Dossier sindrone 5
A varied number of legends were born in order to conceal the transfer of ownership. It is not nice to say that dukes and counts practice simony. In fact, the Shroud is in the hands of the Dukes of Savoy and certainly it was not a kind homage from Margherita de Charny, who up to a short time before her had also challenged excommunication in order not to return it to the Collegiate Church.
According to legend, the transfer of ownership between Margherita de Charny and Duke Ludovico di Savoia would have taken place in Chambéry, where Margaret had arrived welcomed in great splendor by the duke and his wife Anna of Cyprus, very envious of Margaret for the Shroud, and by where Margaret, after having suffered an attempt to steal the Shroud by two thieves who had their hands stuck to the Cloth, wanted to leave quickly, except that the mule carrying the box of the Shroud gets stuck and cannot cross the city gates, a sign, for the Dukes of Savoy, that the Shroud must remain in the city and pass into their hands. Of course, nothing could be more false, nor so naively bigoted. The Savoys buy the Shroud, and at a high price. The transfer of ownership takes place in Geneva, in 1453. A document remains of the sale, where the Shroud is not explicitly mentioned but the bartering between the lines is heard: the Shroud against the fief of Margaret of the city and of the Mirabel Manor - two years later Mirabel will be replaced by Flumet. If cash also ran, you will never know.
The Shroud is an earthly reality in the fullest and most complete sense of the term
explains Don Ghiberti.
The story walks marked by the powerful of the time, that is, those who using economic power and sometimes violence, physical but also that made up of more "banal" oppressions, emerged from the standard of living of ordinary people. As an earthly reality, the Shroud had to bend to this conditioning. Hadn't Jesus yielded to this same narrow-mindedness?! _ And from Geneva begins the long history of the Shroud, which has become an instrument of "political" affirmation in the hands of the House of Savoy.
The gift of Jesus
reflects Don Ghiberti
can effectively become an instrument of personal fulfillment, even on a political level.
Ownership of the Shroud is a success for the duke but above all for his wife. Jacques Lovie, historian of the Shroud, explains, "Constantinople is conquered. The Duchess Anna of Cyprus, heir of the Lusignanians, and for them, of the kingdom of Jerusalem, knows that she possesses the most impressive testimony of the great drama that took place in the fascinating city, destination of all the crusades".
For the new owners, the first problem to be resolved is to silence the Chapter of Lirey, the legitimate owner of the Telo and in dispute with Margherita. For the powerful Savoy it is easy. The Chapter agrees to recognize that the legitimate owner is the Duke, with an agreement stipulated in Paris on February 6, 1464, the latter, on the other hand, undertakes to pay the Chapter an annual sum of 50 gold francs.
Immediately the Shroud, for which certainly no one foresees public veneration, is an absolutely private fact of the ducal family and is kept in the chapel of the ducal residence, entrusted to the custody of the court chaplain. But the court does not have a permanent seat, so the Shroud, closed in a silver case, follows the dukes in their movements, loaded - this time yes - on the back of a mule. She passes by Geneva and Chambéry, placed in the cathedral or in the private chapel of the dukes, in Turin, and makes stops, along the journeys, in a series of towns and villages, especially in Piedmont and southern France. However, the dukes soon realize that the constant movements can be dangerous for a relic of such value.
To prevent theft attempts
Don Fossati recounts
name when traveling, especially in the following period, the Shroud traveled incognito, confusing the traces with a double box that followed another, more official road than the original one. They were two boxes, lined with mother-of-pearl, exactly alike. One is now kept in the museum of the Shroud of Turin, the other is in the parish of Altessano which was donated by Carlo Emanuele I.
The decision was made to build a chapel, specifically for the Shroud, in Chambéry, annexed to the ducal palace . The realization is by Duke Amedeo IX in 1467, who, the previous year, had sent the first of a series that at the end of the century will consist of over 15 petitions to the pope for the official recognition of the cult of the Cloth. In June 1502.
