Early Christian iconography brims with images of Jesus' face on the Mandylion that closely resemble the image of the man on the Shroud-an image that was not revealed until the age of photography. By 550 A.D., the Mandylion had reportedly been recovered, and it was brought to Constantinople in 944. Travelogues, diaries, liturgies, hymns, and even coins attest to the existence of a mysterious image of Christ in the Near East. Shroud advocates believe this cloth was pirated during the infamous Fourth Crusade of the 13th century, when the Crusaders sacked Constantinople, and brought to France by the Knights Templar. Scant solid evidence has been found to support this theory, however.
Naysayers scoff at such suppositions as fanciful.
Mary Jo Anderson is a contributing editor of Crisis.