MINERSVILLE - The full-size replica of the "Shroud of Turin" on display at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Minersville is drawing people from around the region with the knowledge that they may be seeing the image of the crucified Jesus Christ.
The Vatican-approved replica - one of nine such replicas - is on display through Sunday (Flowery/Palm Sunday) from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the church, 415 N. Front St.
"There is a following for the Shroud. There are people who are coming here to see it and they know so much about it," said the Rev. Mark Fesniak, pastor.
For most people, the replica will be the only chance to see the Shroud in their lives. The real Shroud of Turin is on display only a few times in a century. The next displaying of the real Shroud will be in 2025.
The display of the Shroud replica in Minersville began on March 21. It has been traveling to churches within the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. According to information provided by the archeparchy, the original Shroud of Turin is the most analyzed artifact in the world, but yet remains a mystery and has been in Turin, Italy, for more than 400 years. It bears the faint front and back image of a 5'10" bearded, crucified man with apparent wounds and bloodstains that match the crucifixion account in the Bible. Millions of people over the centuries have believed it to be the actual burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth.
The faint image on the cloth is not produced by paint, ink, dye or pigments, according to tests done in the 1980s. When the image was photographed for the first time in 1898, photographer Secondo Pia was surprised to find that the photographic negative showed a positive image, which is on display with the replica in the church. Also, when scientists at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory did an image analysis of the Shroud, they found the image decoded into a 3-D image of Jesus. Normally photographs that are analyzed using this technology become disfigured or out of proportion, but with the Shroud image, it came out in three dimensions as if created over a three-dimensional figure.
The Shroud replica is located in front of the church near the iconostasis, or icon wall, on its own wood framed platform, tilted forward for people to stand before and lean forward to look at it.