Ever since scientists have been analyzing and theorizing about the Shroud and its mysterious image, they couldn’t help but wonder what damage was done to the cloth itself throughout time, particularly from the fire in 1532. The Shroud has been exposed not only to fire, and the water damage stemming from its rescue, but also to countless air contaminants, innumerable people touching, kissing, and pressing images against the cloth, and an unheard of number of ways in which the shroud has been folded, rolled, stored, and displayed through the ages—leaving hundreds of fold marks, creases, and wrinkles—some visible to the eye, and some only seen under raking light photography.
With all of this said, it would seem obvious that a need for the preservation of the Shroud should have been carried out in order that this miraculous cloth might be a gift to all generations. In 2002, such a task was carried out—with much anger and protest to Shroud scholars (many of them were only made aware of this project after the fact). The main concern was to remove any contaminants that would allow for a more rapid dehydration oxidation of the background cloth to which the Shroud image has been slowly “fading into” through the ages (in a sense, as the background cloth has dehydrated and oxidized, causing its own yellowed color, it has “caught up” with the body images, causing them to begin to disappear into the background).
While the details of what was done in 2002 are quite in depth, we hope to give you a brief overview of what was done during this preservation project, why, and what that has done to the “look of the Shroud.”
The first thing that was done was to remove the Shroud from the patches and “Holland” backing cloth that was attached to it in 1534 by the Poor Clare nuns to repair the Shroud from the 1532 fire. When this was done, the images of the burn marks were seen on the Holland cloth. This was due to the carbon dust that gathered on the Holland cloth.
The Shroud was then carefully micro-vacuumed, careful to avoid the blood areas. The carbon (burned areas, were carefully removed. All of these were efforts in order to eliminate carbon and other containments from the Shroud that would accelerate the dehydration oxidation of the cloth itself.
During this preservation, scans were taken of the front and the back of the Shroud for further scientific study. Finally, through a process of laying glass on the Shroud and flattening the creases and fold marks on the Shroud, leaving their imprint still on the cloth, was applied in order to make the process of adding a new backing cloth more precise. The new backing cloth was then put on the Shroud for display purposes. It was sewn on with natural silk threads (about the size of a human hair, they are very strong, but will break before pulling the shroud cloth itself.
Everything that was done was photo-documented. Anything removed from the Shroud itself, by vacuum or otherwise, was cataloged and preserved. Because of the intricate detail in which the sewing and other preservation techniques were carried out, gloves were not used by any of the preservationists. This has caused great anger among many sindonologists, but they were reminded that the Shroud, throughout its history, has been a host of countless DNA deposits from the innumerable people who have touched it, kissed it, etc.
The results of this preservation project have left us with a Shroud that looks quite different then many of the pictures we are accustomed to seeing. No longer is the fire damage the overwhelming image we see when we look at the cloth. Instead, the fire damage is more subtle, and the eye focuses to the center image of the body.
©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz
Above: Image of the Shroud of Turin as seen in 1978
Below: Image of the Shroud of Turin as seen after the 2002 Preservation Project
©2002 Giandurante
During this preservation, images of the back of the cloth were also taken.
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©2002 Giandurante
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