May 16, 2015

The castle of Ray-sur-Saône is located about 200 km southwest of Lirey and 50 km north of Besançon. It is often cited in the history of the Shroud of Turin because it belongs to descendants of Othon de la Roche, a knight who would have acquired the Shroud during the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). The castle houses a copy of the Shroud of Besançon, which was a partial copy of the Shroud of Turin (ventral part only), and a small chest that would have been used, so it is said, to bring the Shroud from Greece to France in the 13th century.

Despite several historical hypotheses of the Shroud that have been put forward involving Othon de la Roche, it is very unlikely that Othon had anything to do with the Shroud of Turin. The main reason for this conclusion is that the seed of all these hypotheses is the dissertation in favor of the authenticity of the Shroud of Besançon, written in 1714, contained in the manuscript 826 of the archives of the Besançon library. That is, all subsequent historical documents mentioning Othon de la Roche as possibly having owned the Shroud are based directly or indirectly on that dissertation. But that dissertation has no solid foundation to state that Othon de la Roche was involved with any shroud: the dissertation refers to documents that never mention that Othon received a shroud or owned any shroud. In other words, the author of that dissertation made up a story about Othon de la Roche receiving a shroud during the Fourth Crusade. The book Le Saint Suaire de Besançon discusses these hypotheses and has a complete transcription of the manuscript 826 (in French).

Moreover, the small chest still at the castle of Ray-sur-Saône appears unlikely to have been used to bring any shroud back from Greece. There is no written tradition from de la Roche family, or its descendants, mentioning that such a chest was used. Several people, including myself, tried to discuss this tradition with the last owner of the castle, the countess Diane Régina de Salverte, but no such discussion was possible. It is difficult to date the chest as no authorization would be given to do so.

It is also odd that the copy of a shroud in the castle is not of the Shroud of Turin but of the Shroud of Besançon, which is not what one would do to honor this incredible fact that the Shroud of Turin was brought from Constantinople by one of your ancestors. If this copy is used, it is most likely because it is based on the story coming from the manuscript 826 of Besançon, which means that this copy is not based on family tradition but rather from the writing of Dom Chamard, which in turn is based on the dissertation in favor of the Shroud of Besançon of manuscript 826, which we know is totally unreliable.

And any hypothesis stating that the Shroud came to Lirey through Jeanne de Vergy (second wife of Geoffroy de Charny), who would have been a descendant of Othon de la Roche, is fraught with other major issues. For example, the receipt of Humbert de Villersexel, given in 1418 to the canons of the collegiate church of Lirey, states clearly that the reliquary containing the Shroud had the coat of arms of de Charny, not of de Vergy. The son and the granddaughter of Geoffroy de Charny also stated clearly that the Shroud was from Geoffroy de Charny, not from Jeanne de Vergy.

The castle was transformed several times and even, due to the Ten Years war, it was destroyed then rebuilt. The castle used to have up to twelve towers, but now has only two. The countess Diane Régina de Salverte still lives at the castle but occupying only a part of it because the ownership of the castle is in the process of being transferred to the French administration (Département de la Haute-Saône). Visits, for the general public, of the interior of the castle have been suspended until this transfer is completed.

For many more photographs of the castle Ray-sur-Saône, its garden and its surrounding view of the valley, see Photographs of the Castle Ray-sur-Saône.