Guess what feast we celebrate this week (hint: it’s not a person….or a Cathedral or Basilica…)

Did you know that May 4th is the Feast of the Holy Shroud?

In honor of this feast, we wanted to share our about the literal Face of God which includes a composite image of the Shroud of Turin and the Veil of Manoppello. 

Most Catholics are familiar with one of these images, but not the other–which is even more miraculous and amazing.

The Catholic Church has preserved a rich heritage of sacred art, each work a reflection of the artist’s personal contemplation of God, displayed to deepen the meditation of millions of viewers over the centuries.

But the Holy Images we are making available now for the first time are something quite different: the images represented are, without a doubt, not the works of human hands.

These are high-quality photographs of two miraculous relics left by Our Lord Himself.

They are images which have baffled scientists for centuries. Despite decades of extensive study, science cannot explain the source of the images on two unique, fine, and ancient fabrics. No paint or dye or artistic process known to man created the human faces which are visible to this day.

The survival of the materials holding these images is likewise inexplicable.  They should have long ago torn and crumbled and decayed into dust. But they have been preserved through the years and the images upon them have survived to inspire the faithful with the love and peace of God Himself.

The Holy Images consist of photographs by the famous Polish photographer Janusz Rosikon. He painstakingly photographed these miraculous images during his two-year pilgrimage across the continent of Europe investigating the relics of Christ.

On the left of the Holy Images you can contemplate the famous image of Our Lord’s Face in death as preserved on the Shroud of Turin.

Although the image on the Shroud when viewed up close with the naked eye is blurred and the details hard to grasp (an example of the effect art historians call “sfumato”), when photographed amazingly clear detail emerges in the negative of the photos! This startling discovery was first made by photographer Secondo Pio on May 28, 1898, when he saw in the developing photographs he had taken of the Shroud “a holy visage appear, which was so clear that I was taken aback.” This phenomenon (in which the negative of the photograph appears like a positive image) contradicts all scientific knowledge.

On the right in our Holy Images print you see a little-known image that is visible on an exceedingly fine and precious fabric known as “sea silk” or marine byssus.

This is a rare and very expensive fiber that is thin as a spiderweb and changes color depending on the light. Due to the layer of sea salt upon it and its wispy delicateness, sea silk cannot hold ink or any pigment, and when you hold a newspaper behind it—you can read it easily, because it is transparent. Byssus is mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments: in the Old, the High Priest’s robe (ephod) is made of byssus; in the New, the book of Revelation reveals that the robe on Christ’s Bride, the Church, is also of byssus. It is a material of honor, rich, rare, expensive, precious, fit for a king.

It is the precisely the material which would have been placed on the face of the dead Messiah, smoothed tenderly by His Mother, a gift from two wealthy men who wished to offer Him the richest honors of a Jewish burial: the best of burial garments, an over-abundance of myrrh and aloes, and a tomb in which no one had ever been laid.

In the Holy Images print is the composite image that has been created by superimposing the Veil image over the face of the Shroud image.

Sister Blandina Paschalis Schlommer in a Trappist convent in Germany first noted the striking similarities between the man of the Shroud and of the Veil, and for years she investigated her theory with the most learned experts on both.

All were amazed to discover that the anatomical details of the visages and even the wounds on both faces were a perfect match. Both images precisely coincide, revealing that they are the face of the same person, one dead, the other alive.

We are making available these high-quality photographs of two miraculous relics together on either side of the overlay composite image so you can see with your own eyes the wonder of Christ’s love for us, that He would endure His Passion to conquer death for us, leaving these miraculous images to ponder and inspire our faith!

As Pope Saint John Paul II said upon viewing the Shroud:

“Instead of icons made by man, let us venerate the greatest icon of all:

The Holy Face of Jesus!”

PS–did you know that we also have a PUZZLE of the Face of God? This limited-time offer is available HERE.