The Holy Tunic of Argenteuil's fascinating history

For more than 1,200 years, the Basilica of Saint-Denys of Argenteuil, in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, has enshrined a seamless tunic believed to have been the garment worn by Christ Jesus during his passion and carrying of the cross, gambled over by Roman soldiers. It should not be confused with the outer garment of Jesus in the Cathedral of Trier, which was brought from Palestine to Europe by St. Helena (250-330), mother of Emperor Constantine I the Great. In this case, it was Empress Irene of Athens, Empress of the Byzantine Empire (752-802) who presented the tunic to Charlemagne as a coronation gift. The latter entrusted the tunic’s safe-keeping to his daughter, Theodrada, then Abbess of the Monastery of the Humility of Our Lady of Argenteuil, on August 12, 800. The tunic, woven without doubt in the early centuries of our era in the Middle East, has survived through long centuries and troubled timess, and was hidden and cut up during the French Revolution. The sacred relic is enjoying a renewed popularity as an object of veneration.

Argenteuil's tunic during the 2016 ostention. / CC BY-SA 4.0/Simon de l'Ouest

Reasons to believe:

The history of the tunic is attested by reliable historical sources. Its existence has been documented since at least the 9th century.

What remains of the tunic fits the description found in the Gospel according to John (Jn 19:23-24): woven from top to bottom in a single piece, seamless, and on a very rudimentary and ancient type of loom from the East, as the dyeing and weaving attest.

It is stained with blood of type AB, the same blood type as in other Passion relics such as the Turin Shroud and the Oviedo Shroud.

In 1892, a team of medical researchers identified blood on the Tunic, finding traces of blood globules, hematin crystals and iron. The bloodstains are nearly invisible to the naked eye, but their presence was confirmed by infra-red photographs made by Gerard Cordonnier in May, 1934. In 1893, two experts from the Gobelins laboratory attested to the great age of the fabric and the lack of seams.

Pierre Barbet, in La Passion de Jésus-Christ selon le chirurgien (1997) , compares the ubication of the bloodstains of the two relics. As on the Shroud, the principle areas on the Tunic start from a large stain on the right shoulder and cascade obliquely over the boney projections.

A 1998 study by French scientists André Marion & Gérard Lucotte performed a detailed comparison of the bloodstains on the Shroud of Turin and the back of the Tunic of Argenteuil: using computerized anthropometric models (allowing for simulation of the Tunic’s distortions while carrying the cross), as well as volunteers. To their surprise, their analysis showed that contrary to common opinion, it is more likely that the convict carried the whole cross, instead of merely horizontal beam. More importantly, Marion and his team found 9 corresponding points between bloodied areas on both the Shroud and the Tunic. They concluded that the “results seem to leave no doubts”, the correspondence is unlikely to be coincidental.

Finally, devotion to this holy tunic has never waned: from the Carolingians to the Capetians, many kings and queens of France, as well as their ministers, have made pilgrimages to Argenteuil, or granted privileges to the monastery. Popes have also venerated this tunic.

Summary:

"When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, 'Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,' in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled [that says]: 'They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.' This is what the soldiers did." (Jn 19:23-24).

This is how Saint John, the evangelist who witnessed the crucifixion and then the resurrection, describes Christ's holy tunic. John is skipping unnecessary details, so since he evokes and describes this garment, we can assume that his intention is apologetic (this seamless tunic has always been seen as a symbol of the Church, evoking one of the last prayers of Christ to his heavenly Father: "That they may be one") and also serves to demonstrate the truth of his testimony.

Many scholars have taken the view that the tunic was carefully preserved by the first Christian communities, like the shroud (of Turin) and the sudarium (of Ovieto), as material relics left by the Son of God, whose body and spirit rose from the dead.

A pious tradition says that Pilate bought the tunic from the soldiers, then sold it to Christ's disciples. Peter, head of the Church, is said to have received it before leaving it with a Jewish tanner named Simon, in Jaffa (now Tel Aviv). The symbolism here is obvious: it was in Jaffa that Peter had his vision of the food, both pure and impure, that he was to eat (Acts 10:14). The Church, represented by the seamless tunic, took off universally from this place.

For the next few centuries, two traditions, which are not mutually exclusive, presented opposite stories. According to one, it was Saint Helena who "found" the tunic, around 327 or 328, along with the other famous relics of the Passion. The problem with this tradition is that Helena never mentioned the tunic. According to the other account, which we owe in particular to the Frankish chroniclers Gregory of Tours and Fredegar, the hiding place was not revealed by the descendants of the Jew Simon until 590. And it was some decades later, when the Sassanid emperor was threatening the region, that the piece of cloth was transferred to the Basilica of the Angels in Germia, a suburb of Constantinople.

