From the time the Shroud has been known to people to be a relic, people have been looking at an image which at best was not pleasant to the eye. The faint image visible on it was accepted on faith as the image of Christ.

Prior to the year 1898 whoever looked upon the cloth of the Shroud saw a dim figure of what looked like the figure of a man. It was only after Mr. Secondo Pia photographed it that the Shroud began to-reveal its hidden treasure.

On the night of May 28, 1898 Mr. Pia was given permission to photograph the Shroud as it was publicly exposed for veneration. The Shroud, placed on a large frame, was hanging above the altar of the Cathedral of Turin. The picture was taken and as it was being developed Mr. Pia began to realize that what he had photographed was not a normal object, but he had photographed an object which was a perfect negative.

Mr. Pia was the first one to see the real features of Jesus. His discovery revolutionized the thinking on what had been accepted on traditional belief regarding the man of the Shroud. That first picture catapulted the Shroud into worldwide interest among pious as well as agnostic people.

What does the Shroud really show? Without getting too technical about the nature of photography, it will suffice to say that what people had been looking at for all these centuries was something of which they had no knowledge whatsoever: they were looking at a negative.

A negative is a common word with us today. We know now that by the use of a photographic camera we can take pictures and as the film is developed all the light values are reversed. What should be light is dark and what should be dark is light. We who have some knowledge of negatives have very little trouble in identifying the subjects in the negative. But not so a century ago. So when Mr. Pia took the first picture everyone was astonished by the discovery.

Those who were looking for another external sign of Christ's life began to find in it the answer to some of the aspects of the Passion and Death of Jesus. Scientists found in it a challenge which has not yet been resolved: how was the negative image formed on the cloth.

A picture of the Shroud is available here so that the reader may have a visual knowledge of some of the things which will be explained in the next few pages. (Please use the "Back" key on your browser to return to the text.)

It is well to note here that even though the Shroud was well guarded throughout the centuries, the cloth shows many marks of constant handling. The Shroud had been placed in a silver reliquary as it was kept in the chapel at Chambery, where on December 4, 1532 there was a fire. The reliquary was enveloped by the flames and before it could be removed some of the silver began melting and some of the melted silver had dropped on the cloth and burned a hole in it.

As one views the Shroud he will notice that along the image there are white patches and blackened spots -- all the result of that fire, which did not ruin any part of the image of the body. The Shroud contains two images, one of the frontal part of a body and the other of the dorsal part of a body. Jesus was laid on the cloth, as he was taken down from the Cross, and the other half of the cloth was folded over the front of His body, so that when the cloth is totally opened one can see the two halves of the body joined at the head.

The Shroud is a piece of cloth 14.7 feet long and 4 feet wide. It is made of pure linen and the fabric is a fine tightly woven herringbone twill. It is surprisingly in good condition, soft and pliable, and just a little heavier than shirt cloth. The marvel of the Shroud is not so much in the mysterious formation of the image on it, but rather in what the Shroud tells us of the Passion and Death of Jesus. For a better understanding of what is seen on the Shroud we will turn to the Gospel story.