c. 560–570

The Pilgrim of Piacenza reports a face cloth

A western pilgrim mentions a sudarium near the Jordan.

The itinerary refers to a face cloth associated with Christ’s Passion, not a full-length image or the Turin cloth.

An anonymous western pilgrim, traditionally called the Pilgrim of Piacenza, travelled through the eastern Mediterranean in the 560s. His itinerary records relics and devotional sites encountered on the journey. At a site near the Jordan he mentions a sudarium associated with Jesus. The report is one example of how pilgrims catalogued Passion-related objects and local claims during late antiquity.¹

What the surviving source says

The term sudarium can mean a face cloth or handkerchief; the passage does not describe an image, a full-length shroud, or a cloth matching the Turin object. The work survives through later manuscript transmission, and its author’s exact identity is unknown. Its report is therefore evidence for a sixth-century pilgrimage tradition, not a photograph-like description of an artifact.¹²

Historical significance and limits

This is relevant to the broader history of burial and face-cloth relics, including the way multiple cities claimed objects associated with Jesus. It cannot be merged with Edessa’s image or Turin’s Shroud unless independent evidence demonstrates that they were the same cloth.²³

Sources and further reading

1. Pilgrim of Piacenza, Itinerary. 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. Mark Guscin, The Tradition of the Image of Edessa (source study). Further reading or contextual source retained from this event’s earlier bibliography.
6. 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.