One of the great treasures at the Oratory is the Third-Class Relic of the Holy Shroud of Turin in the Sacred Heart Chapel in the North Transept of the Church. The Relic is an exact replica of the True Shroud, still located in its reliquary in Turin, Italy, which was touched to the True Shroud and given into the care of the Oratorians by His Grace, the Archbishop of Turin.

Opening Times

The Shroud is on permanent exhibition and is available for private veneration by the public Daily throughout the year, when the Church is open, from 07:00—18:00 (unless there is a special event; please check What’s On before travelling to avoid disappointment).

About The True Shroud

How is the Image created?

No-one knows. The 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STuRP) scientists spent five days with the Shroud. Barrie Schwortz, the official photographer, said “We could tell you what it’s not – not a painting, not a photograph, not a scorch, not a rubbing – but we know of no mechanism to this day that can make an image with the same chemical and physical properties as the image on the Shroud.”

The Shroud is three-dimensional

In 1976, the physicists Dr. John Jackson and Dr. Eric Jumper placed a picture of the Shroud under a VP8 three-dimensional analyser. Normally two-dimensional images distort when seen, but the Shroud shows a perfect three-dimensional image. It was created while draped over a body.

The Image is hardly there

When examined under microscopy, slightly straw-coloured threads form the Image on the Shroud. One fibre is changed and the next is not. Dr. Ray Rogers, a STuRP chemist surmised ‘the thickness of the image color must be less than a sodium-D wavelength (589 nanometers).’ That is a miniscule 0.000589 millimetres.

Created by Light at the Resurrection?

In December 2011, scientists from Italy’s National Agency for Technology and Energy wrote that the Shroud of Turin may have been created by a “flash of light.” It “has many physical and chemical characteristics” which are “impossible to obtain in a laboratory.” The team partly re-created a small section of cloth with some of the properties of the Shroud by using lasers with short bursts of ultraviolet light. Dr. Paolo Di Lazzaro, wrote that the ultraviolet light necessary to create the image “exceeds the maximum power released by all ultraviolet light sources available today.” It would require “pulses having durations shorter than one forty-billionth of a several billion watts.”

Facial Injuries

The Man on the Shroud has an area of swelling to his right cheek, just below the eye. This appears on the left of the black and white negative. There is also a swelling in the shape of a half-moon just above the mous- tache on the left on the photographic negative. There are swellings above the eyebrows and on the bridge of the nose, suggesting a deviated septum of the nose. His face shows signs of significant assault.

Crown of Thorns

There was something on the head of the Man which was sharp enough to cause bleeding at the front and the back of the head. It is so extensive it was like a deep crown or cap covering the top of the head. What caused these wounds? The Swiss criminologist Dr. Max Frei pressed sellotape firmly on to the Shroud and identified many types of pollen. The pollen came from plants which grow in the Middle East and Western Europe. Around the head of the Man of the Shroud, Frei found a density of pollen from a plant called Gundelia Tournifortii. It is a form of thistle with a very vicious thorn.

Flogging

There are hundreds of wounds shaped like a dumbell. The clearest of these look like a straight line with a circular ball at each end. They cover the body from the shoulders right down to the backs of the calves; reveal a ferocious scourging. The half-moon swelling on the right cheek is a whiplash. The whip as found in archaeological discoveries, that produced these was called the Roman flagrum.

The Way of the Cross

The marks of the flagrum are smudged across the shoulders which suggests that they rubbed on something hard. The right shoulder is dislocated. Scientists found dirt on the soles of the feet, the knees and on the tip of the nose, suggesting he fell.

Crucifixion: Wounds to the Feet

The images of the feet have been damaged by water. However, there are two visible blood flows to the feet of the Man of the Shroud. The first goes through the front of the foot in the classical position shown by artists. There is also on the image of the back of the Man, a blood flow which appears to come sideways from the heel. This is consistent with modern archaeological findings of crucifixion.

The Blood Flow from the Side

On the right hand side of the Man on the Shroud there is a flow of blood, suggestive of a large stabbing wound. It appears on the left below because the Shroud covered the body. The entry point is an ellipse, which penetrates between the 5th and 6th ribs. Around every blood flow, but particularly on the chest wound, there is a halo of clear plasma like fluid. It appears to be a mixture of red blood and a clear fluid.

Fire and water damage

The Shroud has been badly damaged by fire and water in its history. The large triangular patches are from a fire in 1532. The large diamond shaped water stains on the chest and above the head were from older damage.