With the death of Amedeo IX, in 1472
explains Don Luigi Fossati
a period of strong political instability begins for the Duchy of Savoy. Mainly due to the young age of the heirs. He tries to save the dynasty by using the instrument of the regency and by continuously transferring the court from one castle to another in Piedmont. And the Shroud travels with the House of Savoy. Between 1477 and 1478 she passed through Susa, Avigliana, Rivoli. In March 1478 you are in Pinerolo and, according to some documents, on the 20th, Good Friday, there would have been an exhibition. Ten years later, in 1488, she is in Savigliano, where she is exhibited on Easter Sunday. In 1494 in Vercelli, on March 27, Good Friday, there is a new exhibition. Four years later, in 1498, she is passing through Turin, where, kept in a reliquary.
The Shroud is a pilgrim, there is little to do. Already in 1503 from what should have been the final seat, the Sainte Chapelle of Chambéry, it was brought on display, through Filiberto II, to Pont d'Ain, as a wish for the new government office, to the Archduke Philip, son of Emperor Maximilian, leaving for Flanders. Filiberto dies in Pont d'Ain and the new duke, Charles III, sends the Shroud to his mother, regent, at the Castle of Brissac in Bugey. Only the insistence of the faithful will force the reticent Charles III to bring the Shroud back to Chambéry.
In 1506, following a new plea from Charles III to Pope Julius II, the papal approval of the Office and the Mass in honor of the relic arrived. The same document sets the liturgical recurrence as May 4, the date following the feast of the Holy Cross, and grants the plenary indulgence to all participants in the religious service on Good Friday when it is shown to the faithful. The Pope also grants official recognition to the Confraternity dedicated to the Holy Shroud, with the right for members to special privileges.
From this moment there is a real boom in the cult of the Shroud, while the number of ostensions, their solemnity and the number of faithful, from all social backgrounds, who participate in it grows.
"The authenticity of a relic is an essentially historical fact", said Eusebio Vismara, doctor in Theology and Philosophy at the Salesian Pontifical Athenaeum in Turin, at the Sindonological Congress of 1939, therefore the cult of a relic or rather the liturgy approved by the Church, is not it is, in itself, confirmation of authenticity. Adrien Nocent, professor of History and Theology of the Sacraments at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute Sant'Anselmo in Rome, at the Cagliari Congress in 1990, will reaffirm this in an even more severe way, arguing that the celebration of the Holy Shroud must actualize "among us the act of the savior of the world ", that is to say" death, resurrection, ascension and sending of the Spirit ". The salvation of man comes not from suffering, nor from the death of Jesus, but from suffering, death and resurrection together. "In history - in general and, at times particularly in the history of the Shroud, precisely because it is, at least at first glance, a testimony of suffering and death - it can be seen that the completeness of the mystery has not been received". Starting with popular devotion, up to the liturgy approved by Pope Julius II, written by the Dominican Father Antonio Pennet, confessor of Duke Charles II. "The liturgy includes the entire office and the Mass", Vismara affirms again making a long examination. "The fundamental idea of this liturgy is that of the passion and burial of the Lord. But, of course, everything refers to the Holy Shroud.
The liturgy in 1514 was extended, by Pope Leo X, to the whole of Savoy and, in 1582, by Gregory XIII, to all the domains of the House of Savoy. Most likely it was also used in other countries, well beyond Piedmont and Italy, Savoy and all of France, in most of Europe, where the Confraternities in honor stood and now spread like wildfire. of the Holy Shroud.
Little by little the liturgy undergoes changes in various parts. Around 1660 it is found in breviaries in a completely different use from the original one approved by Pope Julius II.
With Pope Benedict XIII, in 1727, there will be the approval of the last and definitive changes, "the office that until then had only the paschal form", affirms Vismara, because it was recited "only on the day of the feast", May 4, "which always falls in Easter time, is granted as a votive office for all times of the year and particularly for Friday", which will favor a new further development throughout Europe of the Shroud devotion. This is a version that, in the opinion of the severe Nocent, offers "a balanced vision of the sufferings, death and glorious resurrection of Christ". The proposed Gospel is that of Mark, together with that of John, at the choice of the celebrant, the passages those that tell the discovery of the empty tomb.
From the chapel of Chambéry, now embellished with refined stained glass windows, marble, statues, gold, the Shroud emerges twice a year for the exposition: on Good Friday and on May 4th.
