The Shroud Codex by Jerome R. Corsi, plus bonus research from the author

8/7/2019 The Shroud Codex by Jerome R. Corsi, plus bonus research from the author

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C h a p t e r t w e L v e

Thursday morning

Dr. Stephen Castles ofce, New York City

Day 15

when he entered the conerence room, Castle ound the grouphad assembled. At the end o the room by the windows looking

out on Central Park, Archbishop Duncan was talking pleasantly

with a priest he had not met beore. Castle guessed this was prob-

ably Father Middagh, whom the pope had mentioned on the

telephone.

The archbishop was elegantly dressed in a black wool cassocktrimmed in crimson silk. The cassock was bound at his waist by

a purple sash that matched his purple skullcap. Around his neck

was an elegant pectoral cross, suspended by a cord o entwined

threads o green silk and gold. On the ring nger o his right

hand, he wore a large gold ring that bore an image o Jesus. That

image looked remarkably like the ace o the man in the Shroud.

Standing there by the Central Park windows, the archbishop

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J e r o m e r . C o r S i , P . d .

Duncans trim physique, Castle elt jealous. Castle had to orce

himsel to exercise to stay t, especially in his all-too-sedentary

proession o psychiatry. The archbishop, Castle surmised, wasprobably thin by nature, to the point o appearing gaunt, and

taller than Castle, at nearly six eet two.

Anne was seated at the table alone, waiting or the meeting to

begin. She was wearing a nicely tailored beige suit that comple-

mented her deep brown eyes perectly and showed o the curves

o her well-ormed gure. Her blond hair was pulled back in a

bun, giving her the more mature look Castle would expect o a

proessional woman in her early orties. Standing as the others

came around to meet her, she introduced hersel as Anne Cassidy,

Father Bartholomews hal sister rom Toronto.

Shes here today as a member o the amily, Castle explained

privately to Archbishop Duncan, taking him aside rom the

group.I didnt know Father Bartholomew had a hal sister, Duncan

said, surprised.

I didnt know either, Castle said, somewhat embarrassed at

Annes sudden and unexpected intrusion into the case. And rom

what Anne Cassidy told me yesterday at the hospital, I expect Fa-

ther Bartholomew will be equally surprised to nd out he has a

hal sister. From what I understand, the two o them have nevermet beore, not until now. I plan to nd out more about Anne

Cassidy and I will report back to you later.

Thank you, Duncan said. The thing I appreciate most about

a good mystery is solving it.

I know exactly what you are saying, Castle said. I eel the

same way. Right now, Anne is here with my permission.

Thank you or explaining that, Duncan said. I understand.

A h i b b i A hbi h D


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T h e S h r o u d C o d e x

at the head o the conerence table, with his back to the window.

Castle took the other end o the table.

To Castles right was Father J. J. Middagh, an expert on theShroud o Turin. Sitting to the archbishops let, Father Middagh

was the living embodiment o the happy riar. Middagh wore a

looser, more obviously worn cassock than the archbishop, one that

covered but did not completely hide his ample paunch. Nearly

bald, Middagh had a round red ace and small wire-ramed schol-

arly glasses gave him the appearance o being a well-ed book-

worm who needed only a stein o lager beer and a thick tome to

sustain him until dinner. In ront o him was his laptop computer

and a stack o books Middagh had brought along to buttress his

presentation. As the meeting was getting ready to start, Middagh

ddled with a portable projector he had attached to his laptop or

a presentation on a pulldown screen discreetly built into book-

shelves that lined the ar wall o the conerence room.Across the table rom Middagh and to the right o the arch-

bishop were Father Morelli and Anne. Morelli appeared to be

wearing the same black suit and Roman collar that he wore the

rst time he meet Castle in the treatment room next door to ex-

plain his mission rom the Vatican. He had his briecase on the

table and a stack o papers out or ready reerence.

Archbishop Duncan started the discussion. Pope John-PaulPeter I asked Father Middagh to join us here today because he is

one o the top scholars on the Shroud o Turin. I have known Fa-

ther Middagh or years and because he is a modest man, I will

announce or him that his book on the Shroud will be published

next week. Isnt that right, Father Middagh?

Yes, I have been working on whats going to turn out to be

a two-volume treatise or more than a decade, Middagh con-

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I am convinced the Shroud o Turin is the authentic burial cloth

o Jesus Christ. I have brought with me some digital images that I

used in the book.Father Middagh is a Benedictine priest and he works rom

a monastery located in White Plains, New York, Duncan ex-

plained. By training, Father Middagh is a Ph.D. chemist who has

taught chemistry at the university level. With that introduction,

Dr. Castle, could you give us a brie update on Father Bartholo-

mews condition?

