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544
544 CE is the year that the Cloth of Edessa was found above one of the city gates of Edessa. (Note that some historians have suggested 525 CE).
Edessa was one of the earliest cities with a significant Christian community. It is now known as Urfa, a modern city in present day Turkey.
Legend tells the story of how a cloth bearing the image of Jesus was brought to Edessa by a disciple of Jesus known to us as Thaddeus Jude (Addai). He had been sent by the apostle Thomas during the reign of Abgar V Ouchama, the King of Edessa from 13 –50 CE. Regardless of how it came to be in Edessa, the cloth had been found concealed behind some stones above one of the city gates in 544 CE. When it was found, it was immediately recognized as the long lost cloth of the legend.
In the late 6th century, Evagrius Scholasticus’ Ecclesiastical History mentions that Edessa was protected by a “divinely wrought portrait,” an acheiropoietos sent by Jesus to Abgar. In 730 CE, St. John Damascene. in his anti iconoclastic movement thesis, On Holy Images, describes the cloth as an himation, which is translated as an oblong cloth or grave cloth. This may be the first mention, among extant manuscripts, of it being a grave cloth.
Extant manuscripts don't suggest why the cloth was hidden away above a gate in the city's wall. Perhaps it was hidden to protect it from Persian invaders. If it was in Edessa very early then perhaps it was hidden to protect it during times of Christian persecutions. There is evidence of local persecutions in this early Christian community in the latter part of the 1st century and of Roman persecutions that persisted until the time of Emperor Constantine. If, in fact, the cloth was taken to Edessa in the 1st century, it might have been hidden for protection as early as the reign of Ma’nu VI, Abgar’s son, who is thought to have reverted to paganism.
The cloth remained in Edessa until 944 CE when it was removed to Constantinople.
Shroud of Turin Story
© 2005 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