In Chambéry, those of the exposition are feast days. The town, polished, from the streets to the rooms of the taverns and hotels, ready to welcome guests who come from very far away, comes alive with pilgrims, clerics and, at the same time, merchants, onlookers, artists, as well as, of course, to brigands and soldiers. The streets are teeming with people, voices and colors. The canopies of the nobles find it hard to make their way through the crowd of poor pilgrims who enter the city on foot.
The expositions took place from a balcony towards the square
explains Giorgio Tessiore
three Bishops showed the Sacred Sheet for a few minutes, holding it with their hands so that the frontal imprint was on the left and the dorsal one on the right.
In 1509, a real jewel arrived in Chambéry, a gift from Margaret of Austria: a solid silver box, commissioned to a skilled Flemish artist, specially donated by the regent of the Netherlands to store the precious relic. With great solemnity, the sheet, folded, as usual at the time, several times in length and width to create 48 layers of folds, with a size of about 27x36 centimeters, is placed in the new box. This, sealed and locked by four keys, is placed in the niche of the choir sacristy.
It is the night between 3 and 4 December 1532. A terrible fire suddenly breaks out in the city. The chapel is made of stone but the walls are lined with heavy oak paneling. The splendid chapel is transformed into an oven. The windows melt, the furnishings are practically destroyed in a few minutes by the flames and heat, the facade collapses. The silver box of the Shroud also begins to feel the effects of the very high temperature after a few minutes. Filippo Lambert, adviser to the duke, two Franciscan friars, and a blacksmith, Guglielmo Pussod, brave the flames. Without keys, they break, with hammer blows, the closure of the niche, arrive at the box, already partially melted, sprinkle it with water, drag it out. A few drops of silver have already pierced the sacred Cloth, moreover soaked by the water thrown on the box for chilled. The figure of the Shroud man is safe but overall the Shroud is seriously damaged.
On the 4th of May following the exhibition is canceled. The Shroud is too damaged to be exposed. The decision makes a fuss. Mixed rumors spread among the people. There are those who say that the fire has completely destroyed the fabric, which is now non-existent. Others believe the arson started by the Duchess Beatrice of Portugal to steal the Shroud.
At this point the Pope is forced to intervene. On April 28, 1533, just over 4 months after the fire, he orders Cardinal Luis de Gorrevod to verify what actually happened to the Shroud, in what state it is in and, if necessary, to make repairs.
A year will pass before the Pope's order is carried out.
On April 15, 1534, the Shroud is brought into the chapel, stretched out on a table, and shown to 12 reliable witnesses, including Cardinal Luis de Gorrevod, bishops and others who had seen the Sudarium before the fire. Everyone recognizes the Shroud and the damage is detected. It is decided that the nuns of Sainte Claire en Ville will repair the sacred cloth. The following day, April 16, a procession, opened by the papal legate Cardinal Luis de Gorrevod, carrying the Holy Shroud, by Duke Charles III, and with the participation of the examining bishops and the court, sets out towards the convent. There the Cloth is again spread in the presence of the notaries, who must draw up the minutes, and officially identified as the Holy Shroud by a total of 23 people, the 12 of the day before plus others.
Under the open windows of the convent a large crowd of faithful gathered to pray, watch and browse. Cardinal Luigi di Gorrevod gives absolution to the nuns and orders them to mend the sheet, mounted on a loom.
The operation, which will only end on May 2, will continue all night. The longest night of the Poor Clares of Chambéry who, under the direction of the Mother Abbess, on their knees, praying and meditating on the wounds of that Christ that their hands are now grazing, with very fine stitches they remedy the damage of the fire in the best possible way.
The conditions of the Shroud must be really serious if the nuns have to fix on the reverse of the Shroud a cloth of Holland, applied with many stitching, as a reinforcement. The burns, on the other hand, are arranged with 22
subtriangular patches, obtained from corporals of the altar; later one was replaced and another 7 in fine gray canvas were added
explains Tessiore.
It is the Salesian Antonio Tonelli who at the beginning of the 20th century will pause to study the damage caused by the fire in Chambéry. The burns are 28 "symmetrical with respect to the longitudinal and transverse fold lines", writes Tonelli. The Shroud was folded several times so as to determine 48 rectangles of 27x36 centimeters. Each burn is surrounded "by a kind of large halo, sepia-colored", in fact "the heat of radiation caused a kind of dry distillation of the cellulose of the linen, with the production of different organic substances, which were gaseous at that high temperature; some of them - colored (brown) - spread like a halo around the burns and settled there, coloring the canvas. " The Poor Clares applied the patches on the charred linen which.
