"The Shroud of Turin is the second-most valuable possession of the human race next to the Bible itself," Rucker told CNA. The shroud is currently preserved in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud adjacent to St John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin (Torino), Italy.

For more than 10 years, Rucker has studied the physics of the disappearance of the body of Jesus and its imprint on the shroud. His website, Shroud Research, challenges conclusions that the shroud dates to the period of 1260 to 1380 AD, leading sceptics to conclude it is a medieval fake.

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His hair is long, his beard trim.

This is the latest in numerous attempts since the 19th century to draw the authentic face of Christ from the Shroud that many believe is the cloth that covered his body after the Crucifixion.

It was then that what had always been thought to be scorch marks on the fabric were revealed by negative photographic images to be the imprinted figure of an injured man.

The roughly 1.8-metre ghostly figure is marked by wounds that correspond with those of Jesus mentioned in the Bible. They include thorn marks on the head, lacerations on the back and bruises on the shoulders.

Authenticity from AI

Could modern technology in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) really fill in the gaps for us that the Shroud so tantalisingly and controversially suggests, giving us a glimpse of Christ himself?

Sweat and blood imprint the fabric that - if proved authentic - bears the image of Christ's face and body.

Sceptics argue the four-metre length of cloth is a medieval Italian hoax dating back to 1350. There are also rumours that it could have originated in Constantinople (now Istanbul) a century earlier.

New technology, however, has convinced Italian scientists examining the cloth that it could have originated in the Middle East and is about 2000 years old.

Hi-tech check

Italian scientist Dr Liberato de Caro used new technology known as Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering to examine the shroud's fabric. He compared it with a sample of a similar age retained from the Masada siege in 55-74 AD.

The technique measures the natural aging of flax cellulose and works out how long ago it was made.

He and his team studied eight small samples of fabric from the Shroud, uncovering tiny details of the linen's structure and cellulose patterns.

This, along with other specific aging parameters including temperature and humidity, enabled them to work out the fabric's age.

His findings cast doubt on previous carbon dating he said.

"Moulds and bacteria... can be so difficult to completely eliminate in the sample cleaning phase - which can distort the dating.

"If the cleaning procedure of the sample is not thoroughly performed, carbon-14 dating [such as that used in 1988] is not reliable" he says.

De Caro says he also found a number of pollen grains from plants native to the Middle East embedded in the linen, which he says belies the idea that it is a European hoax.

His team also compared the Shroud with samples from linens manufactured between 1260 and 1390 AD. None was a match, reports say.

As Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering will not damage the Shroud sample, de Caro is hopeful others will be interested in checking and backing his findings.

Source

• Daily Mail
• Daily Star

Rolfe posited that if the shroud is the handiwork of "a medieval conman" as the Museum suggests, then their experts should be able to accomplish a similar feat in 2022. Read more

Many people believe the stains present Jesus's image on the shroud - the cloth Jesus was supposedly wrapped in after his crucifixion.

The paper says patterns on the shroud are consistent with multiple poses and were not made by a single body lying on the fabric. Read more

Many people believe the shroud is the cloth Christ was wrapped in for the three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection. They also believe his image is the one on the shroud.

Others think it is a fake.

Researchers say this is the first time the nanoscale properties of a pristine fiber taken from the Turin Shroud have been examined.

Past research has produced varied results, with some researchers saying the cloth is a painted medieval representation of Christ.

Others like biochemist Alan Alder said the image was made of blood stains from the body that it had been wrapped around.

Italian National Research Council institutions say their recent test results contradict forgery theories, but confirm Alder's.

Research leader Elvio Carlino says the cloth contains nanoparticles of creatinine bounded with nanoparticles of iron oxide. The presence of these particles indicate severe polytrauma, not paint.

"Our results point out that at the nanoscale a scenario of violence is recorded in the funeral fabric and suggest an explanation for some contradictory results so far published.

"These findings could only be revealed by the methods recently developed in the field of electron microscopy," Carlino says.

The research report has been published in the U.S. open-access peer-reviewed journal PlosOne.

Source

• PlosOne
• RT
• CNA
• Image: Ancient Origins

This ground-breaking centre, based in Keble College's Advanced Studies Centre, is to be composed of computer and medical scientists as well as historians, classicists and theologians.

Such an interdisciplinary approach builds upon work that has been undertaken by the university's archaeological school since the 1980s.

