The replica of the shroud, which according to tradition was used to wrap Jesus´ body, was donated when the Orthodox community and Eastern Catholics in Belarus celebrated Holy Saturday, in keeping with their liturgical calendar.
The copy was blessed in the Church of St. Lawrence in Turin, where the original was received when it arrived from Chambery in 1578.
Following a 1999 conference, the Belarusian Academy of Sciences created a scientific group to study the shroud.
The replica will remain in the red Orthodox Church of Minsk, which will become a shrine of the holy shroud.
The Orthodox Church is extremely interested and devoted to the Turin relic. A copy in the Orthodox monastery in Moscow was personally blessed by Patriarch Alexy II.
