burial cloth of Jesus. In any case, it should be stressed that the Christian faith is not based on the Shroud of Turin but, historically, on the oral testimonials of the Apostles on the Christ's resurrection, collected during the 1st century in the New Testament's books4 ; the work of the Church to match, over the centuries, the new evidence with the oldest one, has allowed to pass them down to us5 . I admit that in the past I was not particularly interested in the Shroud. But in 1998 I met Dr. Giovanni Latino, who was introduced to me by a common friend, and since then I was intrigued and involved by the relic. The passion of Dr. Latino prompted me to attend conferences of experts; and, besides, the weekly meetings arranged by him and the association “Amici della Reale Chiesa di San Lorenzo [Friends of Saint Lawrence Royal Church]” in a room of Saint Lawrence Church during the two years before the 2000 Holy Year Exhibition, aimed at deepening the study and the debate on the Shroud. Later, I became a member of that organization and a volunteer for the Shroud explanation during the Exhibition6 . But my belief is always based on the New Testament's books, not on the Sheet. With that idea in mind, I'm publishing this new edition of my essay about the Shroud, by adding new details and adjustments with respect to the book released years ago and the report I promoted online on the occasion of the 2000 Holy Year Exhibition. This work examines certain topics several times, from different perspectives; and the reader should not consider those repetitions as redundant and unintended.
The essay presents:
a general introduction (although some insights are already inside, such as the medical conclusions by the pathologist Pierluigi Baima Bollone);
a section in chapters, with detailed discussion about the topics introduced in the first part (for example, the photographs of the Shroud); and finally a chronology.
Positive and negative image of the Turin Shroud
The Shroud – Holy Shroud for Catholics – is a linen cloth (sindòn = shroud, cloth) just 0.34 mm thick; the relic's weave pattern is a "herringbone", with a technique used two thousand years ago in Egypt (there are even five-thousand-year-old Egyptian artifacts) , in Palestine and in other Middle Est areas; the yarn is described as a "Z-twist" (clockwise twisting), unlike the "S-twist" process (counter-clockwise twisting) used in later times7 . They are spinning and weaving techniques no longer considered since the early Middle Ages. The Cloth is 4.41 meters long and 1.13 wide, after the 2002 conservative restoration (see Chronology, , 2002 AD)8 . The Archbishop pro tempore of Turin (namely, in office at the time) is its Custodian. The Shroud is housed in Turin since 1578, with some temporary displacements due to wars: such as when the French besieged the city in 1706, or when the Shroud was transferred to the Montevergine Abbey (near Avellino, Italy) to protect it from the bombings when Italy entered the World War II in 1939. It returned to Turin in 1946.
The Shroud of Turin, simply known as “The Shroud” all over the world, is still a mysterious cloth for the most part.
Several stains, whose origin and interpretation is only partially known, can be found on the Shroud, which is like a photographic negative for some of them and not for others.
Patches and burn marks are clearly detectable on this sheet.
After sampling and analysis by experts, microscopic pollen of plants from Middle East and Alps were found on the Shroud. Furthermore, evidence of aloe and myrrh was identified, along with aragonite (a composition of calcium carbonate, iron and strontium); the latter is a mineral present in Jerusalem, and in particular inside a tomb examined by the University of Chicago researcher Riccardo Levy-Setti who claimed that the two soil, respectively coming from the Shroud and from the Jerusalem grave, were exactly the same type.
Definitely there are AB type clotted bloodstains with trace of human male DNA on the linen cloth, according to studies by several internationally renowned pathologists, such as Pier Luigi Baima Bollone (professor emeritus of Forensic Medicine at the University of Turin).
By the way: It is curious that the same AB group blood was detected on the Sudarium of Oviedo (Spain), a 83x52 cm cloth. These are mirror-like bloodstains and, according to many, they overall would look like a human face 9 . Furthermore, it is interesting that the remains (relics) of the miracle which, according to tradition, occurred in the city of Lanciano, Italy, in the 8th century (a monk had doubted the presence of Christ in the Eucharist when, during a Mass celebration, bread and wine suddenly turned into flesh and blood) are: AB group clotted blood, the same as the Shroud; human flesh from myocardial tissue (as emerged from the analysis by the pathologist Professor Odoardo Linoli in 1970).10
Below, pictures depicting the Sudarium of Oviedo
and
the Ostensory at the Sanctuary of Lanciano with the flesh and a crystal cup containing the clotted blood :
Some bloodstains on the Shroud present blood serum (typical of a postmortem blood); but others, instead, appear to have been produced by a person still alive.
The Cloth definitely suffered burns in the past. For example, the scorch marks resulting from the fire in the chapel of Chambery, Savoy, where the Sheet was safeguarded, on December 4th 1532 (see Chronology, 1532 A.D.) are clearly visible: two charred lines throughout the length of the Cloth; holes, which later were patched up by the Poor Clare nuns of a nearby convent, who also sewed a backing Holland Cloth on the back of the sheet. Those repairs and the Holland cloth were removed during the 2002 restoration of the Shroud.
Burn marks
charred line ___ hole O
The back and front image of a human body is clearly imprinted on the linen cloth. Essentially, this figure appears as a photographic negative; but, once exposed on a photographic film, or earlier on a photographic plate, it emerged as a photographic positive. It is as the Man on the Shroud had looked himself in the mirror and his reflected image had been imprinted on it as a photographic negative: like in each negative and like in a mirrored image, the right side appears as the left one, and vice versa.
For clarity, I'm going to compare a positive and negative picture of a Byzantine painted icon with a photographic positive and negative of the Shroud Man's face:
1)