Past achievements within the university have included the dating of the shroud of Turin, which involved study in three laboratories and the radiocarbon accelerator unit.

This new unit is the first time that such a wide-ranging field of experts has been brought together in this way.

The use of relics in Christian worship is ancient but for some it represents the worst excesses of superstition.

Here are some of the more unusual, quirky and controversial relics.

The head of St Catherine of Siena - San Domenico Basilica Siena, Italy

St Catherine of Siena lived a pious life after experiencing a vision of Jesus at the age of seven.

Her parents had arranged her marriage to a local man. In order to resist this attempt and preserve her virginity, she cut off her hair and scalded her head with hot water.

She died in Rome in 1380 and the people of Siena asked for her body to be returned home but were refused. Some of her devotees secretly dug up her body and severed her head, placing it in a bag.

There is a legend that when the roman guard apprehended those who had taken the head, all that was found in the bag were rose petals.

When they finally arrived in Siena the rose petals had miraculously turned back into St Catherine's head.

Today St Catherine's head can be seen alongside her thumb and attracts large number of pilgrims each year. Her body remains in Rome and her foot is claimed to be in a reliquary in Venice. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic Herald, from an article by Fr Matthew Pittam, a priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.
• Image: Catholic Saints Blogspot

By sequencing genes from pollen and dust particles on the shroud, Italian researchers have been able to map the type of plants and people that came into contact with the linen.

Their research suggests the shroud was made in India, and travelled the world extensively, moving from Jerusalem to Turkey to France before ending up in Italy.

The DNA was extracted from dust particles vacuumed from parts of the body image on the shroud and the lateral edge used for radiocarbon dating.

Continue reading

And from this they reversed the ageing process to create an image of a young Jesus, by reducing the size of the jaw, raising the chin and straightening the nose. Have a look

The conference looked at updates to the "main themes" regarding the Shroud.

The conference was not open to the public but reserved for members of the Centre, though this year the invitation was extended to groups and organisations, based in various parts of the world, that work with the Centre in Turin.

More than 300 scholars and experts came from France, England, Spain, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia.

"Once again, it is not the authenticity of the Shroud that is at the centre of the debate and various speeches," explained Gian Maria Zaccone, scientific director of the Museum of the Holy Shroud.

"The point of this meeting is to discuss updates regarding certain areas of Shroud research which require further examination. For example, the role of pollen research and the significance of historical and informatics research on the Shroud."

Sanchez Hermosilla, director of the Research Team of the Spanish Centre for Syndonology (EDICES) was among the experts who spoke at the conference.

Hermosilla is the forensic expert who took over the study of the Oviedo Sudarium from Mgr. Giulio Ricci, who began examining it in the 1960s.

"The similarity in the morphology and dimension of the stains" between the Sudarium of Oviedo and "the Turin Shroud", led Ricci to believe "that he had actually found the relic St. John speaks of" in his Gospel, when he mentions the sudarium in the tomb.

"From a forensic anthropological point of view and a forensic medicine point of view," Hermosilla continued, "all the information that emerged from the scientific investigation is compatible with the theory that the Turin Shroud and the Sudarium covered the corpse of the same person."

The Sudarium of Oviedo is a relic that is kept in "El Salvador" Cathedral in Oviedo, Spain, in the Holy Chamber used as the building's chapel during the reign of King Alphonse II.

The Holy Chamber is adjacent to the building and was built by the king for the purpose of housing the Sudarium and various other relics.

"This cloth was present in the region of northern Spain from the year 812 or 842" and "is made of linen; it measures approximately 84 x 54 centimetres."

The "composition" of the textile structure of the Shroud and the Sudarium "is the same - substantially linen - the thickness of the fibres is identical, the fabric is hand spun with a "Z" twist, although they were woven differently: the Shroud has a herring-bone weave, while the Sudarium is taffeta."

The Sudarium has nothing of the mysterious image present on the Shroud which was produced after the body that had been wrapped in it stained the sheet with blood and other fluids.

All that there is, are traces of blood and other bodily fluids "from a human corpse", just as Professor Pierluigi Baima Bollone had stated in 1985, confirming the blood group as AB.

This was later corroborated by Dr. Jose Delfin Villalain Blanco.

"The morphological study of stains in both linens reveal an obvious similarity between them, due to the corpse which created them was manipulated very carefully in both cases."

