A paper by Fr. Kim Dreisbach archived in this blogspace was moved from one directory to another and thus links to it were broken. Barrie Schwortz tipped me off. It was good to be reminded about the paper:
A Comparison of Jesus’ burial shroud in John 20:7 (i.e. one among the othonia) & 12 testifying to His Resurrection and the face cloth of “Lazarus” (soudarion aka the Oviedo
Cloth ) in John 11 – a didactic narrative in which the latter serves as a “spy clue”
guaranteeing their own resurrection to members of the primitive Church.by The Rev. Albert R. Dreisbach, jr.
Do read the paper. It contains gems like this:
Mozarabic Rite (6th century, Spain)
If one continues to wonder if Peter actually saw “images” on the Shroud, a confirmatory “Spy-clue” indicating same may well appear in the preface (i.e. illatio) of the Mozarabic rite for the Saturday after Easter:
“Peter ran with John to the tomb and saw the recent imprints (vestigia) of the dead and risen man on the linens. [Emphasis added.]
Pietro Savio translates vestigia as “imprints”, while Guscin indicates:
The first meaning can be quickly dismissed as totally inappropriate in the context, which leaves us with some kind of mark or sign of Christ, something clearly related to his death and resurrection. This would seem to suggest that Peter and John saw the blood (death) and the body image (resurrection). There is very little else that could be seen on the burial cloths.
As important as this definition may be, it would seem that “the” real key words for correctly deciphering this passage are the dead and risen man on the linens.
I love this paper by Kim Dreisbach, and have referred to it from time to time.
Mozarabic proper refers to those Christians who lived under Moslem domination in Spain. However the so-called Mozarabic rite (more accurately Old Hispanic) was well developed even before the Visigoth period, its final form being determined by St Isidore of Seville, (d.636) before the Muslim invasion.
The reference to ‘vestigia’ corresponds to the scripture text John 20:6-8. None of the four Greek texts from the parallel Greek web-site, nor Jerome’s Vulgate text, refer to the imprints on the cloths. It would seem to be an early inference taken from the text of v.8: “8 Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.” It raises the question of what was it that he saw that made him believe.
Dreisbach quotes a few other interesting early liturgical sources, which I’ve recently mentioned to a few other Eucharistic Ministers at my local church. The EMs are required to spread a corporal cloth on the altar before Mass on which the sacred elements are placed.
Kim observes:
As early as A.D. 325, Pope Sylvester I established:
‘that Mass be celebrated on an altar covered with a cloth of linen consecrated by the
Bishop, as if it were the clean Shroud of Christ.’
Theodore of Mopsuestia (ca. A.D. 350-428) expresses this motif’s incorporation into the liturgy, describing the role of the deacons in the liturgy as follows:
‘When they bring up (the oblation at the offertory) they place it on the altar for the
completed representation of the passion so that we may think of Him on the altar as if He
were placed in the sepulchre after having received the passion … the deacons who spread
the linens on the altar represent the figure of the linen cloths at the burial….’
There are also some fascinating comparisons with the burial and resuscitation of Lazarus. If you as yet unacquainted with it, I fully recommend a read of this paper.