(Newser)
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The Vatican hid the Shroud of Turin at an Italian abbey because Hitler was "obsessed" with the purported burial cloth of Christ and officials worried he planned to add it to his collection of stolen artworks and relics. The shroud, imprinted with the image of a face believed by many to be Christ, was whisked from Turin for 7 years. "Officially, this was to protect it from possible bombing. In reality, it was moved to hide it from Hitler, who was obsessed by it," said a priest at the hiding-place abbey.
When Hitler "visited Italy in 1938, top-ranking Nazi aides asked unusual and insistent questions about the shroud," added Father Cardin. Once Italy entered the war with Hitler, German soldiers searching the abbey nearly found the shroud, but a monk continued praying in front of an altar that hid the holy relic in order to throw them off the track. The shroud is a miraculous touchstone for many Catholics, though several scientists say it's a fake, notes the Telegraph.