Around 800, the reunification of the two parts of the old Roman Empire was being considered, and Charlemagne asked for the hand of Empress Irene: although the marriage never took place, gifts were exchanged, including the holy tunic, which entered the kingdom of the Franks. Emperor Charlemagne entrusted it to his daughter Theodrada, founder and abbess of the monastery of the Humility of Our Lady of Argenteuil, near Paris. According to the Benedictine monk Odo of Deuil, the precious tunic was brought to the monastery on August 12, 800. It has never left it since.

Over the many centuries, the holy tunic narrowly escaped destruction several times. Very soon after its arrival in Argenteuil, it somehow survived the destruction of the monastery itself by Viking raiders. Tradition has it that it had been hidden inside a wall. The monastery was not rebuilt until 150 years later, in 1003. It took another century and a half for the hiding place to be discovered, and the first authentic mention of the piece of clothing dates back to 1156, when Archbishop Hugh of Amiens organised an exhibition in the presence of King Louis VII. The tunic was then known in Latin as the cappa pueri Jesu, meaning "cloak of the Child Jesus": tradition says that it was woven by the Virgin Mary for her child, and that it miraculously grew with him during his earthly life.

The tunic survived many turbulent periods, including the many fires and destructions of the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of Religion. It was especially venerated by the pious King Louis XIII, his mother Marie of Medicis, his wife Anne of Austria, and his minister Richelieu.

During the French Revolution however, it was in the greatest danger. The convent was forced to close, and in June 1791 the relic was handed over to the Argenteuil parish church. Then on November 18, 1793, faced with the threat of confiscation of Church property under the Convention government, the parish priest, Fr. Ozet, cut it up into several pieces, hid them in various placed and entrusted some to trustworthy parishioners. He himself buried four pieces in his garden, before being sent to prison for two years. In 1795, Fr. Ozet had the tunic reconstructed with only 20 of the retrieved fragments, as some were lost irretrievably. These fragments were patched together on a piece of unbleached satin fabric.

The abbey was destroyed and the parish church became too small, so the famous French architect Théodore Ballu, who designed many public buildings in Paris, rebuilt the present-day church where the tunic was placed in a beautiful showcase reliquary to the right of the choir. Leo XIII declared the site a minor basilica in 1898. In the modern era, the tunic has been displayed every fifty years, with the exception of 2016, the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

In the 20th century, a solemn exposition took place in 1934, attracting large crowds. The first scientific studies were carried out, concluding that the fabric was ancient and of middle-eastern origin. In 1983, a year before the planned exhibition, the tunic was stolen under mysterious circumstances, then returned two months later under even more mysterious circumstances. On the scientific side, an Ecumenical and Scientific Committee for the Holy Tunic of Argenteuil (COSTA ) was set up in 1995. Current research does not prove that the tunic was worn by Jesus, but it does point to the probability: dating from the first centuries and stained with blood, it is made of very fine wool and is woven without seams, which corresponds perfectly to the Gospel description and the various episodes of the Passion: it is said to have been taken off Jesus for the scourging, then returned to him to carry the Cross, before he was stripped of it for good at the crucifixion.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the ancient Confraternity of the Holy Tunic was revived, and a solemn viewing was organised in 2016 by the current rector of the basilica, the Very Rev. Father Cariot. Given the unexpected success of the event (almost 200,000 people flocked to contemplate and venerate the tunic), he is planning to hold a new exposition in 2025, to celebrate the jubilee year and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.

Jacques de Guillebon, an essayist and journalist. He is a contributor to the French Catholic magazine La Nef.

Beyond reasons to believe:

Even if science is not able to determine its authencity, the Argenteuil tunic bears witness to the Passion and has been venerated by hundreds of thousands of faithful over the centuries. It is one of France's countless Christian treasures.

Going further:

Relics of the Christ by Joe Nickell, University Press of Kentucky (March 16, 2007)

More information:

André Marion & Gérard Lucotte: Le Linceul de Turin et la Tunique d’Argenteuil. Le point sur l’enquete (2006, 330 pages) [The Shroud of Turin and the Tunic of Argenteuil. Main Points of Research]. The very same Marion also wrote Jésus et la science. La vérité sur les reliques du Christ, (2000, with 85 pages about the Tunic), [Jesus and Science. The Truth about the Relics of Christ]
The Argenteuil Basilica website.
A study showing "What the Shroud of Turin and the Tunic of Argenteuil tell us about the shape of instrument of crucifixion?"
Article by Dorothy Crispino "The Seamless Tunic"