Sudarium of Oviedo : History and Relationship to Shroud of Turin

The Sudarium of Oviedo : Its History and Relationship
to the Shroud of Turin

Mark Guscin, B.A. M.Phil.

Copyright 1997

1: Physical Description and History

One of the relics held by the cathedral in the town of
Oviedo, in the north of Spain, is a piece of cloth measuring
approximately 84 x 53 cm. There is no image on this cloth.
Only stains are visible to the naked eye, although more is
visible under the microscope. The remarkable thing about
this cloth is that both tradition and scientific studies
claim that the cloth was used to cover and clean the face of
Jesus after the crucifixion. We are going to present and
look into these claims.

Such a cloth is known to have existed from the gospel of
John, chapter 20, verses 6 and 7. These verses read as
follows, "Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went
into the tomb, saw the linen cloth lying on the ground, and
also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not
with the linen cloth but rolled up in a place by itself."
John clearly differentiates between this smaller face cloth,
the sudarium, and the larger linen that had wrapped the
body.

The history of the sudarium is well documented, and much
more straightforward than that of the Shroud. Most of the
information comes from the twelfth century bishop of Oviedo,
Pelagius (or Pelayo), whose historical works are the Book of
the Testaments of Oviedo, and the Chronicon Regum
Legionensium.

According to this history, the sudarium was in Palestine
until shortly before the year 614, when Jerusalem was
attacked and conquered by Chosroes II, who was king of
Persia from 590 to 628. It was taken away to avoid
destruction in the invasion, first to Alexandria by the
presbyter Philip, then across the north of Africa when
Chosroes conquered Alexandria in 616. The sudarium entered
Spain at Cartagena, along with people who were fleeing from
the Persians. The bishop of Ecija, Fulgentius, welcomed the
refugees and the relics, and surrendered the chest, or ark,
to Leandro, bishop of Seville. He took it to Seville, where
it spent some years.

Saint Isidore was later bishop of Seville, and teacher of
Saint Ildefonso, who was in turn appointed bishop of Toledo.
When he left Seville to take up his post there, he took the
chest with him. It stayed in Toledo until the year 718. It
was then taken further north to avoid destruction at the
hands of the Muslims, who conquered the majority of the
Iberian peninsula at the beginning of the eighth century. It
was first kept in a cave that is now called Monsacro, ten
kilometres from Oviedo. King Alfonso II had a special chapel
built for the chest, called the "Camara Santa", later
incorporated into the cathedral.

The key date in the history of the sudarium is the 14th
March 1075, when the chest was officially opened in the
presence of King Alfonso VI, his sister Dona Urraca, and
Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, better known as El Cid. A list was
made of the relics that were in the chest, and which
included the sudarium. In the year 1113, the chest was
covered with silver plating, on which there is an
inscription inviting all Christians to venerate this relic
which contains the holy blood. The sudarium has been kept in
the cathedral at Oviedo ever since.

2: Analysis of the Sudarium

All the credit for the investigations carried out on the
sudarium must go to the Investigation Team of the Spanish
Centre for Sindonology, under the leadership of Guillermo
Heras. The medical part of the investigation was done by Dr.
Jose Villalain.

The stains on the sudarium show that when the cloth was
placed on the dead man's face, it was folded over, although
not in the middle. Counting both sides of the cloth, there
is therefore a fourfold stain in a logical order of
decreasing intensity.

From the composition of the main stains, it is evident that
the man whose face the sudarium covered died in an upright
position. The stains consist of one part blood and six parts
fluid from a pleural oedema. This liquid collects in the
lungs when a crucified person dies of asphyxiation, and if
the body subsequently suffers jolting movements, can come
out through the nostrils. These are in fact the main stains
visible on the sudarium.

These stains in the nasal area are also superimposed on each
other, with the different outlines clearly visible. This
means that the first stain had already dried when the second
stain was formed, and so on.

Dr. Villalain had a specially modelled head made to
reconstruct the process of staining and drying, and was thus
able to calculate the time that elapsed between the
formation of each stain.

The cloth was not wrapped entirely round the head because
the right cheek was almost touching the right shoulder. This
suggests that the sudarium was put into place while the body
was still on the cross. The second stain was made about an
hour later, when the body was taken down. The third stain
was made when the body was lifted from the ground about
forty five minutes later. The body was lying at the foot of
the cross for about forty-five minutes before being buried.
The marks (not fingerprints) of the fingers that held the
cloth to the nose are also visible.

