The Holy Shroud of the Cathedral of Oviedo

Fascinating, but also elusive and definitely controversial, the theme of holy relics not only involves an important spiritual and cultural movement, but has also generated, throughout history, a sociological effect of the first magnitude, awakening the highest actions but also the lowest instincts, to the point of generating lucrative markets that, although theoretically prohibited and in some cases severely punished, have provided the Church with huge benefits. Inevitably, it is also true that all these precious relics distributed throughout Christendom, gave rise to deep myths and the most varied and fantastic legends, as well as more than one researcher has said, if all the relics that according to the different traditions belonged authentically to this or that saint, or to such and such an object, it should not surprise us that they were enough to reconstitute several times, if not the entire body of the aforementioned saint, yes the corresponding part of it, and likewise would happen with the object in question, being the most evident, because of the immense quantity of fragments that survive in the West, the Vera Cruz.

Now, approaching the subject that occupies us in the present entry, with the mandylion or Santo Rostro, known in this case, as the Pañolón de Oviedo, it could be said that, generally, this type of relics have always received a more poetic name and mundane, whose representation tends to be quite frequent in the artistic themes of different periods and styles, so that it is not difficult to come across it, in the form of stone sculpture - let's say, that which everyone can see in the internal upper part of the portico of access to the cloister of the Cathedral of Segovia-, to any of the countless Baroque or Renaissance altarpieces that collapse the sacred geography -metaphorically speaking, of course-, of our hermitages, churches, collegiate churches or cathedrals: the Cloth of Verónica or simply, La Verónica.

By default, and given that historically it is also true, that the Templars were not only formidable warriors, but at the same time, great compilers of relics, it is inevitable to relate them, even hypothetically and indirectly, to this one. Above all, if we take into account its provenance, the Holy Ark, and take as a base those mysterious fratres that were its custodians on the top of the Monsacro, as already noted in the previous entry. In relation to this, and as a complementary addition to a supposed history of the object that concerns us, it may be interesting the hypothesis of Carlos Galicia-interestingly summarized, although branded as skillfully handled, by Juan Eslava Galán in his work El fraude de la Shbana Santa and the relics of Christ (1) -, according to which, his edesine custodians, after a rugged journey fleeing from the Persians, arrived in Cartagena, where they deposited for some time under the custody of San Fulgencio, passing after Toledo, in the custody of San Ildefonso, until the Muslim invasion of the Peninsula, at which time they were rescued by what would be later, the first king of the Asturian monarchy: Don Pelayo.

This detail also entails another interesting controversy, related to the route followed by the exiled Goths who took refuge in the Asturian mountains: although, the so-called Route of the Relics is generally accepted, passing through various councils, such as Quirós, Teverga and Morcín, ended at the top of the Monsacro, is not less true that there are traditions, also deeply rooted, that speak of a sea route, whose landing point is a beautiful coastal city, which curiously bears in the name of its name two interesting references: Luarca. And we talk about two references, because in the first, we are reminded of the name of one of the great gods of the Celtic pantheon, Lug; and in the second, the word arca, which would come to refer, not precisely to an ark or box like those used to deposit the sacred objects, but as to that other form of expression with which both the Galicians and the Asturians, formerly , called certain megalithic monuments: the dolmens. Like a dolmen was, in addition, the one that was supposed to be in the place where the hermitage of octagonal plant of Santiago was built -initially, under the invocation of Our Lady of the Monsacro-, in part of whose interior - that hollow known as the well of Santo Toribio-, the venerated chest was deposited.

Speculations and theories apart, the truth is that it causes an impression and at least a shudder, to see that canvas partially impregnated with hemoglobin, whose original is kept safely in the Chamber, behind, precisely, the Holy Ark. But what also -and here, even in passing, could refer to what in the Middle Ages was called brandea or palliola, ie the process of making copies by contact with the original, a resource quite used, by the way, by some Popes, through which they entertained or paid favors-, has a reproduction of the front and back, placed on both sides of the neoclassical door to the Holy Chamber.

Notes:
(1) Juan Eslava Galán: 'The fraud of the Shroud Santa and the relics of Christ ', Editorial Planeta, SA, 2nd edition, Barcelona, 1997, page 212.

NOTICE: this post was originally published in my blog LA ESPAÑA DE LOS TEMPLARIOS. Both the text and the photographs are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, can view it at the following address: https://juancarlosmenendez.blogspot.com.es/2015/09/el-santo-sudario-de-la-catedral-de.html