Yes, Castle said as he opened his medical le. Father Bar-

tholomew rested comortably last night. He still has not recov-

ered consciousness, yet I expect he will do so soon. From the CT

scan and MRI tests that I had run yesterday, Father Bartholo-

mews wounds appear to be recovering remarkably ast, just as we

saw with the stigmata on his wrists. We will know more in a ew

hours.Thank you, Archbishop Duncan said seriously. Our prayers

are with you, Dr. Castle, and with Father Bartholomew. Smoothly,

Duncan shited his attention to the subject o the meeting.

Dr. Castle, the pope has asked Father Middagh to join us as a

resource to you on the Shroud. I suspect you can ask Father Mid-

dagh any question about the Shroud that you like. Where would

you like to begin?I want to start with the radioactive carbon-14 dating o the

Shroud, Castle said immediately. He wanted to know i there was

any proo the Shroud was a medieval ake. That would help him

sort out whether there was any possibility Father Bartholomew

was maniesting the authentic Jesus Christ, or just some medieval

artists idea o what Jesus looked like. I I am correct, three sepa-

rate carbon-dating tests have shown the Shroud was made some-

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orgeries ever done in the history o art orgeries, but a medieval

ake just the same.

You are right about the carbon-14 tests, Middagh said. Butthere was an important study published posthumously in 2005

by Raymond Rogers, who was a chemist and thermal analyst at

Los Alamos. That study gives us reason to doubt the reliability

o the carbon-14 tests. Ray Rogers was the director o chemi-

cal research or the Shroud o Turin Research Project in 1978.

He was a personal riend o mine or many years. A year beore

he died, he submitted a paper to a peer-reviewed scientic jour-

nal; it was published ater he died. Rogers basically argued that

the cloth samples taken rom the Shroud to be used in the radio-

carbon testing were not representative o the main part o the

Shroud, on which the image resides. Rogers argued that the 1988

samples came rom a part o the Shroud that had been expertly

rewoven sometime in the Middle Ages to repair damage to theShroud.

Was Rogerss analysis scientically convincing? Castle asked.

Not everyone in the Shroud research community was per-

suaded, especially since Rogers dropped his opposition to the

Shroud just beore he died o cancer, Middagh answered hon-

estly. I had quite a ew conversations with Rogers beore he died

and I am convinced he underwent a change o heart that wasmore than some sort o a religious conversion ater he knew he

was sick. Those who were on the Shroud o Turin Research Proj-

ect in 1978 remember Rogers as one o the original skeptics. Then,

when the original carbon-14 tests were conducted, Ray was very

outspoken that the tests proved the Shroud dated rom the thir-

teenth or ourteenth centuries. At the time o the carbon-dating

tests, Roger openly announced he was condent the Shroud had

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As I said, Rogers became convinced that the sample was not

representative. In the past ew years there has been a considerable

scientic debate about how the cloth sample was taken rom theShroud or the carbon-dating tests. Pope John Paul IIs decision

to cut a piece o the Shroud or radiocarbon testing was very con-

troversial. I the Shroud is the burial cloth o Christ, then cutting

away a piece o the Shroud to destroy it in the burning process re-

quired by the carbon-14 test is almost a sacrilege. Its like destroy-

ing the only known artiact that may have had contact with the

Savior. So the Church demanded the sample be cut rom a corner

o the Shroud that was already badly damaged.

I understand, Castle said.

Fellow Shroud researcher Barrie Schwortz recorded a video

o Rogers just beore he died, when Rogers knew he was close to

losing his battle with cancer, Middagh said. Schwortz is impor-

tant because he was the ocial photographer on the 1978 Shroudo Turin Research Project. In the video, Rogers described how

he became convinced the corner samples used or the radiocar-

bon tests came rom a part o the Shroud that had been expertly

repaired by the French Poor Clair nuns in to repair the damage

rom several res the Shroud was in ater it showed up in France

in 1357. In one particularly threatening re in 1532, the Shroud

was nearly destroyed.Middagh projected an image onto the screen that showed ull-

body views o the Shroud.


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You can see here the triangular patches that line each side o

the body image along the length o the Shroud. The Shroud is a

linen cloth that measures a little over ourteen eet in length. Asyou can see here, the body o the crucied man was laid with his

back on the cloth. Then burial cloth was lited over his head to

cover his ront side. Thats why the image appears to have the two

heads touching in the middle. The image appears that way when

the cloth is once again stretched out ull length.