The Spanish scholar admits that the morphological similarity between the blood stains do not need to be the same: different heads may produce very similar stains and the same head may produce very different stains.

However, both group of stains match very well," he reiterated, "not only in their relative position but also in their superficial size."

In addition, there is a "correspondence on the distances between the staining injuries which originated the stains". Continue reading

Image: La Stampa

The police generated a photo-fit image from the negative facial image on the shroud.

From this they reversed the aging process to create an image of a young Jesus, the Independent reported.

They did this by reducing the size of the jaw, raising the chin and straightening the nose.

The technique effectively reverses the method that Italian police use to generate current likenesses of criminals when they have been on the run for decades.

Such techniques were used to produce an image of Mafia boss of bosses Bernardo Provenzano, from a photo taken in 1959.

Provenzano was eventually captured in 2006.

The image of Jesus as a young boy, and the methods used to create it, will be the subject of an upcoming programme on Italian television.

But the exercise was done to mark the current public display of the shroud at Turin Cathedral.

It will be on public display for two months, with millions of visitors expected.

Pope Francis is due to visit and pray before the relic on June 21.

Some believe the shroud to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, citing evidence including findings that the cloth contained pollen grains from plants that could only be found in the Holy Land.

But others maintain the shroud is a medieval hoax, citing carbon dating tests for instance.

The Church has never officially proclaimed that Christ's body was wrapped in the shroud.

The sceptics' case was boosted when researchers recently presented findings based on bloodstain pattern analysis.

American and Italian researchers did tests with a dummy to see which way blood would have flowed from crucifixion wounds and how they would have stained a burial cloth.

Their tests showed remarkably different staining from that on the shroud.

Sources

• The Independent
• BBC
• Image: Christian Post

The 4.3 metre shroud has been put on display this year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of St John Bosco, whose work in Turin focused on poor youth.

More than a million people from as far afield as Argentina and China are expected to head for Turin in the coming weeks to catch a glimpse of the shroud.

The Catholic Church has not taken a formal position on whether the shroud is authentic.

But Pope Francis is due to visit and pray in front of the relic on June 21 in a private viewing he will attend with his Italian relatives.

Continue reading

The pope's June 21-22 visit will include time venerating the Shroud at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. Francis will then visit the tomb of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, buried in a nearby altar.

The trip will also include a commemoration of St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesians and patron saint of youth who worked in Turin; this year marks the 200th anniversary of his birth.

The papal visit will take advantage of April 19-June 24 exposition of the Shroud, which was last displayed in public in 2010.

The Shroud, which is a 14.5' by 3.5' linen cloth bearing the image of the front and back of a man who has been scourged and crucified, has been kept in Turin since 1578.

Barrie Schwortz is one of the world's leading experts on the Shroud. In 1978, Schwortz, a technical photographer, was invited to participate in the first ever in-depth scientific examination of the cloth, known as the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STRUP).

A non-practicing Jew at the time, he reluctantly agreed to be part of STRUP, fully expecting the team to prove that the Shroud was a painted image from the Middle Ages. But after many years of study and reflection he came to believe in its authenticity.

Troubled by frequent inaccurate media reports on the subject, in 1996 Schwortz launched a website to share the true story of the Shroud and scientific research that had been performed on it.

Two decades later he still makes Shroud presentations in the media and to a variety of groups, including seminarians in Rome.

Schwortz recently spoke with CWR. Continue reading

Source and Image

• The Catholic World Report

The goal of the special faculties granted by Turin's Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia is to ensure that the public display of the shroud promotes conversion and healing.

The shroud, which shows a faint image of a crucified man, is believed by some to be a burial garment of Jesus Christ.

It is to be displayed from April 19 to June 24, reported the Catholic News Service.

According to the Code of Canon Law, "A person who procures a completed abortion" automatically incurs excommunication.

To be excommunicated, a person has to know that procuring an abortion is an excommunicable offence.

Canon law lays out various reasons where such a sanction may not apply, including ignorance of the law, acting out of grave fear, errors as to the scope of the law, lack of the use of reason and age.

A person who believes they have been excommunicated must refrain from Holy Communion until both absolution for the sin and absolution for the excommunication have been given, according to an EWTN article.

Where the conditions for an excommunication do exist, only the bishop or a priest he designates can lift the penalty.

In some dioceses the local bishop has formally granted the faculty to all priests, while in Turin and other places, the bishop grants the faculty on special occasions.

