Editing Sudarium of Oviedo (section)

==Background and history==
[[File:Arca santa de Oviedo.JPG|thumb|260px|The ark that contains the Sudarium of Oviedo.]]

The [[Sudarium]] shows signs of advanced deterioration, with dark flecks that are symmetrically arranged but form no image, unlike the markings on the [[Shroud of Turin]]. The sudarium is linked to a face cloth in the [[empty tomb]] mentioned by {{bibleref2|John|20:6–7}}. Outside of the Bible, the [[anonymous pilgrim of Piacenza]] recorded in 570 AD that he visited a cave on the Jordan rumored to have the face cloth mentioned in John.<ref name="Piacenza Pilgrim" />

[[Pelagius of Oviedo]], a bishop of medieval Spain, gives an account of the Sudarium's history from the Holy Land to Spain preserved in the ''Liber testamentorum'' and interpolated into the ''Chronica ad Sebastianum'' in the ''Liber chronicorum''.<ref>Simon Barton and [[Richard A. Fletcher]] (2000), ''The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press), p. 70.</ref> However, this narrative is met with skepticism due to Pelagius of Oviedo being criticized for the large amount of forgery that took place from his office leading him to being dubbed "The Prince of Falsifiers".<ref>According to Barton and Fletcher, p. 70, the sobriquet was coined by Peter A. Linehan (1982), "Religion, Nationalism and National Identity in Medieval Spain and Portugal," ''Religion and National Identity'', ed. S. Mews, ''Studies in Church History'', 18 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 161–99, at p. 162. Linehan (1993) ''History and the Historians of Medieval Spain'' (Oxford), 78, also remarks that Pelagius "was a giant amongst falsifiers in an age which provided him with keen competition and ample opportunity."</ref> 

This account claims the Sudarium was taken from [[Israel (region)|Israel]] in 614 AD, after the invasion of the Byzantine provinces by the [[Sassanid]] Persian King [[Khosrau II]]. To avoid destruction in the invasion, it was taken away first to [[Alexandria]] by the [[presbyter]] Philip, who then carried it through northern Africa when Khosrau II conquered Alexandria in 616 AD, and arrived in [[Spain]] shortly thereafter. The Sudarium entered Spain at [[Cartagena, Spain|Cartagena]], along with people who were fleeing from the Persians. [[Fulgentius of Cartagena|Fulgentius]], bishop of Ecija, welcomed the refugees and the relics, and gave the chest containing the Sudarium to Leandro, bishop of Seville. He took it to [[Seville]], where it spent some years.<ref name="Sudarium1" />

In 657 it was moved to Toledo, then in 718 on to northern Spain to escape the advancing Moors. The Sudarium was hidden in the mountains of Asturias in a cave known as Montesacro until King Alfonso II, [[Reconquista|having battled back the Moors]], built a chapel in Oviedo to house it in 840 AD.

On 14 March 1075, King Alfonso VI, his sister and Rodrigo Diaz Vivar (El Cid) opened the chest after days of fasting. The event was recorded on a document preserved in the Capitular Archives at the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo. The king had the oak chest covered in silver with an inscription that reads, "The Sacred Sudarium of Our Lord Jesus Christ".