c. 1050–1100

Kedrenos combines image and burial traditions

A Byzantine chronicle links Edessa’s image with the tomb.

This later synthesis shows how traditions had developed by the eleventh century, not an eyewitness account of first-century events.

The Byzantine chronicler George Kedrenos compiled a universal history in the eleventh century, drawing on earlier historical and legendary material. In the Abgar narrative, later versions bring together the miraculous image of Edessa and the story of Christ’s burial. Kedrenos therefore witnesses a stage in the literary fusion of traditions rather than a new acquisition or sighting of a cloth.¹

What the surviving source says

A chronicle may preserve earlier sources, but its own date and the date of the traditions it reports are different questions. The image is described within a narrative framework that joins Edessa, the Passion and the empty tomb. The text does not establish when this fusion first arose or identify the image with the Turin object.¹²

Historical significance and limits

The passage is useful for charting how medieval authors reinterpreted the Mandylion. It is evidence for narrative development; it is not independent proof of a pre-Lirey chain of custody.²³

Sources and further reading

1. Mark Guscin, The Tradition of the Image of Edessa (source study). Consult the cited passage in the full source and its transmission context; the article distinguishes the source’s wording from later interpretation.
2. Otangelo Grasso, The Image That Should Not Exist: A Scientific Investigation of the Shroud of Turin (2026), ch. 2, “Origins and Historical Record,” pp. 23–31, and ch. 17, “The Mandylion, Art, and the Historical Record,” pp. 232–243. Author synthesis; not an independent witness.
3. Otangelo Grasso, From Forensics to Faith (2026), ch. 2, “Pre-1355 History,” pp. 32–125, and ch. 3, “6th to 14th Century History,” pp. 126–194. The book advances a proposed reconstruction; claims are assessed here against the primary texts.
4. Otangelo Grasso, Chronological List of Pre-1356 Literature Mentioning the Shroud and Christ’s Burial Cloth (20 July 2025), pp. 1–9. Prepared with AI assistance and used as a research checklist; its identifications and confidence labels are not treated as verified facts.
5. Andrea Nicolotti, From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin (critical study). Further reading or contextual source retained from this event’s earlier bibliography.