It is a fake, a fake proved definitively by radiocarbon dating 14 in 1988AD and is dated to 1260-1390AD postdating the death of the man famously called Jesus by a millennium. Nothing more than the church reasserting it's "god" given right to lie or commit any crime for control and profit; As long as enough penance is done it is A okay; Longing for the days when the shroud was proof final of the churches authenticity and brought in boucups de bucks. They "Christians" have challenged the dating since it was done and are still selling the relic as the holiest of holies and authentic to the time of Jesus and proof positive the church lives in the real world and is not just a bunch of puffed up fakery for the benefit of lotsa, lotsa, lotsa, lotsa money and power over others.