When you look at the Shroud, you see a man who sleeps silently in death.

His body is in a state of rigor mortis. This is a stiffening of the muscles that happens to a person a few hours after death.

We see clear evidence of rigor mortis on the Shroud. The man was lying on the cloth, but his buttocks are not pressed flat. His knees remain slightly bent, just as they were on the cross. His head is tilted forward, the chin resting near the chest—frozen in the posture of crucifixion. His arms would have been forced down and adjusted to cover his pelvis according to burial custom.

Typically, rigor mortis lasts about 40 hours. Then the muscles relax, and the body starts to decompose.

And yet, on the Shroud, there is no evidence that the body started to decompose—no signs of decay, no relaxation of the muscles. There’s also no trace of ammonia gas, which is released from a decaying corpse. Therefore, scientists conclude the man was wrapped in the Shroud for less than 40 hours.

The bloodstains add another piece to the puzzle. In the tomb, the moist blood would have caused the linen cloth to stick to the body. So if the cloth had been pulled away and the body removed, the bloodstains would have smudged. Yet the bloodstains on the Shroud have defined edges, with no signs of smudging or smearing. There’s no evidence the cloth was taken off. It’s as though the body simply vanished.

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI called the Shroud “the icon of Holy Saturday,” the day when God lay hidden from the world in stillness. The Shroud invites us to reflect on that moment—to stand before the silence of the tomb, and prepare our hearts for what comes next.