The Hungarian Pray Manuscript and the Poker Holes
Upon close
examination of the Shroud, scholars have identified a number of small burn
holes. They are often called the poker holes because some have speculated
that the L-shaped patterns of the holes were created by someone thrusting a
hot poker through the Shroud. Some believe that this was some sort of "test
by fire" by early Christians to ascertain the Shroud's authenticity. That
seems fanciful, and there is no good basis for imagining that this is how the
holes were formed. But they are burn holes. Because there are four matched
mirrored repetitions of the holes showing progressive levels of burn
penetration so that each pattern has four burn marks or holes, it appears
that the cloth was folded in half lengthwise and then widthwise when the
burns were made.
It is more probable that the burns were caused by a careless thurifer who may
have accidentally sprinkled some granules of burning incense onto the Shroud.
Regardless of how the burn holes came about, it did not happen in a
devastating fire in Chambéry in 1532 when the Shroud was severely damaged by
molten silver dripping onto it from its storage reliquary. We know that
because a copy of the Shroud, the Lierre Shroud painted in 1516, possibly by
Albrecht Durer or Bernard van Orley, clearly shows the burn holes.
There
is also a far more interesting and older picture of the burn holes. In the
Budapest National Library there is an ancient codex, known commonly as the
Hungarian Pray Manuscript or Pray Codex, named for György Pray (1723-1801), a
Jesuit scholar who made the first detailed study of it.
Written between 1192 and 1195, the codex includes an illustration, one of five in the manuscript, showing Jesus being placed on his burial shroud, a shroud with the identical pattern of burn holes found on the Shroud. The artist drew the very unusual herringbone weave on the shroud and a number of other graphic characteristics consistent with the Shroud. Jesus is shown naked with his arms modestly folded at the wrists, the fingers are unusually long in appearance as they are on the Shroud, and there are no visible thumbs. (There are no thumbs visible in the images of the man of the Shroud either.) Forensic pathologists tell us that this makes sense since nails driven through the wrist would likely cause the thumbs to fold into the palms. In the drawing, there is also a clear mark on Jesus' forehead where the most prominent 3-shaped bloodstain is found on the forehead of the man of the Shroud.
There can be little question that this illustrator of the
Pray Codex, far removed from France, working at a
time before the sacking of Constantinople by French knights, before the time
given for the Shroud by carbon 14 testing, and before or the d'Arcis
Memorandum, knew about the Shroud, the Holy Mandylion, the Image of Edessa.
Home Page & Introduction: The Shroud of Turin Story - A Guide to the Facts 2005
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