I understand, Castle said, letting Middagh know he was ol-

lowing the description.

In a ull-length view o the Shroud, there are sixteen triangu-

lar patches in total, eight on each side o the body, Middagh con-

tinued. Its well documented that the medieval French Catholic

nuns sewed those patches on this pattern o burn holes that runs

the length o the Shroud. They did so to preserve the Shroud rom

disintegrating. The two rows o triangular patch repairs runningup the length o the Shroud were too big or the type o invisible

weaving that proessional weavers in the Middle Ages had per-

ected. Invisible reweaving repairs only worked on smaller dam-

aged areas. Rogers came to the conclusion that the corner o the

Shroud rom which the radiocarbon samples were taken in 1988

had been altered in invisible weaving repairs done in the Middle

Ages. The repairs in this one corner were done so well that thereweaving was not evident to the naked eye, as were the eight tri-

angular patches.

I I hear what youre telling me, Castle said, wanting to make

sure he got it right, you believe that Rogers had a change o heart

based on these scientic concerns?

Yes, I do, Middagh said. I you are asking me i Rogers

changed his mind because he knew he was going to die and he

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in case the Shroud was authentic, thats not what I believe hap-

pened. Rogers began changing his mind when two nonscientists,

Joseph Marino and Sue Benord, got textile experts to examinemicroscopic evidence that cotton had been woven into the linen

bers o that corner where the carbon-dating samples were taken,

in a series o repairs made to the Shroud. Ater the repairs were

made, the repair areas were dyed so the cotton would match the

linen to ool the eye into not seeing the reweaving repair. Rog-

ers concluded that someone using materials that were not used

in making the original Shroud did the reweaving with great skill.

Looking back at the 1978 photos o the Shroud, Rogers realized

the area chosen or the carbon-14 samples was dierent rom the

rest o the Shroud in that the sample area did not fuoresce the

same, or instance, under the ultraviolet tests.

So how did Rogers prove the 1988 carbon-14 sample was di-

erent rom the main body o the Shroud? Castle asked. Whatwas the methodology?

Middagh answered slowly, trying to make sure he explained

what Rogers had done so everyone in the room would under-

stand. In the paper Rogers published posthumously, he argued

the 1978 STURP tests showed that the chemistry o the linen -

bers taken rom the main part o the Shroud diered rom the

1988 radiocarbon samples in that the 1978 samples showed nosign o cotton having been interwoven with the original linen. In

other words, the main body o the Shroud is completely made up

o the original linen, with no cotton included in the weaving at

all. Since linen is dye-resistant and cotton is not, the dye saturat-

ing the cotton was apparent to the eye under microscopic analy-

sis, once interwoven cotton and linen bers were compared. That

there was dyed cotton in the 1988 sample proved to Rogers that

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the 1500s, sixteenth-century cotton was interwoven into rst-

century linen. That was the hypothesis that raised the possibility

that the result o the carbon dating was wrong. The medieval cot-ton bers interwoven into the sample could well have accounted

or the carbon-14 test result that dated the Shroud somewhere

around 1260 to 1390 a.d.

Werent there any samples or carbon-14 testing taken by

STURP in 1978? Castle asked.

In 1978, the Church did not allow the STURP scientists to

take samples or radiocarbon testing, Middagh answered. But

Rogers applied a dierent test to determine the likely age o the

linen in the main body o the Shroud. From the tests made on

the Shrouds linen, Rogers evaluated the rate o loss o vanillin in

the linen bers. Vanillin disappears in the thermal decomposition

o lignin, a complex polymer that is in the cells o the fax plants

used to make linen. The Dead Sea scroll linens, or instance, havelost all traces o vanillin. From this analysis, Rogers concluded

that the linen in the main body o the Shroud also had lost van-

illin. Hence the Shroud itsel was much older than the carbon

dating suggested, very possibly reaching back two thousand years

to the time o Christ.

Why did Rogers wait so long ater the 1988 radiocarbon tests

were announced to publish his results? Castle pressed. I can un-derstand why some in the Shroud research community may be

having trouble with Rogers. I have to ask you again: How do you

know Rogers didnt just have a convenient change o opinion just

beore he died, as i he didnt want to be on the wrong side o the

bet just in case there was a God and the Shroud was authentic?

Well-known atheists making similar conversions just beore they

die might not be as rare as you think.