The nuns in their work report do not mention, strangely, the traces of a previous fire suffered by the linen, although they are definitely visible. The traces of this other fire, Tonelli explains, "are devoid of brown halo," which indicates that the "canvas was burned quickly without the formation of abundant distillation gases. They are symmetrical and degrading in intensity, from the first to the fourth layer. of canvas, the only ones affected by the combustion medium. It is evident that they could not be obtained with the folding system of 1532. " The Shroud had to be folded "only once along and across, generating four superimposed rectangles of about 0.55x2.20 m."
A "great influx of peoples", the Poor Clares will write in their report of the event, followed, from under the windows, all the phases of the operation, "there was not a day that you did not see more than a thousand people", so much that to "satisfy the holy desire of a large number of pilgrims who came from Rome, Jerusalem and many other distant countries" several times the Shroud was shown to the crowd from the windows of the convent room where it was located, lighting it with lighted candles around "while we sang on our knees".
On the eve of his feast, May 2, while the bells of the city ring in celebration, the Shroud, carried by the highest prelates, leaves the convent and the Poor Clares, now for the rest of their days orphans of that fleeting, how extraordinary , visit, to return to the ducal chapel.
We are in February 1536, the French troops, at war against Spain, are about to invade Savoy. Charles III is forced to take refuge in Piedmont. He first goes to Turin, then to Vercelli, and for a short interlude in Milan. With him, of course, he has the Shroud, which on 7 May is exhibited in Milan, at the Castello Sforzesco.
Probably the route
says Don Fossati
runs along the Colle dell'Arnaz and Valle Ala, up to Ceres. A series of places such as Averole -France-, Pian della Mussa, Balme, Mondrone, Ala di Stura, Voragno, where, moreover, as evidence of the passage of the Telo, there is a fresco, and then Lanzo and finally Turin, should have been touched.
In March 1537 the duke, with the Shroud, is in Nice. Here Francis I of France and Charles V of Spain meet, in a confrontation organized by Pope Paul III. On Good Friday, March 29, the Shroud, perhaps by the Pope himself, is shown to pilgrims from the Bellanda Tower. France and Spain will reach a truce, soon violated, however, by Francis I.
When hostilities resumed, Charles III with the court was forced again to flee. He returns to Vercelli, where the Shroud finds its place in the treasury of the Cathedral of S. Eusebio. And in Vercelli the Cloth remained uninterrupted from 1541 to 1561.
Charles III died on August 17, 1553. A few months later, on November 18, the French attacked and, with General Carlo Brissac, occupied and sacked Vercelli. It is the canon of the cathedral, Giovanni Antonio Costa, the author of the rescue of the Shroud, which the French wanted to steal and then, probably, offer it for a high ransom, to the successor of Charles III, Emanuele Filiberto. The canon a few minutes before the French enter the cathedral, while the city is already on fire, he takes the box with the cloth and secretly takes it to his house, where a few hours later, pretending to be a sympathizer of France, he invites the French soldiers to refresh themselves, transforming them into unwitting guardians of the Shroud. The soldiers leave refreshed, Vercelli reacts by managing to drive out the troops, and the Shroud is safe. The same day Emanuele Filiberto is informed with a letter that the cloth is safe.
In 1560 Emanuele Filiberto married Margaret of France, sister of Henry II. The duke and his wife reach Vercelli and the Shroud is exposed to the public for the happy event.
The following year, in June 1561, after another ostension, the Shroud leaves Vercelli to be brought back to Chambéry. The stages of the journey are not known, only the last one, Montmelian, remains, where two ostensions are organized on 15 and 17 August, the first from the city walls and the second on the castle square, to celebrate the return of the Shroud to "home", after almost thirty years.
Just 5 years later, on July 17, 1566, the Telo will leave Chambéry again, this time for the cathedral of Notre Dame de la Liesse in Annecy. A new extraordinary exhibition was commissioned by Emanuele Filiberto for the wedding between Giacomo di Savoia, Duke of Genovese and Nemours, and Anna d'Este.
