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What are the poker holes?
A repeating pattern of four holes 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. It is just as probable that the burns were caused by a careless thurifer who may have accidentally sprinkled some granules of burning incense onto the Shroud.
There is no question that 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 the same four burn marks or holes.
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 an ancient document known as the Hungarian Pray Manuscript or Pray Codex.
See: What is the Hungarian Pray Manuscript or Codex?
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© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