I k R h i i ll d i Mid


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outspoken. Beore his change o mind, Rogers had been amous

or saying he did not believe in miracles that deed the laws o

nature. So, when the carbon- 14 results were rst published, Rog-ers was happy to dismiss the Shroud as a hoax. Still, Rogers was a

credible scientist and he published the results o his microchemi-

cal tests in a credible peer-reviewed journal, even i he published

the results posthumously. In my mind, the questions Rogers raised

still stand, at least until the Church allows other, more representa-

tive samples rom the main body o the Shroud to be taken and

carbon-14 tested.

Morelli decided to jump in here, to support what Middagh

was saying. When Rogers published his results posthumously, it

made a huge impact on the entire scientic community studying

the Shroud, including me. When an outspoken expert like Rog-

ers, who played a lead role in the 1978 STURP chemical analy-

sis o the Shroud, publicly changed his mind on the accuracy othe radiocarbon dating, I began to doubt whether the carbon-14

results were representative o the Shroud as a whole. I medieval

reweaving tainted the sample and the carbon-dating tests were bi-

ased as a consequence, the possibility was open once again that

the Shroud might date rom the time o Christ. Beore he died,

Rogers wrote on the Internet unequivocally that, in his opinion,

the sample chosen or dating was totally invalid or determiningthe true age o the Shroud.

Though he listened careully to the arguments Middagh and

Morelli were making, Castle was still not 100 percent convinced.

He made a mental note that Rogerss change o heart would have

been more convincing i he had done his studies immediately

ater the 1988 carbon tests were announced, not ater he knew he

had cancer and just beore he died.

C id i h b d i di i C


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tle looked through the notes he had taken in his telephone dis-

cussion with Gabrielli. What about this medieval letter Bishop

Pierre dArcis wrote to the pope in 1389, claiming the Shroud wasa painting and that he knew who the artist was?

Scholars have argued the letter was motivated by jealousy and

money more than an honest desire to state the truth about the

authenticity o the Shroud, Middagh explained. At the time the

letter was written, Pierre dArcis was the bishop o Troyes and

the Shroud was being exhibited in the nearby town o Lirey. Pierre

dArcis did not like the pilgrims with their bags o gold going to

a neighboring town and bypassing him. Im pretty sure the letter

might never have been written i the Shroud had been shown in

Troyes.

Castle, no stranger to charging ees, appreciated the motive.

Besides, we know the image on the Shroud was not painted,

Middagh said. The Shroud o Turin Research Project in 1978tested on linen every painters pigment known to have been used

beore 1532. Extensive tests were conducted on the samples to see

how the pigments would have suered the massive re o that

year. The medieval paints were chemically modied in re and

would have been washed away in the water that was used to ex-

tinguish the re. Medieval paints were water- soluble and the 1978

STURP tests showed that no part o the image currently on theShroud is soluble in water.

Castle was beginning to conclude that or every argument

the skeptics produced about the Shroud, the believers managed

to concoct a response. He wondered i he would ever get to the

bottom o the debate with denitive scientic proo, one way or

the other. It amused Castle, but in a way the case or the authen-

ticity o the Shroud was a lot like the question about Gods exis-

L i d i i h Sh d


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authentic, but he wondered i logic and science might end up dis-

proving the authenticity o the Shroud. Thats what so ascinated

Castle about the work Gabrielli was proposing to do.So, you are convinced the Shroud was not painted? Castle

asked Middagh.

Yes, I am, Middagh answered. The image does not pen-

etrate into the linen bers the way you would expect paint to pen-

etrate the cloth. At best, the image is one ber deep, almost as i

the image lies on top o the linen bers. No bers are cemented

together, as you would expect paint to do, and the image does not

cross bers. The image areas are very brittle, with the image on

the surace like what you would expect rom material that had

oxidized by dehydration. All the colored bers are evenly colored

such that an exposed ber is either colored or not colored. There

is no density o coloration on the bers. What shading is apparent

comes rom the number o colored bers we observe microscopi-cally in any given unit area o the Shroud, not rom a deeper or

denser coloration o the bers. The colored bers are very uni-

ormly colored. None o these observations are what we would

expect i an artist had painted the image on the linen. The body

image rests only on the very top o the bers. The way the image

is placed on the Shroud is consistent throughouton the ull-

body dorsal image that resulted rom the body laid on the Shroudand the distinct ull-rontal body image that resulted when the

Shroud was olded lengthwise over the bodys head. Even though

the body rested on the Shroud, the dorsal body image is also very

lightly placed on the top o the bers.

