Shroud Of Turin Facts: Learn All About 'The Mysterious Cloth'

The Shroud of Turin is actually a piece of linen cloth that has a man's picturized negative.

A lot of people believe that the negative image is of Jesus Christ. Thus concluding that this was actually the burial shroud of Jesus Christ.

The piece of linen is cloth is rectangular in shape. It's about 14.5 ft (4.4 m) long and about 3.7 ft (1.1 m) wide. Even though the shroud has been carbon-dated many times, it could come to no conclusion as to whether this was the real burial cloth of Jesus or not.

The shroud is still being studied. The shroud image that shows a man becomes much clearer in negative black and white imaging.

The original sepia color of the shroud is much less clear. The Shroud of Turin is an item of controversy amongst both biblical scholars and scientists. If you want to know more amazing facts about the Shroud of Turin, then continue reading this article.

History And Origin Of The Shroud Of Turin

The history regarding the Shroud of Turin is much clearer after 1353, after it was discovered in a small town in France.

However, the divine images associated with the Shroud do not have proper justification, and the history before the 14th century is uncertain. Geoffroi De Charny, a French knight, acquired the Shroud and deposited it in a Monastery in Livery.

The Shroud has been placed at the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist since 1578 and was legally turned over to the Catholic Church in 1982.

The Shroud of Turin has been an issue of controversy since its discovery in the mid-1350s. The revered cloth was noticed for the first time by Geoffrey de Charny after it was sacked from the fourth crusade.

Charny never said how he got the shroud, it's assumed that it arrived in the holy ground of Christendom, Constantinople a thousand years ago from the Holy Land. Within 1400, controversies regarding the shroud's authenticity spread when a French bishop declared it to be fake.

The House of Savory purchased the Shroud and it came under the attention of the Italian kings.

The Shroud was transferred to the city of Chambery by the 16th century. A fire nearly destroyed the Shroud in Chambery in 1532, leaving behind water stains and burn marks which are still visible on the shroud.

The Savoys moved the shroud to the capital, and it arrived in Turan in 1578. Since then, the shroud has been placed in a Baroque Chapel built by Saint John the Baptist where the shroud exists today.

The first photographs of the shroud were taken in 1898 and the photographs astonished the photographer.

He exclaimed that the image on the shroud was visible much clearer in the photo than the original and it was a negative image. The Shroud became a possession of the Vatican after the last Italian king, Umberto II died.

The Vatican never took a stand on the originality of shroud, according to Pope John Paul II, people should be faithful to the shroud and leave it up to the scientists to investigate its authenticity.

Features Of The Shroud Of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is a 14.3 ft (4.3 m) long and 3.7 ft (1 m) wide ivory-colored linen cloth which is believed to be the shroud in which Jesus was wrapped after his crucifixion. A yellowish image of a man is printed on the shroud which is considered to be Christ himself.

However, there is no claim regarding the authenticity of the Shroud by the catholic churches. It is now owned by the Vatican and cannot be viewed by the public.

The Shroud of Turin is the most studied artifact in the world. Still, the mystery behind how the image appeared on the shroud could never be resolved. The study of the shroud is formally referred to as Sindology.

The shroud was once brought by the Italian savoys to their capital in Turan in 1578 and since then it has been placed there.

The shroud is made of handspun flax. Such a cloth could only be purchased by a wealthy man who traveled outside Jerusalem. The greatest enigma of the shroud was the full-length image of both the front and back of a crucified man.

As recognized from the cloth, the man on the shroud suffered from over a hundred whip marks in all portions of the body. The whip marks were created by Roman flagra and contemporary to the Roman whips used at that time.

There were bloodstains on the top of the head in the form of a circle which symbolized the crown of thorns. The knees were bruised. Holes and bloodstains around the wrist and feet were consistent with the aftermath of large nails used to crucify a man.

In 1981, a team of researchers concluded that the man on the Shroud was not a work of an artist, rather the blood was real consisting of all the blood components. There was no visible trace of any artistic components on the cloth.

This makes the image a result of dehydration and oxidation of the cellulose fibers. Moreover, there is no image under the blood strains. This suggests that the image was formed after the bloodstains and thus increasing the authenticity of the image.

Religious Importance Of The Shroud Of Turin

The Shroud of Turin has religious significance attached to it. The face on the Shroud is associated with the Holy Face of Jesus. The Shroud of Turin is believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus himself.

The Gospels of Mark, Mathew, and Luke stated that after Jesus's death, the body of Christ was enclosed in a linen cloth by Joseph of Arimathea inside a new tomb. After Jesus's resurrection, Simon Peter saw the linen strips lying by the tomb along with the cloth wrapped around Christ's head.

