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Picture Credits:
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"Yes, Jesus' face is bright, it is already so beautiful when it is full of wounds and tears, how will it be when we shall see him in heaven?"
- St. Therese, Letters
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Author's note to my non-Christian friends:
This dissertation is an expression of my personal beliefs. It is my message of faith that I want to share with those who already believe and those willing to believe that the Shroud of Turin is the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. Some of you may just be curious. This is in no way meant to cast aspersions on another's religious convictions, doctrines or traditions. I have, obviously, no exclusive claim as to what is 'truth.' None of us have. My faith is my truth, and your faith is your truth.
The evidence I present here is documented and anyone can research this information from a multitude of sources. I have reached a positive conclusion and will make an argument in favor of the belief that this miraculous piece of linen is, in deed, Jesus Christ's burial shroud. I believe something extraordinary happened during His ressurection, and His divine image was purposefully impressed upon this Holy linen. The Shroud has not been officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Holy See, but it is still venerated as a Holy Relic. Let the evidence speak for itself.
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The origins of this precious cloth can be traced back to the first century A.D. to the Holy Land. It is a linen cloth woven in a 3-over - 1 herringbone, measuring precisely 14'3" x 3'7". These measurements correlate exactly with the loom technology of the period. A clean piece of linen the "sindon" (shroud), was purchased by the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea (the uncle of Jesus). Dr. Gilbert Raes of the Ghent Inst. of Textile Technology in Belgium, testified to traces of cotton (Gossipium herbaceum) unique only to the Holy Land.
There are innumerable portraits of Jesus represented with a beard and long sleek, shoulder-length hair, parted in the middle. How did the artists of each generation come to see Christ's face in this manner?
Many believe it is an interpretation of the face on the shroud. Incidentally, the nationality of the man on the cloth was Jewish. It is consistent with comparisons of portraits of hellenistic and semitic peoples.
The Holy Shroud of Turin had been a mystery for centuries. The claim is that this "clean linen cloth" was the burial cloth that wrapped the body of Jesus Christ. On the cloth is a faint reddish image of a crucified and scourged man, laid lengthwise, showing views front and back.
Its sudden appearance after centuries of unknown whereabouts goes back to the Lirey in the Diocese of Troyes around 1360. In 1453 (after the fall of Constantinople by the Seljuk Turks) it appeared at Chambery in Savoy and there in 1532 escape destruction from a fire which charred the corners of the folds. (Later in this essay, as will be discussed, this fire will have had a negative effect on the results of the carbon 14 dating). Since 1578 the Shroud has remained at Turin where it is displayed for veneration at times in a climate controlled, sealed glass enclosure.
Pope Julius II in his Papal Bull of April 25, 1506 proclaimed the Shroud (proclarissima sindone), in which he devoutly attests that this is the burial cloth which wrapped jesus. Sixtus proclaimes this is the true blood portrait of Jesus Himself.
In 1898 a decision was made by Turin's Bishop to have the Shroud photographed in an effort ot preserve the faint image in case the cloth was destroyed or lost. On May 28, 1898, Secundo Pia, an amateur photographer, took the first photograph of the historic relic. The results were unexpected, fabulous and stunning. The negative photographic plate revealed the image of a man with much greater clarity than had ever been seen before. When the positive print was developed it astounded the world with this image.
Decades of study followed this remarkable turn of events. Many scientists maintained it was a "vaporigraph" caused by the ammoniacal emanations radiating from the surface of Christ's body after so violent a death this produced the redish brown stains, which vary in intensity. The image, then, was a natural negative! This would have been beyond the knowledge and skills of a Medieval forger, of which so many skeptics claim it was merely a painting. It will be demonstrated that a pulse of energy transferred the image of a Resurrected Christ to the cloth. There are mountains of documents, books, abstracts, investigations that have examined this remarkable artifact. We will examine only a small percentage of all this massive amount of data.
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Important Dates in the History of the Shroud:
33 A.D. - Creation of the Shroud
1157 - This burial cloth is listed among Constantinople relics
1204 - Crusaders pillage Constantinople and the burial cloth disappears.
1355 - Knight Geoffrey de Charney places a shroud in local church in Lirey, France.
1452 - Charney family trades the shroud to Savoys in return for land. The shroud is placed in the cathedral at Chambery, france.
1506 - Pope Julius II designates May 4 as the shroud's feast day.
1532 - Shroud nearly destroyed in a fire at Chambery and is rescued by the Franciscans.
1535 - The shroud moved with the Savoys to Turin, Italy into the Royal Chapel which is built exclusively for the shroud. It is first exhibited on May 4, the shroud's feast day.
1535 to the present - Shroud is displayed periodically to the public.
1898 - First photograph of the cloth by Secundo Pia.
1973 - First scientific studies made of the linen, bloodstains,surface particles, other pertinent correlations.
1978 - Forty members of the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) conduct an exhausting five days of scientific studies. The results are discussed later in this narrative.
1988 - Carbon - 14 radiation tests date the shroud between 1290 and 1360. But it is determined that the fire at Chambery in the 16th century compromised this method of dating because of the high charcoal density as a result of the intense heat of the fire.
1997 - Another fire in the cathedral treathened to destroy the shroud. It was rescued by an heroic Italian firefighter.
1998 - Public exposition. From April 18 to June 14 (Corpus Christi).
2000 - Public exhibition of the shroud in Turin during the millennium Jubilee.
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Next Chapter: The Historical Evidence
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