Wikimedia Commons
CV NEWS FEED // The Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., is set to host a special exhibit on the Shroud of Turin during Lent in response to the saint’s call for greater devotion to Christ’s burial cloth.
The Shroud of Turin exhibit will open Ash Wednesday, March 5, and run through Easter Sunday, April 20, according to a press release from the Knights of Columbus. Aiming to help pilgrims encounter the mystery of the burial cloth of Jesus, the exhibit will explore its historical significance and scientific analysis, along with the faithful devotion it inspires.
“The Shroud does not hold people’s hearts to itself, but turns them to him, at whose service the Father’s loving providence has put it,” St. John Paul II said while visiting the Shroud in Italy in 1998. “Therefore, it is right to foster an awareness of the precious value of this image, which everyone sees and no one at present can explain.”
The exhibit will feature a replica of the Shroud on loan from the National Shroud of Turin Exhibit and a sculpture titled “The Sign,” which depicts a life-size, three-dimensional image of the Man of the Shroud. There will also be prayer resources and more than 30 gallery panels with images and text.
“The Shrine is proud to offer this exhibit about the Shroud of Turin and Saint John Paul II because it resonates so deeply with his legacy,” Executive Director of the Shrine Anthony Picarello said in the release. “It illustrates how human beings can approach the deepest mysteries fruitfully with faith and reason together; how the human body can express the most radical love; and — especially during Lent — the power of redemptive suffering.”
The St. John Paul II National Shrine is a designated Jubilee 2025 Pilgrimage site. It has a first class relic of the saint’s blood available for veneration.
“In his pilgrimages to shrines around the world, Saint John Paul II often observed that shrines are places where people can step away from their busy lives to deepen their spiritual connection to God,” said Grattan Brown, the Shrine’s director of mission and ministry. “The Shroud of Turin … connects us with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, God’s most loving gift for humanity.”
St. John Paul II emphasized the profound spiritual significance of contemplating the Shroud, according to the release.
“Contemplation of that tortured Body helps contemporary man to free himself from the superficiality of the selfishness with which he frequently treats love and sin,” St. John Paul II said during his 1998 visit. “Echoing the word of God and centuries of Christian consciousness, the Shroud whispers: believe in God’s love, the greatest treasure given to humanity, and flee from sin, the greatest misfortune in history.”