Its real identity is neither confirmed nor denied by the Vatican. In 2013, Pope Francis referred to the shroud as an icon of a man crucified and scourged.

Stories Related To The Shroud Of Turin

The Shroud of Turing is a linen cloth with an imprinted man. Even though it is scientifically proven that the shroud is of medieval origin, it is considered to be the burial shroud of Christ.

There are multiple theories regarding the origin of the shroud that begin from the time when Christ existed. The three-carbon datings performed on the shroud concluded that the Shroud originated between 1260-1390.

This was the time the shroud was discovered. However, some researchers challenged the dating based on various theories, but these alternative theories have been discarded by scientists resulting in fringe theories.

Many people claimed that they saw various images on the shroud including flowers, coins on the eyes of the man's face, writing, and other motifs. However, a detailed study of the photographic negatives captured by Giuseppe Enrie in and processed modern digital images proved that the shroud did not contain any additional image of flowers, writings, and coins.

However, they noted that faint images of the theories were actually visible by increasing the contrast of the image.

The researchers concluded that the additional images were probably linked to the protuberances of the yarn. Another possible reason for the imprints was the alteration of the texture and by the influence of Ernie's photographic negative during the time of development.

According to some believers, the shroud's image was real and was formed during the time of resurrection by some form of radiation. However, this theory is not accepted scientifically, it defies the laws of physics.

In 2018, researchers employed forensic techniques to examine the bloodstains on the shroud to argue that they could not come from Christ.

The Vatican received the authority over the Shroud of Turan in 1983, but they never claimed anything about the authenticity of the shroud. They encourage the followers to be faithful to the shroud and believe in Christ while leaving behind the work of investigation to the scientists.

FAQs

Q. Where is the real Shroud of Turin kept?

A. What many believe to be the real Shroud of Turin is being kept at the Cathedral of Turin's royal chapel. It is located in Northern Italy and the shroud has been there since 1578.

Q. What does the Shroud of Turin tell us?

A. The Shroud of Turin bears the image of a crucified man that became an important icon of the Catholic church. Some look at the shroud as the original burial shroud of Jesus Christ, while some consider the Turin shroud to be a religious icon, not the original shroud.

Q. Where is the Shroud of Turin currently located?

A. The shroud of Turin has been preserved in the Royal Chapel San Giovanni Battista in Turin, Italy.

Q. How did the image get on the Shroud of Turin?

A: According to the Italian Chemist Giulio Fanti, the image on the shroud cloth might have gotten imprinted by a burst of radiant energy. This radiant energy included some form of bright light, ultraviolet ray, X-ray, or streams of fundamental particles emitted from the body itself.

Q. Why is the Shroud of Turin important?

A. The Shroud of Turin is believed to be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus Christ, it forms an important icon of Catholicism.

Q. Why is the Shroud of Turin still a mystery?

A. The method by which the image appeared on the cloth of what produced the image still remains a mystery. The shroud image belonged to a real human that was once crucified.

Q. How to see the Shroud of Turin?

A. Currently, the shroud is in a very fragile state, it is not open for public display. It is not viewable to the public except for extremely rare occasions. The shroud is kept in a climate-controlled case in the chapel.

Q. Is there DNA on the Shroud of Turin?

A. DNA traces were extracted from the Shroud. The dust particles vacuumed from the shroud show sequences of DNA that identify numerous plants and some distinct human mtDNA haplogroups.

Q. Why is it called the Shroud of Turin?

A. The Shroud of Turin is called so since the Shroud is located in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin of Italy.

Q. How was the Shroud of Turin made?

A. There's a popular consensus that states that the Shroud of Turin was made by humans in the Middle Ages but how the image was created on the shroud is still a mystery. This leaves a door open for several theories and speculations.

Q. Who discovered the Shroud of Turin?

A. The Shroud of Turin was first discovered by a French Knight Geoffroi de Charny in a church in the small town of Lirey in north-central France.

Q. How authentic is the Shroud of Turin?

A. The Shroud of Turin has been a matter of controversy since it was discovered in the mid-1350s. Recent studies indicate that the bloodstains on the Shroud were completely fake, supporting the argument that it is a man-made icon.

Q. How many times have the Shroud of Turin been carbon dated?

A. The Shroud of Turin was carbon dated three times in 1988. The carbon dating suggested that the shroud came into existence between 1260 and 1390 ruling out the theory that it was used during the time of Christ.