The Turin Shroud hits the headlines once again as the Pope has made a visit to see the most famous of alleged relics of Jesus. He spent some time with it in fact and before leaving touched the glass case it is enclosed in.
In a carefully worded announcement, the Archbishop of Turin stated that :-
The Pope confirms the devotion to the Shroud that millions of pilgrims recognise as a sign of the mystery of the passion and death of the Lord
You may notice that he said nothing about its authenticity. The Church takes no official position in fact, saying it is a matter for scientific investigation. Since the radiocarbon dating in 1989 proclaimed the 14 ft x 4 ft piece of linen to be roughly 700 years old, the Church has avoided claiming that it is anything more than an “icon” of devotion.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the decree proclaimed by a past Pope?…
In 1390 Pope Clement Vll decreed that it was not the true Shroud but could be used as a representation of it, provided the faithful be told that it was not genuine
THE TURIN SHROUD – A HISTORY
I first became interested in the shroud way back in the 80’s on reading John Calvin’s 1543 “Treatise of Relics” for a paper I was due to write. The Middle Ages was a particularly busy time for the Catholic Relics and there must have been a veritable production line to keep up with demand.
However, with the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry Vlll, many were destroyed as the investigators, time and again, found them all to be fakes.
An injunction carried out by the Inspectors of Religious houses begun in 1535 stated:-
that Monks shall not show any relics or feigned miracles for increase of lucre
Richard Leyton, Tomas Legh, John AP Rice and John Tregonwell were charged with the investigation into the monasteries; their interim reports to Thomas Cromwell are still available to pour over, if you are so inclined. In August 1535, Layton dispatched a book of “Our Lady’s Miracles” to Cromwell which seems to be on a par with “The Canterbury Tales” for pure invention. He also reported that at Farley, he had confiscated ‘Vincula Sancti Petrs’ ( the chains of St Peter. He charged the monks with having no written proof of provenance, similarly on some ‘combs’ supposedly used by Mary Magdalene, St Dorothy and St Margaret.
The biggest clue that the relics are fake is that there were often more than one…
JOHN CALVIN
He refers to several copies of Shrouds in his “Treatise of Relics”, including alleged shrouds in Nice, Aix-la-Chappelle and Besancon (which was later renamed the Turin Shroud).
Calvin refers to these particular shrouds in detail :-
- SHROUD OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE – which was later moved to St Cornelius Abbey in Compeigne, where it was venerated for 9 Centuries until it was destroyed during the French Revolution.
- THE CADIUN SHROUD – this survived the French Revolution only to be proved in 1935 to be an 11th Century Muslim cloth.
- THE SHROUD OF NICE – later to be called the Turin Shroud, it had first appeared in 1355 in a small church in Livey, france. According to the Bishops report to Pope Clement Vll, an artist admitted he had “cunningly painted” the image on the cloth. Stylistic and iconographic elements corroborate a medieval origin.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SHROUD
- Carbon dating confirms the cloth was created between 1290-1390 AD
- The tools, inspiration and knowledge to create this were available as early as the 12th Century
- The style and complexity of the shroud weave itself would confirm a 14th Century cloth
- The earliest shrouds we have found in Israel date to no earlier than 2nd Century AD
THE MEDIEVAL RELIC TRADE
Throughout the Middle Ages, Europe was host to a thriving holy relic trade. Most have now been confirmed fakes and I’m sure more will be confirmed with time.
Relics of Christ or the Virgin Mary were considered the most valuable and included items such as milk of the virgin Mary, teeth, hair and blood or Jesus, pieces of cross, shrouds, samples of the linen of the birth, Jesus foreskin (of which, it seems, he had a dozen or so).
Another fun fact is the Italian town of Bari actually commissioned a group of robbers to obtain the remains of St Nick (aka Santa Claus) from the Turkish town of Myra. The expedition was a success and for decades Bari basked in the glory of having the bones of Santa Claus…
THE JOAN OF ARC RELICS
Another famous fake were the ‘relics’ of Joan of Arc, which fooled tourists for decades, they resembled burnt bones, which follows the historical accounts of the execution of Joan for heresy.
The bottle containing the bones first surfaced at a pharmacy in 1867. Its label read
remains found under the pyre of Joan of Arc, maiden of Orleans
”
Using different techniques including DNA analysis, microscopy, chemical analysis and carbon dating, the remains were confirmed to be a few bones from two ancient Egyptian mummies, one human the other feline. The mummified remains were dated to 3-6th Century BC
Originally people speculated a cat had been thrown on the pyre to represent the devil, however the mummified remains quite obviously pre date the execution by many centuries.
