He Saw and Believed: The Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin

This Triduum we can take a virtual pilgrimage to Notre Dame in Paris to honor the Crown of Thorns on Good Friday and to Turin on Holy Saturday to venerate the Shroud. As we are confined at home for this holiest time of the year, this remote veneration can help us to enter into Christ’s Passion.

But why would we want to venerate the Shroud? Isn’t it a fake, proven by carbon dating that points to the 14th century as its origin? I was recently watching Waldemar Januszczak’s The Dark Ages: An Age of Light and he dismissed the Shroud offhand since it didn’t match up with the oldest art of Jesus and looks medieval in its depiction of the suffering Christ. Is he right to dismiss the Shroud so easily? Can we actually trace the Shroud back to the early Church?

Actually, we can! We see the Shroud within Scripture and have a good sense of its subsequent travels (as I’ll describe below). The Shroud is one of the key artifacts of Catholic history and culture and, rather than being shaped by art history, it shaped Christian iconography. In light of the Shroud’s virtual exposition, I’m sharing some brief thoughts on its authenticity based primarily on the findings of the Turin Shroud Center, located not too far away from me in Colorado.

Let’s begin with Scripture. On Easter Sunday one of the possible Gospel readings describes how Peter and John found the empty tomb. It also described the first sight of Jesus’ burial shroud:

So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.

John 20:3-8

The cloths must have been amazing if they caused John to believe in the Resurrection!

Many Catholics have held the Shroud of Turin to be the main linen burial cloth discovered by the disciples in the tomb. The bubble seemed to burst when the Shroud was carbon dated in 1988 by three different labs. The test showed the linen to date from 1260–1390 AD, seeming to prove the Shroud a medieval fake! Since then, however, researchers have uncovered overwhelming evidence pointing to the Shroud’s authenticity.

Colorado is home to the Turin Shroud Research Center in Colorado Springs, which is leading the way in compiling the mounting evidence. The Center, under the direction of the physicist Dr. John Jackson, has been researching the Shroud for fifty years, including as part of the study in 1978, STURP, which had unique access to the Shroud. A recently updated book by Dr. Jackson, The Shroud of Turin: A Critical Summary of Observations, Data, and Hypotheses (CMJ Marian Publishers 2017, or online) provides an overview of where research on the Shroud stands today.

Here is a brief summary of some major points pointing to the Shroud’s authenticity:

1. Its History

We now know enough about the shroud’s history to show it predates the 14^th century. Historical accounts follow a miraculous full-body image of the Shroud from Antioch, to the region of Cilicia (in modern day Turkey), to Constantinople, where it was kept hidden by the Byzantine Emperors for centuries. It was publicly displayed in Constantinople shortly before the Crusaders arrived and it seems that one of the leading Crusaders brought it back to France, where it remained privately until its first public display in Lirey, France in the 1350s. After suffering from fire, it was entrusted to the royal family of Savoy, who brought it to its current location in Turin, Italy (see pages 7-43 of Dr. Jackson’s book).

2. Its Material and What’s Attached to It

No medieval examples of the herringbone stitch, the one used to make the Shroud’s linen, have been discovered, though there are ancient matches from the Near East. Even more intriguing is the dirt found on the Shroud (especially surrounded the nose, knees, and feet), which matches dirt and stone found in other tombs in and near Jerusalem. Likewise, pollen from plants of the Jerusalem area blooming in March and April has been discovered, along with pollen matching the historical record of the Shroud in Turkey, France, and Italy. The shapes of flowers have also been discovered, indicating they were laid upon it.

3. How the Image Was Made

The fact that we don’t know how it was made is itself a serious indication of its authenticity. Dr. Jackson lists a number of theories, including one which he proposed, for how the Shroud’s image was imprinted. We do know, however, that it was not painted, as the image rests only the very top of the linen threads and no paint materials soaked into the threads. It was discovered in the late 1800s that the Shroud has the qualities of a photographic negative, which is why a negative of it produces a clearer image. The image also has three dimensional qualities. Some current theories point toward radiation or an electric field as responsible for producing the image. See Dr. Jackson’s “Radiation Fall-Through Hypothesis, and Antonacci’s revision, on page 83.

4. The Details of the Image

The Shroud contains real blood (both pre and postmortem), which has recently been shown to be from a torture victim. It is faithful to Jewish burial practices, as well as the Roman method of Crucifixion. As such, it does not match medieval imagery of the crucifixion, which portray nails in Jesus’ hands and feet, but rather in the wrist and ankles in accord with archeological evidence of Roman crucifixion.

5. It Matches Another Ancient Relic of the Passion

The Shroud matches blood stains from the Sudarium of Oviedo, the head cloth used to cover Jesus after the crucifixion and in burial. There is documentation that it was brought to Spain after the Persian invasion of Syria in the seventh century. When the two cloths are compared, the blood stains match up identically.

6. Other iconography

There is a history of other many images matching to the Shroud. The oldest Byzantine icon of Christ, the Pantocrator of Sinai, matches the Shroud very closely, so closely it can pass facial recognition tests with it. There is also a strong likeness to the Icon not made by hands, Acheiropoieta, from Edessa. Even more intriguing is the Byzantine icon of Extreme Humility, an image of the suffering Christ standing within a stone box, which not only matches the Shroud in many particulars, but also matches fold marks it retains, leading scholars to think the icon demonstrates how the Shroud was displayed at Constantinople (raised up to just the same height from its case).

7. Carbon dating?

So what about the carbon dating? Dr. Jackson offers a number of reasons why the test pointed to the Middle Ages. He notes that his research group, STURP, made recommendations to take samples from multiple locations and to clear them of contaminants (such as smoke, mold, and bacteria). It was also suggested to avoid the area that was chosen for the carbon dating samples as it was already shown to have some inconsistencies with other locations, such as a greater presence of cotton. There are also indications of medieval repair. None of these suggestions were followed for the samples chosen, calling the findings into question. An alternative dating method, fiber tensile-strength comparisons, conducted in 2015, pointed to 372 AD, plus or minus 400 years (93). Even secular news outlets have reported on the faults of the carbon dating process.

8. Table Cloth

Dr. Jackson has also set up displays with a full size replica of the Shroud and other artifacts. I saw one at St. Gabriel’s Church in Colorado Springs and was surprised that it included a set up of how he thinks the Shroud doubled as a table cloth at the Last Supper, fitting the right dimensions and including food and drink stains.

The Shroud provides an incredible access point to learn more about our Lord’s Passion, burial, and Resurrection. It has an amazing history, made only more intriguing by new scientific methods. It is also gives us a unique glimpse at the likely appearance of Jesus. As such, it can prompt our prayer, as we visit it online this Holy Saturday: “Restore us, O God; let thy face shine, that we may be saved!” (Psalm 80:3).