Shroud of Turin Saved From Fire

The burial cloth many believe shrouded Jesus Christ survived its second brush with fire in 465 years, but officials said the Baroque chapel that housed it suffered incalculable damage. Authorities were still assessing the impact of Friday’s late-night fire at the San Giovanni Cathedral in Turin and its Guarini Chapel, home of the Shroud of Turin. The shroud in its silver urn was snatched from the flaming chapel by firefighters who hammered their way through four layers of bulletproof glass. But the flames devastated the shroud’s marble-faced chapel, the wooden dome of the cathedral and much of the Royal Palace nearby. Radio Vatican called it “an apocalypse” and recalled that the shroud had been saved from another fire in Chambery, France, more than 450 years ago.