Shroud of Turin Would Outdraw Winter Olympics

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

Turin/Torino is Italy's fourth largest city, but most people outside of Italy think of the Shroud of Turin, not figure skating, when they think of Torino.

Visitors coming for the Games next week, however, won't be viewing the famous cloth said to carry an image of the body of Jesus.

A replica is on display at the Duomo downtown, but the real thing is kept hermetically sealed at the Holy Shroud Museum Museo della Santissima Sindone.

The shroud is probably the most famous relic ever. Relics — purported scraps of wood from the cross, bones of saints, etc. — have gotten bad press over the centuries, blamed for various corruptions in the Catholic Church, along with the rise of Protestantism, and the Crusades among other things.

Another famous, if apocryphal, relic would be the so-called Holy Grail, the cup Jesus passed among his disciples during the Last Supper. The book and upcoming movie "The Da Vinci Code" uses the grail as a backdrop for its speculative, fantastical plot.

The shroud, however, is something different, and for the past 100 years or so has been an object of intense interest among believers in the Easter story and scientists.

The question still rages: Is it really the cloth that was wrapped around the body of the historic Jesus of Nazareth after his crucifixion and burial, or is it a mysterious hoax, an incredibly elaborate piece of medieval alchemy?

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(emphasis added)