Where Did the Shroud of Turin Come From?

Well documented historical records are an elusive component of ancient manuscripts and artifacts. Provenance is a historian’s “best guess.”

There are three lines of “undocumented” evidence tracing the probable journey of the Shroud of Turin from Jerusalem to Edessa, Turkey (400-943), from Edessa to Constantinople (943-1204), then from Constantinople to Lirey, France (1204-1349).

“Undocumented” History: Pollen, Coins, Icons and Other Relics

1. Testing of pollen samples by Dr. Max Frei.
2. 1st century Roman coins on the eyes of the image on the Shroud.
3. Striking similarities to the Mandylion, a relic from Edessa, with documentation from the 5th century.

For more on this, watch this video presentation by Fr. Spitzer. The video highlights five key pieces of scientific evidence regarding the Shroud’s authenticity and traces its likely journey from 1st century Palestine to its well-documented 1349 appearance in Lirey, France.

For a summary of a similar presentation, click here.

Learn More About the Shroud of Turin

For more on the Shroud of Turin, see the 5 other articles in this series:

• What is the Shroud of Turin? Here’s What Science Says.
• History of the Shroud of Turin (Cutting through the Controversy!)
• How Old is the Shroud of Turin? 1,970 years. (Give or take 200.)
• How Did the Shroud of Turin Get Its Image? (Hint: think radiation.)
• Facts About the Shroud of Turin (Age, Dimensions, Blood Stains)