Im not an expert on medieval painting, Castle said, but

Ive studied a lot o medieval paintings in Italian museums.

The painter o the Renaissance who most studied anatomy was

L d d Vi i I h i i hi Ad i f


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Leonardo was a genius and he used a sumato style o painting in

which he lightly created his images. Why isnt Leonardo a candi-

date or having painted the Shroud?He is a candidate, Middagh admitted. One problem is

that Leonardo wasnt born until 1452 and the Church can date

the Shroud earlier than that, certainly to the ourteenth century.

The documented provenance o the Shroud that we know is the

linen cloth in Turin goes back to the 1350s, when a descendant o

Georey de Charney, the Knight Templar who was burned at the

stake with Jacques de Molay, the amous last Grand Master o the

Knights Templar, had the Shroud rst displayed to the public at a

local church in Lirey, France. In other words, we can trace the his-

tory o the Shroud o Turin to a date beore Leonardo was born.

Even that did not deter Castle. There is one other possibility,

he said. Maybe the Savoy royal amily who owned the Shroud in

Lirey and brought it rom France to Turin in Italy asked Leonardoto reproduce the Shroud to replace an earlier shroud that was

an obvious orgery. Knowing Leonardos expertise with human

anatomy and the subtlety o his painting techniques, the Savoy

amily might have gured Leonardos replacement orgery would

be more convincing than their original. Why cant we assume

Leonardo obtained a piece o linen made in the time rame o

1260 to 1390 a.d. that he thought would work? What i it turnedout that Leonardos shroud was so superior that the Dukes o

Savoy destroyed the Shroud o Lirey and replaced it with Leo-

nardos duplicate? That would have allowed him to have been the

artist in a theory consistent with the carbon-14-dating result.

I understand your point, Middagh said, but there are sev-

eral problems, not the least o which is that we have no documen-

tation historically that Leonardo ever worked in Turin or that he

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portrait showing him as an old man with fowing hair down to

his shoulders and a long beard ends up even today in Turin, one

o the prize possessions o the Savoy amily royal library in Turin,Castle added.

I too once suspected Leonardo as the painter o the Shroud,

Father Morelli interjected. We also know Leonardo experimented

with the camera obscura.

How would a camera obscura be involved? Castle asked.

The camera obscura was a primitive light box that involved

an early lens, Morelli explained. The light box was constructed

to capture through the lens an image rom lie that showed up up-

side down, with the top o the image showing up on the bottom,

projected onto the back wall o the light box. The image could

also be projected onto a cloth or canvas or painting. Leonardo

also experimented with a wide variety o light-sensitive materi-

als, including many wood resins and various tinctures made romplants and leaves.

Middagh jumped in. But the theory is not that Leonardo

painted the Shroud. I cant stress enough that the Shroud o Turin

Research Project concluded in their 1981 nal report that no pig-

ments, paints, dyes, or stains were ound on the Shrouds bers.

Over a ve-day period in 1978, the Shroud o Turin Research

Project did a denitive scientic analysis o the Shroud, usingX-ray fuorescence analysis, ultraviolet fuorescence photogra-

phy, and inrared photography, as well as microphotography and

microchemical analysis. Their ndings that there was no paint o

any kind on the Shroud is still the denitive analysis.

So why did you consider Leonardo a candidate? Castle asked

Morelli.

The dates o the rst known exhibitions o the Shroud in

Li d l L d M lli id B h i


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ing theory is that Leonardo created the rst photographic image

when he produced the Shroud. The idea is that Leonardo may

have coated the linen with a light-sensitive chemical mixture andprojected the image onto the linen using a camera obscura. Books

have been written arguing that the ace o the man in the Shroud

resembles images we have o Leonardomost importantly the

Leonardo sel-portrait that is kept at the Biblioteca Reale in Turin.

There have been a ew books claiming that Leonardo used him-

sel as the ace in creating the Shroud as a photographic image. In

other words, the authors argued that what we have in the Shroud

is not the image o Jesus Christ, but a photographic image o

Leonardo da Vinci.

You reject that theory now? Castle asked.

I do, Morelli said. There is no evidence in any o Leonardos

existing codex manuscripts that indicate he experimented with

photography. He writes extensively about using a camera obscura,but as ar as I can gure out, Leonardo used the camera obscura

to assist him in his drawing and painting. None o Leonardos

existing notebooks discuss any experimentation with plants or

chemicals to produce light-sensitive ormulas.

Arent some o Leonardos codex notebooks missing? Castle

asked.

