The Shroud of Turin is a centuries-old linen cloth bearing the image of a crucified man. It is the most studied artefact in human history.
Millions of people believe it to be the burial cloth that wrapped the crucified body of Jesus Christ (circa 4 BC-33 AD) but many others believe it is a clever hoax. The latest scientific examination of the shroud indicates that it goes back to the time of Christ.
There is patchy historical evidence tracing the shroud back to the first century AD, describing how a cloth bearing the image was sent from Israel to Edessa in Turkey and taken from there to Constantinople in 944 AD. The shroud was stolen from Constantinople during the fourth Crusade (1201-1204), possibly by the Knights Templar (it was rumoured they venerated an image on a cloth), and brought to Europe.
In 1973 botanist Dr Max Fei found pollen grains indigenous to northern Jerusalem within the Shroud. He concluded the cloth was exposed in northern Judea, moved to Edessa, and then to Constantinople. Around the time the Shroud is believed to have come to Edessa, a radical shift occurred in Christian iconography, depicting Jesus with Aryan-like features and long hair, exactly as seen on the shroud.
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The reliably documented history of this shroud dates from 1354, when it was exhibited at Lirey in north-central France. Acquired by the Royal House of Savoy in 1453, it was moved to Turin in 1578 where it has remained ever since in Turin Cathedral. Ownership of the shroud passed to the Catholic Church in 1983.
Holy relics were a big thing during the Middle Ages. Body-parts of saints – some genuine, many probably not – criss-crossed Europe. Numerous Holy Grails, nails and fragments of the cross did the rounds. It was estimated that there was enough wood in all the true cross relics in circulation to build a merchant cargo ship.
But there were no relics of the body of Jesus because he was taken bodily to Heaven. This generated great demand for relics of items closely associated with Jesus. The burial shroud that wrapped Jesus in the tomb would obviously be a highly prized find and a burial shroud bearing the image of Christ would be a relic hunter’s dream. The temptation to fake such a shroud would be irresistible. But, to-date nobody has come up with a credible explanation of how the Shroud of Turin might have been forged.
The faint brownish image on the linen cloth depicts a gaunt man 1.7m to 1.88m tall. The man has markings on his body corresponding to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as described in the Bible – thorn marks on his head, bruises on the shoulders, lacerations on the back.
In 1988 an international team of scientists dated the shroud using the carbon-14 decay-rate technique. They concluded that the fabric originated between 1260 AD and 1390 AD. This would rule out the burial shroud of Christ hypothesis and led many people to dismiss the shroud as a clever medieval hoax. But some experts challenged this conclusion on various grounds and also claimed that this study was not properly controlled for surface contamination of the shroud.
In the latest study by Liberato de Cato and others, researchers from Italy’s Institute of Crystallography applied a wide-angle X-ray scattering technique to study the shroud. This method analyses the natural ageing of flax cellulose to uncover details of the linen’s structure and breakdown over time, allowing construction of a timeline from the fabric’s manufacture. This analysis dates the shroud’s origin to the first century AD, supporting its authenticity.
The researchers also found that the data profiles of the shroud were consistent with the profiles of Israeli linens from the period 55 – 74 AD. But when the shroud was compared with linens from the medieval period (1260-1390 AD) no similarity was found.
The story of the Shroud of Turin is fascinating, which is why I bring it to your attention. The case for the authenticity of the shroud is far from proved. The Catholic Church makes no claims for or against its authenticity as a relic of Jesus Christ although some of you probably suspect that I am secretly acting as an agent on behalf of the Church!
William Reville is an emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC