More than one million people from across the world are expected to head for Turin in the coming weeks for their chance to catch a glimpse of one of Christianity’s most controversial relics, which has gone on display for the first time in five years.
For Christians, the chance to shuffle past the shroud, a 14ft sheet said to be the burial cloth in which the crucified body of Christ was lain, is a rare opportunity.
The cloth, which is usually kept in a sealed container in a dark chapel next to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist, has been put on display five times since 1933, but was only shown a few times every century before then.
Now, for the first time since 2010, visitors can view the cloth, whose true origin is still debated.
The display this year commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of St John Bosco, whose work in Turin focused on poor youth.
Scientific scrutiny
The shroud has been subject to more scientific scrutiny than perhaps any other Christian relic.
Believers see in the shroud a faint image that resembles a dead man. Scientists weighed in on the debate in 1988, after carbon-14 tests showed the relic originated around the 13th century, and was therefore not authentic.
Since then, other theories have materialised - including a suggestion that the fibres that were tested in 1988 were essentially from a patch in the shroud and not part of the original cloth.
British scholar Charles Freeman put forward another theory after studying early descriptions of the shroud, when it was first acquired by the House of Savoy - Italy’s former royal family - in 1453. Freeman found that the cloth was probably created for a medieval Easter ritual. For the faithful, fact and theories that dispute the shroud’s origin do little to sway their thinking.
The Catholic church has not formally taken a position on whether the shroud is authentic, but Pope Francis is due to visit and pray in front of the relic on June 21st, in a private viewing he will attend with his Italian relatives.
Guardian service