The experiments with the model head and the study of the
stains also show that when the man died his head was tilted
seventy degrees forward and twenty degrees to the right.
This position further suggests that the man whose face the
sudarium covered died crucified.

There are smaller bloodstains at the side of the main group.
It would appear that the sudarium was pinned to the back of
the dead man's head, and that these spots of blood were from
small sharp objects, which would logically be the thorns
that caused this type of injury all over Jesus' head.

The medical studies are not the only ones that have been
carried out on the sudarium. Dr. Max Frei analysed pollen
samples taken from the cloth, and found species typical of
Oviedo, Toledo, North Africa and Jerusalem. This confirms
the historical route described earlier. There was nothing
relating the cloth to Constantinople, France, Italy or any
other country in Europe.

An international congress was held in Oviedo in 1994, where
various papers were presented about the sudarium. Dr. Frei's
work with pollen was confirmed, and enlarged on. Species of
pollen called "quercus caliprimus" were found, both of which
are limited to the area of Palestine.

Residues of what is most probably myrrh and aloe have also
been discovered, mentioned directly in the gospel of john,
19:39-40, "Nicodemus came as well...and he brought a mixture
of myrrh and aloes...They took the body of Jesus and bound
it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish
burial custom."

The stains were also studied from the point of view of
anthropology. The conclusion was that the face that had been
in contact with the sudarium had typically Jewish features,
a prominent nose and pronounced cheekbones.

Finally, the very fact that the cloth was kept at all is a
sign of its authenticity, as it has no artistic or monetary
value at all. All the studies carried out so far point in
one direction, with nothing to suggest the contrary the
sudarium was used to cover the head of the dead body of
Jesus of Nazareth from when he was taken down from the cross
until he was buried.

3: Coincidence with the Shroud

The sudarium alone has revealed sufficient information to
suggest that it was in contact with the face of Jesus after
the crucifixion. However, the really fascinating evidence
comes to light when this cloth is compared to the Shroud of
Turin.

The first and most obvious coincidence is that the blood on
both cloths belongs to the same group, namely AB.

The length of the nose through which the pleural oedema
fluid came onto the sudarium has been calculated at eight
centimetres, just over three inches. This is exactly the
same length as the nose on the image of the Shroud.

If the face of the image on the Shroud is placed over the
stains on the sudarium, perhaps the most obvious coincidence
is the exact fit of the stains with the beard on the face.
As the sudarium was used to clean the man's face, it appears
that it was simply placed on the face to absorb all the
blood, but not used in any kind of wiping movement.

A small stain is also visible proceeding from the right hand
side of the man's mouth. This stain is hardly visible on the
Shroud, but Dr. John Jackson, using the VP-8 and photo
enhancements has confirmed its presence.

The thorn wounds on the nape of the neck also coincide
perfectly with the bloodstains on the Shroud.

Dr. Alan Whanger applied the Polarized Image Overlay
Technique to the sudarium, comparing it to the image and
bloodstains on the Shroud. The frontal stains on the
sudarium show seventy points of coincidence with the Shroud,
and the rear side shows fifty. The only possible conclusion
is that the Oviedo sudarium covered the same face as the
Turin Shroud.

4: The Temporal Aspect the sudarium before the Shroud

The sudarium has no image, and none of the facial stains of
dried or drying blood visible on the Shroud, especially the
stain on the forehead in the shape of an inverted three. The
stains on the sudarium were made by a less viscous mixture.

This, together with the fact that the fingers which held the
sudarium to Jesus' nose have left their mark, point to a
short temporal use of the cloth and eliminate the
possibility of its contact with the body after burial.

Jewish tradition demands that if the face of a dead person
was in any way disfigured, it should be covered with a cloth
to avoid people seeing this unpleasant sight. This would
certainly have been the case with Jesus, whose face was
covered in blood from the injuries produced by the crown of
thorns and swollen from falling and being struck.

It seems that the sudarium was first used before the dead
body was taken down from the cross and discarded when it was
buried.

This fits in with what we learn from John's gospel, which
tells us that the sudarium was rolled up in a place by
itself.

5: Conclusions

The studies on the sudarium and the comparison of this cloth
with the Shroud are just one of the many branches of science
which point to both having covered the dead body of Jesus.
The history of the Oviedo cloth is well documented, and the
conclusions of this for the dating of the Shroud need no
further comment.

The Sudarium of Oviedo : Its History and Relationship to the Shroud of Turin

The Sudarium of Oviedo : Its History and Relationship
to the Shroud of Turin