THE HOLY SHROUD

Southland Times, Issue 22187, 1 December 1933, Page 12

THE HOLY SHROUD

SACRED RELIC EXHIBITED. 25,000 KNEELING PILGRIMS. The focus of the Holy Year ceremonies was transferred on September 26 for a short period from Rome to Turin. There, with elaborate and solemn ceremony, the Holy Shroud, in which, according to tradition, the body of Christ was wrapped, was taken from the cathedral treasury and exposed to the gaze of a great crowd. Tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to Turin on their way to Rome. The ceremony was attended by Crown Prince Umberto and his wife, Princess Marie Jose. The presence of Italian Royalty was essential, for the precious relic of the Passion is the property of the House of Savoy. Every time that it is moved a solemn deed must be signed by both Royal and ecclesiastical authorities. Should it require mending, either the Queen or one of her daughters goes to Turin to perform the task, and sews upon her knees. No fewer than 28 bishops and five princes figured in the procession, which with Cardinal Fassati at its head, escorted the Holy Shroud from the treasury to the cathedral door, where it was exhibited to a crowd of 25.000 pilgrims kneeling in the square. Count de Vecchi, Italian Ambassador to the Holy See, represented Signor Mussolini and the Government. Members of all the orders of chivalry were present in glittering uniforms. Princess Marie Jose and the ladies of the Court wore black, with black lace mantillas. They bore candles in their hands. After being exhibited, the shroud was attached to a special frame, placed near the high altar. The ceremony terminated with the reading of a Papal Bull pronouncing sentence of excommunication upon anyone who should touch the relic. The Holy Shroud was brought to an ancestor of the present King from the Holy Land in 1453. It was slightly charred by a fire ’n 1532. It is a long cloth of rough linen, 131 ft. long by 4ft 3in. wide. Dimly on both back

and front can be seen the imprint of a human figure. The Vatican organ Osservatore Romano, speaks of the shroud as genuine, but at an earlier period its genuiness had been subject to controversy. It remained for about three weeks on exhibition, and during that period a mystery play of the Passion was enacted daily in the courtyard of the local seminary.