The epic survival story of Jesus’ ‘sudarium’ face cloth

For readers in the 21st century, the crucifixion of Jesus is a singular event — literally iconic across a variety of media, from ancient paintings to modern films.

But to the eyewitnesses and participants, it was just another day at the usual site of public executions.

As a means of torture, the cross had been around for centuries. Its practice was refined by the Persians, Carthaginians, and Greeks. But the Romans used it to maximum effect, and at the time of Jesus’ death, the Romans had ruled in the Holy Land for almost 100 years.

By the time of Pontius Pilate, the Jews had adapted their burial customs to the circumstances. They observed certain protocols when a person died violently, such as by crucifixion.

These are evident in the small details of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ burial, where the evangelists mention three distinct types of cloth.

The first is the shroud (sindōn, in Greek), a large linen cloth used to wrap the whole body. The shroud appears in Matthew 27:59, Mark 15:46, and Luke 23:53. It was purchased by Joseph of Arimathea and is traditionally associated with the Shroud of Turin.

The second type is the linen strips (othonia), seen in John 19:40 and 20:5–7. These were wrappings or bands that secured the body and the embalming spices.

The third is the soudarion. This was a separate cloth to cover the head and face and was found in Jesus’ tomb rolled up in a place by itself (John 20:7). According to well-documented tradition, this fabric survives in the Sudarium of Oviedo, Spain.

The face covering had deep religious significance. The Jews of Jesus’ time believed that blood was not just a bodily fluid, but was bound up with the person’s life, and therefore belonged with the person in death. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).

When a man died violently, as in a crucifixion, his family or friends made every effort to collect his blood. It seems that, as a result of his beatings, Jesus bled much from the nose and the mouth. While his body still hung from the cross — but after he breathed his last — his friends folded the cloth and wrapped it around his head to catch the blood as it flowed.

The Sudarium in Oviedo does not present the image of a face, but it does preserve concentrated stains that correspond exactly to the nose and mouth that appear on the Shroud of Turin.

Scientific tests have also shown that the Sudarium and the Shroud correspond in other ways. The blood type in the stains on both is AB. Pollen and spores on both come from plants and fungi found only in the Holy Land.

The Sudarium is, moreover, mentioned often in Christian writings since the middle of the first millennium. According to these, St. Peter was the original custodian. When the Persians took Jerusalem in A.D. 614, Christians fled with their most precious relics to Alexandria in Egypt. A few years later, when the Persians pressed on to Alexandria, the Sudarium was smuggled to Spain, where its presence has been attested ever since by many witnesses.

Since then, it has survived burial, war, and terrorist acts — including an explosion.

It endures to bear its own witness. And “the life,” still, “is in the blood.”

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