At the end of the last century, scientists discovered a remarkable feature of the Holy Shroud: it bore an image that appeared to be stamped on the cloth, depicting an unpainted image of Jesus’ body. What made this discovery even more intriguing was that the image had three-dimensional properties despite being flat.
Newsroom( Gaudium Press) Today, the question of how the image was imprinted on the Holy Shroud remains a mystery. The cloth, which is believed to have wrapped the body of Jesus after his crucifixion, is still venerated in Turin. It is a hand-woven piece of linen measuring 4.36 meters in length and 1.10 meters in width.
The most plausible hypothesis regarding the Shroud’s origin suggests that it may be connected to the Mandillon, a fabric preserved in Edessa since 544 AD. In 944 AD, the Mandillon was transferred to Constantinople. The exact details of how it arrived in Edessa are uncertain, but its presence in the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire is well-documented. Pilgrims would venerate the Mandillon in the grand church of St. Mary of Blanquerna, where it was displayed fully extended every Friday, much like its display in Turin during recent exhibitions. However, with the invasion and sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, the whereabouts of the relic became unknown. It was during this time that “a modest knight named Roberto de Clari claimed to have seen the Shroud.”
From a rationalist perspective, secure evidence of the Shroud’s existence emerges in 1353 when it appeared in the town of Lirey in northeastern France, in the possession of a certain Godofroy de Charny. The documented route from Lirey to Turin includes various incidents and accidents that the cloth endured, including fires and other mishaps.
As can be observed, the historical timeline linking the Shroud of Turin to the cloth believed to have wrapped Jesus in the tomb is more complex than it initially appears. The available data supplies the most reasonable information provided by history. However, if readers find these details insufficient, it is worth noting that scientists were driven by the same curiosity to study the Holy Shroud in detail.
A Picture of the God-Man?
Incredibly, it all started with a lawyer from Turin named Secondo Pia. Being very devoted to the Shroud, in 1898 he decided to use the then “modern” technique of photography to reproduce the mysterious marks, some reddish, some dark, present on the cloth. What was his surprise when, after developing the photographic negative, he could clearly see the Redeemer’s face? To the naked eye, some bloodstains can clearly be seen, and from a distance of about 2m to 9m, very faint images of Our Lord’s Body can be seen. Christians have venerated them for centuries, but could not even imagine that only with the photographic negative it would be possible to have a positive view of the Sacred Face of the God-Man. Scientific studies on the Turin Linen have followed one after another up to the present day, “along with lame attempts at falsification.”[3] One of the most famous was, without a doubt, the one that took place in 1978. It involved 40 American scientists, forming the famous STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project), whose chairman was Dr. John Jackson. But before they could get their hands on the Shroud, some discoveries were increasing the curiosity of the scholars.
An Unpainted Image
Indeed, the three-dimensionality of the image on the Shroud of Turin is one of its most intriguing characteristics. Typically, photographs are two-dimensional and lack depth. However, the Shroud appeared to defy this norm.
In the mid-1970s, a VP-8 image analyzer, commonly used to capture images of planets, was employed for testing. This equipment interprets darker areas as being further away and lighter areas as being closer, thus producing a three-dimensional image when there is genuine depth. To assess the Shroud, Dr. John Jackson and physicist Bill Mottern decided to insert simple pictures of the Shroud into the VP-8. Surprisingly, they obtained a three-dimensional image, despite the experiment’s initial expectation of failure.
Upon further analysis, scientists discovered that the image on the Shroud exhibited a wide range of randomly oriented spatial frequencies. This lack of direction was deemed impossible if the image had been created by a brush or any other man-made painting instrument, as any manual application would inherently possess a specific direction.
Chemists, including Ray Rogers, noted that if the blood and body images had been painted using organic or inorganic pigments with an organic vehicle, the heat from the fires the Shroud had been exposed to would have caused significant color changes in certain areas. However, such color changes were absent in the photographs of the Shroud, further distinguishing it from a typical painting.
The combination of an unpainted image with three-dimensional properties on the Shroud of Turin posed a paradox. These experiments raised more questions for scientists rather than providing definitive answers. It became clear that direct analysis of the Shroud was necessary to unravel its mysteries fully. After overcoming numerous challenges, the members of STURP obtained permission to conduct their investigation, leading to the discovery of even more astounding information, which is discussed in subsequent articles.
Por Lucas Rezende
[1] Cf. JIMÉNEZ ALEIXANDRE, José Manuel. Introdução. In: CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. O Santo Sudário de Turim: Bandeira Magnífica da Ressurreição. Roma: Lumen Sapientiæ, 2020, p. 22.
[2] HELLER, John H. O Sudário de Turim. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1985, p.67
[3] JIMÉNEZ ALEIXANDRE, José Manuel. Introdução. In: CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. O Santo Sudário de Turim: Bandeira Magnífica da Ressurreição. Roma: Lumen Sapientiæ, 2020, p. 24 (nota de rodapé): “O exemplo mais característico foi a chamada ‘datação pelo Carbono-14’, desprovida das mínimas garantias de isenção, como provado em diferentes estudos sérios”.
[4] HELLER, John H. O Sudário de Turim. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio, 1985, p.9
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid., p.8
Compiled by Kate Iwuc