Awaiting the joy of Easter Resurrection, Catholics will recall Christ’s Passion during Lent. Some two million people are expected to view the Shroud of Turin, Jesus’ purported burial cloth, when it goes on public display for the first time in 10 years, Turin officials said Wednesday.

The Shroud, on view from April 10 to May 23, is believed by some to have been imprinted with an image of Christ’s body, notably his face. Radiocarbon dating analysis in 1988 suggested that the fibers in the cloth date from the Middle Ages, sometime between 1260 and 1390, but those findings in turn have been challenged.

Pope Benedict XVI will view the shroud on May 2, the Vatican announced this week. Last June Benedict said his visit would be “a propitious occasion to contemplate this mysterious visage that speaks silently to the heart of men, inviting them to recognize the face of God.”

The rectangular piece of cloth measuring 14.3 by 3.7 feet was discovered in the French city of Troyes, southeast of Paris, in the 14th century.

Articles by the Associated Press and Agence France Presse