Archbishop Nosiglia wrote that the Church's ministers, meeting the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims expected to visit the Turin cathedral to see the shroud, want to "concretely demonstrate the Father's mercy toward those who repent of an evil committed".

However, he said, the permission granted to priests is limited to the time of the shroud's public display so as not to "diminish the rigour of the law", which aims to teach people how seriously wrong it is to kill an innocent life.

Archbishop Nosiglia also asked priests to impose a penance that would help lead to a lasting conversion.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• EWTN
• Image: The Guardian

The scientist leading the study suggested that being crucified in a "Y" shape would be very painful and would probably cause asphyxiation for the victim.

Scientists at the Liverpool John Moores University in the United Kingdom announced their findings at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences earlier this year.

They argue that the Shroud of Turin, believed by some to be the burial cloth of Jesus, shows an image of a man with blood stains streaking down his arms.

Matteo Borrini, who led the shroud study at the John Moores University, argues that these stains could only have been obtained if the victim's arms were hung over his head in a "Y" shape, instead of the "T" shape that is so prevalent in Christian art.

The scientists reached their new conclusion after having scientist Luigi Garlaschelli of the University of Pavia, Italy, act out different crucifixion poses.

He had donated blood dripping down his arms via a cannula.

As Borrini told the New Scientist, this new crucifixion position would have been much more painful than the "T" shaped crucifixion.

Being hung with one's arms above their head makes it very difficult to breathe.

The Shroud of Turin is a 14-foot linen that has a full-length photonegative image of a wounded man on the front and back of the cloth.

Researchers have never been able to conclusively show how it was formed.

In 1988, carbon testing dated the cloth to the 12th century, leading many to conclude that the shroud is a medieval forgery.

These results have been contested on various grounds, included claims that the piece tested was a medieval repair.

Borrini said that if the shroud is a forgery, it is expertly done since the blood stains line up as accurately as if they were produced from an actual crucifixion.

Sources

• Christian Post
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Telegraph

An Italian team at the Politecnico di Torino, a well respected Italian University, claims the powerful magnitude 8.2 earthquake, which occurred in Old Jerusalem in the year 33 AD, would have been strong enough to release neutron particles from crushed rock.

The flood of neutrons may have imprinted an X-ray-like image onto the linen burial cloth by reacting with nitrogen nuclei, say the researchers.

In addition, the radiation emissions would have increased the level of carbon-14 isotopes - atomic strains of carbon - in the Shroud.

According to the scientists, this may well have confused carbon dating tests conducted in 1988 which suggested the cloth was only 728 years old, and therefore likely to be a forgery.

'We believe it is possible that neutron emissions by earthquakes could have induced the image formation on the Shroud's linen fibres, through thermal neutron capture on nitrogen nuclei, and could also have caused a wrong radiocarbon dating,' said Professor Alberto Carpinteri, from the Politecnico di Torino.

The new theory is published in the journal Meccanica. Continue reading

This dating is compatible with the tradition that the cloth with the image of a crucified man imprinted on it is the one in which Jesus' body was wrapped when he was placed in the tomb on Good Friday.

The new tests were carried out by university professors from various Italian universities.

"We carried out three alternative dating tests on the shroud, two chemical and one mechanical, and they all gave the same result and they all traced back to the date of Jesus, with a possible margin of error of 250 years," said Giulio Fanti, an associate professor of mechanical and thermal measurement at Padua.

The first two tests were carried out with an FT-IR system, using infra-red light, and the other using Raman spectroscopy. The third was a multi-parametric mechanical test based on five different mechanical parameters.

The machine used to examine the shroud's fibres and test traction allowed researchers to examine tiny fibres alongside about 20 samples of cloth dated between 3000 BC and AD 2000.

The results have been published in a book by Fanti and journalist Saverio Gaeta, Il Mistero della Sindone (The Mystery of the Shroud).

In 1988 teams from Oxford, the University of Arizona and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, did radiocarbon testing on small samples from the shroud, dating them to between 1260 and 1390.

Subsequently, however, questions were raised as to whether the samples used in the 1988 testing were representative of the whole shroud.

New high-definition image of the entire surface of the shroud have been presented in a special app developed by the Italian company Haltadefinizione, called "Shroud 2.0".

Sources:

Vatican Insider

National Catholic Reporter

Haltadefinizione

Image: Guardian Express