If you go into an Orthodox Church between 2 PM on Holy
Friday and Easter midnight, you will certainly see a table in the center of the
nave with a huge cloth embroidered with gold and adorned with beads and gems.
If you take a closer look, you will see a half-naked dead man on that cloth.
The cloth is called the Holy Shroud, and the man is no other than Jesus Christ.
The tradition to bring the “Lord’s burial cloth” to the center of a church is
fairly recent. It was around the 14th century that a small napkin with
an image of the dead Savior started to be used during the Matins of Holy
Saturday (i.e., on Friday afternoon). This napkin covered the Gospel book
during the procession with the Gospel to point at the fact that the Lord’s body
was already in the grave and His soul was descending into the Hell. It was
around the 16th century that the napkin turned into a big
cloth, which we now know as the Shroud.
At first, the Holy Shroud lay on the Holy Table in the
sanctuary during the entire Bright Week, and later it was left in the sanctuary
until the Ascension. By that time it was not just a piece of fabric with the
image of Christ; it was a veritable masterpiece of weaving art, adorned
according to strict rules. The tradition of carrying the “Lord’s shroud” out into
the nave for the veneration of the faithful was finally established in the 18th
century, at the earliest, and received its modern form by the nineteenth
century.
Presently, the image of the dead Savior is carried out
of the sanctuary at the end of the Holy Friday Vespers, which is celebrated around
two o’clock in the afternoon, at the time of the death of Jesus Christ on the
Cross. The choir sings The noble Joseph, when he had taken down Thy
most pure body from the Tree, wrapped It in fine linen and anointed It with
spices, and placed It in a new tomb, while the priests lift the Holy Shroud
from the Holy Table, like Golgotha, and move it to a special table, the Tomb,
after which all the faithful venerate the reposed Lord. The rite of Lamentation
of Christ is performed in front of the Shroud during the Holy Saturday Matins
on Friday evening. At the end of this remarkable rite, there is a procession
around the church with the Trisagion, normally sung at funerals. Priests lead the
procession with the Shroud. This is how believers bid farewell to the Savior
and bury Him. The image of the reposed Christ stays in the nave till the Easter
Matins (Sunday midnight) and then the Shroud is taken back into the sanctuary
and placed onto the Holy Table where it stays until the Apodosis of Easter (the
Eve of Ascension).
The iconography of the Shroud is very simple.
Essentially, it’s a painted replica of the Shroud of Turin, i.e., the winding
sheet that covered the Savior’s body and on which an image of the Lord was
miraculously imprinted.
A typical shroud portrays the Savior almost naked,
wearing just a loincloth, in the tomb. Sometimes He is surrounded by Angels,
Theotokos, and Apostles, although these visual elements are rare nowadays. The
edges of the Shroud have the text of the sticheron “The Noble Joseph, taking
down Thy most pure Body from the Tree, did wrap it in clean linen with sweet
spices, and he laid it in a new tomb” embroidered in gold letters. There are
images of the Four Evangelists in the corners (sometimes on separate
diamond-shaped pieces of fabric).
Translated by The Catalog
of Good Deeds
CONVERSATION