The fact that the artefacts originated from a pharmacy is not surprising as Egyptian Mummy remains have been used in medicines from the Middle Ages. Of course, not now in the West, at least 😉
TOP TEN RELIGIOUS RELICS
- Shroud of Turin
- Blood of San Gennaro
- Muhammads Beard
- Mary’s Holy Belt
- John the Baptists Head
- Buddha’s Tooth
- Tunic of the Blessed Virgin
- The Grapevine Cloth
- Footprint of the Prophet Muhammad
- The Chains of St Peter
I encourage you to check out the histories behind all these objects for, if for nothing else, a fascinating read.
IN CONCLUSION
Regardless of authenticity it is fascinating to study and search for the history of all these artifacts no matter the age or provenance.
History research is a jigsaw puzzle and Palaeopathology finds the truth behind the histories given.
In April of 2014, a University in Italy stated that an earthquake in 33AD may be responsible for the mysterious Turin Shroud image. That a supposed flood of neutrons could have imprinted the image onto the linen. Taking a stab in the dark, I guess they don’t agree with the carbon dating; I would love to find the miracle that causes a cloth made in the 14th Century to arrive in the 1st Century AD for imprinting.
Fans of Back to the Future will maybe ask Michael J Fox; Whovians, Peter Capaldi.
I will of course keep you updated on the Earthquake theory 🙂
Emanuel Zerfasel said:
The claim of authenticity is only part of the deception. When contemplating Mary Magdalen’s thigh bone displayed at Vezelay a few years ago, I realised that while sceptically minded persons would be quick to say that this was just a random somebody’s bone found in the graveyard, they might still be led to assume that there is or was such a thing as a real Mary Magdalen’s thigh bone.
Similarly, the Turin shroud will subtly reinforce the implicit assumption that there was a real shroud of a historical Jesus even in those who recognise this particular shroud as a later fabrication. The very fact of denying the authenticity gives rise to the notion that there was an authentic thing to compare with in the first place.
It’s a bit like 221B Baker Street in London, literary characters assuming the semblance of historical existence by contrived relics.
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secularscarlet said:
Hi firstly, many thanks for twking a time out to comment. However, we are not ‘denying’ authenticity we are providing proof its a fake.
I agree though that we wont stop people from going to these ‘medieval relics’ after all they were made to make money ‘faith tourism’ at its most virulent.
Funnily enough 221B Baker Street is now the home of The Sherlock Holmes Hotel and ‘Literary Tourism ‘ also makes money… So we have two fictions 😉
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Rosa Rubicondior said:
The Turin Fake isn’t even biblical. John 20:5-7 very clearly describes a separate head cloth. “And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.”
So, if you believe the Fraud of Turin is genuine, you have to believe the author of John lied. But holding two mutually exclusive beliefs simultaneously is not normally regarded as a problem in theistic circles.
It’s all an ineffable mystery, you see.
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Cyber Atheist said:
I’ll be honest. Even if John was proven to be a genuine historical person, I think I’d still take his words with a huge portion of salt. After all, the visions he had in Revelations were clearly the work of a sick or drug addled mind.
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secularscarlet said:
Agreed and as im sure you are aware there are several ‘face linens’ also claiming authenticity.
Im starting to realise i should have started this post with ‘Once upon a time…’ 😏
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Cyber Atheist said:
When it came out that the shroud was created in the middle ages, the church attempted the lie that it’s holiness transcended the evidence and it was STILL a viable holy relic.
This is patently bollocks and to be honest par for the course. Religion will never let the truth stand in the way of a good rumour.
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frankiebird said:
Sis, I love reading your blogs!! My knowledge of many things concerning MY CHURCH continues, with you my atheist professor!!
Never heard of any of the other relics other than Shroud itself!!
More homework…..bloody profs eh…..
Thanks, I loved it!! Fx💋💟😇👣👣
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Victor Hernandez said:
The problem with faith is you believe no matter what, evidence’s not important you deny it or simlpy ignore it. Tha’s why science changes everyday but religion persists for ages with little or no change
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secularscarlet said:
Very true… Alas Cognitive Dissonance will always be an issue. Childhood susceptibility was used by parents and their geographic religion for far too long
Thanks for reading and your comments
Deana xx
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Anonymous said:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about ₾y.
Regards
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