Pray Codex Illustration with Fabric Pattern and Burn Holes
They are often called the poker
holes because some have speculated that L-shaped patterns of burn
holes on the Shroud were created by someone thrusting a hot poker
through the Shroud.
The speculation is that this was
some sort of “test by fire” to ascertain the Shroud’s
authenticity. That seems fanciful and there is no good basis for
imagining that this is how the holes were formed. But they are
burn holes. The cloth was folded in half lengthwise and again in
half to half its width when the burns were made. This is evident
as there are four matched mirrored repetitions of the holes
showing progressive levels of burn penetration. Each pattern has
four burn marks or holes. It is more probable that the burns were
caused by a careless thurifer who may have accidentally sprinkled
some granules of burning incense onto the Shroud.
However the burn holes came about,
it did not happen in a devastating fire in Chambéry in 1532 when
the Shroud was severely damaged by molten silver dripping onto it
from its storage reliquary. We know that because a copy of the
Shroud, the Lier Shroud painted in 1516, possibly by Albrecht
Durer or Bernard van Orley, clearly shows the burn holes.
There is a far more interesting and
older picture of the burn holes. In the Budapest National Library
there is an ancient codex, known commonly as the Hungarian Pray
Manuscript or Pray Codex, named for György Pray (1723-1801), a
Jesuit scholar who made the first detailed study of it.
This codex was written between 1192
and 1195. An illustration, one of five in the manuscript, shows
Jesus being placed on his burial shroud, a shroud with the
identical pattern of burn holes found on the Shroud. The artist
has drawn the very unusual herringbone weave on the shroud and a
number of other graphic characteristics consistent with the
Shroud: Jesus is shown naked with his arms modestly folded at the
wrists, the fingers are unusually long in appearance as they are
on the Shroud, and there are no visible thumbs. There are no
thumbs visible in the images of the man of the Shroud either.
Forensic pathologists tell us that this makes sense since nails
driven through the wrist would likely cause the thumbs to fold
into the palms. In the drawing, there is also a clear mark on
Jesus’ forehead where the most prominent 3-shaped bloodstain is
found on the forehead of the man of the Shroud.
There can be little question that
this illustrator of the Pray Codex, far removed from France –
working at a time before the sacking of Constantinople by French
knights, before the time given for the Shroud by carbon 14
testing, and before or the d’Arcis Memorandum – knew about the
Shroud, the Image of Edessa.
See:
The Hungarian Pray Manuscript & The Shroud of
Turin
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