The Sudarium of Oviedo

The Sudarium is a small piece of linen, about 84 by 53 centimetres, marked with folds and stains of blood but with no image. It is venerated as the cloth that had been over the head of Jesus, which Saint John saw lying in the empty tomb, “not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place” (John 20:7).

According to tradition it was kept in Jerusalem until the Persian invasion of 614. It was then carried to Alexandria, across North Africa and into Spain, and finally north to Asturias, the Christian kingdom that resisted the Moorish conquest. It was kept in the Arca Santa, a great chest of relics, which was solemnly opened in 1075 in the presence of King Alfonso VI and El Cid.

The Sudarium is kept in the Cámara Santa, the Holy Chamber of Oviedo Cathedral, a ninth-century chapel built to protect the relics of the kingdom. Pilgrims on the northern roads to Santiago de Compostela have long made a detour to venerate it. “He who goes to Santiago and not to San Salvador,” runs an old saying, “visits the servant and neglects the Lord.”

Researchers have compared its bloodstains with those on the Shroud of Turin, and many find they correspond closely, though this, like the age of the cloth, remains under discussion.

Where

Cámara Santa, Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, Spain

When to see it

Shown to the faithful on Good Friday, on the feast of the Triumph of the Cross (14 September) and on its octave (21 September).

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap