writ, which makes mention of other smaller pieces of linen besides the winding sheet. On the original, the obverse plainly shows the entire body of Jesus, the head, the upper half of the body, the rigid bent arms, with the hands folded one over the other, the lower limbs and feet stretched out. There are dark lines and marks visible visi-ble showing the creases made by folding fold-ing the sheet, and at the 'corners and edges traces of the burns made by the flames, which destroyed a part of the silver reliquary cuntaining the sheet on the -4th of December. 1332. The fire, however, did not damage the image of ue Mnor, ine cioLn, wnicn was toia-ed. toia-ed. being singed at the edges only. The expression of the face which bears traces of great suffering, is dignified and placid. The hair, which is care-I care-I fully arranged, and the beard, which I is of medium length, are both in ac-I ac-I cordance with the historical portraits I of Christ. The wounds, some of which j were inflicted by the crowd of thorns I and the spear thrust, others by the , nails which pierced the hands and feet, have left distinct traces. The picture of the reverse bears the impression of three chain links near the. os sacrum. How did these impressions originate? Investigation has proven that many of them show traces of bloood. Joseph and Nicodemus- cleansed and washed the body of Jesus, which was covered with clotted blood, before they wrapped it in linen, and spices. This was done as hurriedly as possible on account of the pressure, of time. Under thes conditions it Is quite natural nat-ural that the body, covered with ter-j ter-j rible wounc'a but recently made, and i the aloe and myrrh mingling with the I still flowing blood and water, should ; leave many traces on the fine white sheets of linen. However, when we claimed that this occurred most naturally, natur-ally, we do not assert that the special providence of Almighty God did not co-operate with nature, or, more correctly cor-rectly speaking, did not most graciously gracious-ly cause this. . j This preservation of this precious I evidence of the passion and death of Our Savior was granted by Divine Providence. To preserve with the utmost ut-most care and veneration each article sanctioned by the Redeemer must have been to the Apostles, and the faithful cenerallv. n. mr.;t sacrpH d.nfv An. elent history testifies to the great fidelity fidel-ity with which this was done. Previous Pre-vious to the siege and destruction ff Jerusalem, the Christians, mindful of the warning of Our Lord, fled from the city. As many of the precious relics as possible were saved at the time. Among these treasures, . the sacred winding sheet is said to have been. Later on, when the Christians were once more allowed to dwell in Jerusalem, Jerusa-lem, the precious winding sheec was also returned. Here it remained until the period of the later crusades. Jeru salem. having fallen into the hands of 1 Saladin in 1187. the most valuable relics rel-ics of Christendom were transferred to the Island of Cyprus, which was at j that time ruled over by the house c.f j Lusignan, which had also governed I over Jerusalem. Here the sacred Avind-ing Avind-ing sheet was preserved until 1430. At that time Louis of Savoy married Aeiie, eldest daughter of the King of Cyprus. Following the Turkish advances on Cyprus, Cy-prus, the precious relic is said to have been donated to Louis and Anne of Savoy by the Princess Margarethe of Charnay, who deposited it at Cham-bery, Cham-bery, which was then the capital of Savoy. According to a second version, this j relic passed from1 the hands of the Kings of Cyprus into those of Gottfried of the Picardie in the time of the Crusades, and about 1452 it came inta the possession of the house of Savoy through Margarethe of Charnay, a related above. At Chambery, the sacred winding sheet remained until i.VTS Tn that vpar St. Charles Borromeo decided t'o undertage a pilgrimage to the shrine which contained this treasure. treas-ure. Prince Emanuel, being advised of his intentions, and impelled by veneration ven-eration for the great and holy Prelate, decided to carry this sacred treasure of the Catholic Church to Turin, there to meet St. Charles. On the 15th of September. Sep-tember. 1578. the procession bearing the sacred winding sheet arrived in that city, where it has since remained. THe date mentioned was also the occasion of the first public exposition of this venerable linen. The Catholic Church is the lav.tul heiress of the early Christian centuries. The Church alone has preserved the true Christ in her teachings and the veneration of nations. She likewise takes pride in the possession of these sacred relics of the earliest periods of Christianity, and in. the fact that out of veneration and love for .our Savior these articles were preserved by the faithful and handed down from generation genera-tion to generation. |