Arcadia Discussion Zone

The Diocese of Périgueux has a remarkable relic: Pierre Raoul or Gérard, a parish priest in Périgord, brought back after the First Crusade the Holy Shroud of Christ, entrusted to him by a dying ecclesiastic of Le Puy, who himself obtained this relic from the legate Adhémar de Monteil. The Cistercians who founded the monastery of Cadouin in 1115 had a church erected in honour of this relic; its cloister, a marvel of art, was consecrated in 1154. Notwithstanding the strict rules of the order interdicting the use of gold vases, the Chapter of Cîteaux permitted a gold reliquary for the Holy Shroud. As early as 1140, the Holy See instituted a confraternity in honour of the Holy Shroud, thought to be the oldest in France. St. Louis in 1270 venerated the Holy Shroud at Cadouin; Charles VI had it exposed for one month in Paris; Louis XI founded at Cadouin in 1482 a daily Mass. Bishop Lingendes in 1444 held an official investigation which asserted the authenticity of the relic.

This cloth, held in the Abbey of Cadouin, in Dordogne, was long considered as the Holy Shroud, the cloth believed to have covered the face of Jesus–or enveloped his body–when he was placed in the tomb. This is the head-cloth that the Apostle Peter saw upon entering the sepulchre on the morning of the Resurrection; he observed ‘that the handkerchief that had been on Jesus' head was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up in a separate place’ (John 20:7). According to the traditions of the monks of Cadouin and the Chronica of Albéric of Trois-Fontaines, written around the mid thirteenth century, the relic came into the possession of the Bishop of Puy, Adhémar de Monteil, who is believed to have obtained it after the capture of Antioch, during the first Crusade (1095–1099). It was first mentioned in 1214. The cloth, used for healing, was highly venerated in the Middle Ages. Protected by a reliquary, sometimes hidden and displaced to avoid covetous attention, it attracted to the abbey the thousands of pilgrims on The Way of St James.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, its authenticity was questioned. Around 1930, the cloth was examined by Gaston Wiet, director of the Museum of Arab Art in Cairo. He recognized a tirāz from the Fatimid era (a cloth with a strip of writing produced in the royal ateliers), and deciphered the Arabic inscriptions on it. They revealed the names of Caliph El al-Musta‘lī (reigned 1094–1101) and Vizier al-Afdal. The piece’s decorative style, with its close ornamental strips, tiny elements, and Kūfic calligraphy is characteristic of the end of the eleventh century, as is the lamentation of the name of al-Afdal, minister for three kings. The weaving technique that consisted of inserting a decorative tapestry in a canvass weave—here with silk warp and linen weft—is also an invention of the Copts in Egypt, who had perfected the technique at the end of the third century. It only disappeared with the fall of the Fatimid dynasty (1171). No doubt brought by émigrés, it can be seen in Muslim Spain in certain cloths from the caliphal era, especially in the veil of Hishām II.

Thank you Richard beautiful pictures and I love the stained glass windows

Joan too is a favorite

This is the Abbey of Cadouin in France, which I visited recently. It was founded in 1115, and taken over by Cistercian monks in 1119, and it became part of the pilgim route to Saint Jacques de Compostelle in Spain. Pilgrims to the abbey in the past included Eleanor of Aquitaine and her son, Richard I.



The abbey is situated in the very pretty small town of Cadouin, in the Dordogne, a short distance to the south of the river of that name.



This is the interior of the abbey.



The abbey became an important place of pilgrimmage because of a piece of cloth, now in the museum, that was believed to be part of the burial shroud of Christ, although it is now known to date from the Middle Ages. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:



http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11668a.htm

More information on the Shroud of Cadouin, its provenance and inscriptions, can be found here.



The link includes images and an inscription.

http://www.qantara-med.org/qantara4/pub ... 13&lang=en

The abbey has a very beautiful interior, including this ceiling fresco ...



... and a remarkable array of stained glass windows, of which the images below are just a small selection.









And the statues include a ubiquitous Jeanne d'Arc:



A very nice abbey and town, well worth visiting if one happens to be in that part of France.

.ceiling fresco ..

Hi Richard, are there more pics of the ceiling fresco you can post ?

Sorry, Hans, just the one above. But here are a few more of the windows...

High resolution image of the wonderful frescoe at Cadouin....

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... uselang=fr

..may i ask, is there a specific part of the XVIth century frescoe that upsets you ?

the original chapelle oratoire was built in 1112 to house the relic, the ruins of which could still be seen in 1840.

http://books.google.fr/books?id=Dd26Bnc ... in&f=false

L'église possède la particularité d'être percée de trois oculi (petite fenêtre ronde) alignées, une sur la façade et deux sur la coupole. À chaque équinoxe ces oculi sont traversées par un rayon de soleil, matérialisant l'orientation symbolique de l'église vers l'Orient.

....she is orientated east.