Yes, Morelli said. But there is no corroborating evidencerom anything written in Leonardos lietime that he came up

with anything resembling photography. No image survives rom

the teenth century that even remotely resembles photography.

The modern attempts to produce a Shroud-like image by photo-

graphic methods that would have possibly been known in the thir-

teenth to teenth centuries look crude, nothing like the Shroud.

But still, the most important problem is that the dates dont

k N h l k i L d b


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can document that the Shroud had been exhibited at Lirey in

France, and photography wasnt invented until about two hundred

years ago.Theres one more important piece o evidence, Middagh

added.

Whats that?

Theres human blood hemoglobin and blood serum on the

Shroud, and the blood serum is only evident in ultraviolet fuo-

rescence, Middagh said. There is no way any artist in medieval

times could have used ultraviolet fuorescence to paint human

blood serum on the Shroud so it could be discovered centuries

later, when UV fuorescence was invented. Besides, how would

an artist paint blood serum that is invisible to the eye on specic

places on the Shroud? Medical doctors examining the Shroud

conrm the blood ound on the Shroud, including the blood

serum, is exactly where they would expect to nd blood traces ithe wounds displayed on the body o the man in the Shroud came

rom a crucixion.

Castle, a medical doctor with extensive surgical experience,

wanted to know more about the blood detected on the Shroud.

How exactly does the blood appear on the Shroud? Does the

blood appear only on the top brils, as does the image o the

body? Or does the blood saturate the Shroud?Most o the blood we observe on the Shroud comes rom

direct contact the linen had with the body, Middagh answered.

The most prominent bloodstains appear as solid stains, or in-

stance the blood streaming rom the wrist wounds or the blood

on the orehead rom what would have been the crown o thorns.

These bloodstains penetrate the Shroud, and so on the rontal

image, the bloodstains rom the crown o thorns show up on the

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o blood resulting rom direct contact with the body do saturate

the Shroud. Even more interesting, the Shroud o Turin Research

Project ound that the bloodstains on the Shroud are composedo hemoglobin with high concentrations o bilirubin, which

would suggest blood fows rom wounds that were clotting. In

other words, the blood fows that penetrated the Shroud occurred

while the crucied man was yet alive. That these blood wounds

show up on the Shroud means the crucied man was placed in

the Shroud almost immediately ater death, without being washed

or embalmed.

But these are not the only type o bloodstain we see on the

Shroud, right? Morelli asked, prompting Middagh to elaborate.

Right, Middagh answered, picking up the discussion. As

I mentioned, the blood on the Shroud also gives a positive test

or serum albumin. Under ultraviolet fuorescence photography,

the serum separation shows up as a lighter ring around a darkerblood center, very typical o postmortem blood fows. The serum

stains were not visible to the naked eye but were clearly seen in

the ultraviolet fuorescence photography. So, the bloodstains tell

a very complex story o the wounds suered by the man in the

Shroud in lie, as well as the blood that drained rom the body

ater death.

So ar, I think I ollow what you are saying, Castle said.Just to be sure, let me recap, Middagh responded, wanting

to make sure the discussion was clear to everyone. The evidence

suggests that the crucied man was laid on the Shroud almost

immediately ater death. The blood fows suggest the man was

placed in the Shroud without being washed clean or in any way

embalmed or otherwise prepared or burial. We see the same evi-

dence on the ront and back images o the man in the Shroud.

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mans ront and backside we see on the Shrouds approximately

ourteen-oot ull length.

Dr. Castle, as a physician, Im sure you can appreciate whatthe presence o the hemoglobin and serum albumin on the

Shroud mean, Father Morelli said.

I believe Im ollowing whats been said so ar, Castle an-

swered, but why dont you tell me what specically you have in

mind. I want to make sure I understand your point precisely.

Just this, Morelli continued. The blood evidence on the

Shroud either means the image was imprinted on the linen o the

Shroud by a body that had suered the injuries we see, or by a

orger who painted in blood and appreciated not only the ana-

tomical nature o the wounds, but also the exact nature o the

blood fow that would have resulted rom crucixion wounds

while the victim was alive, as well as rom the serum fow that

would have continued even into death.I dont rule out an expert orger, Castle said directly. Morelli

had a point. Many people in the Middle Ages were as brilliant as

today, even i they lacked our modern technology.

The orger would have had to have been suciently brilliant

to have painted onto the Shroud serum stains not visible to the

naked eye, anticipating that in later centuries we would have and

use the type o ultraviolet fuorescence technology we would needto check or serum in attempting to document the authenticity o

the Shroud, Morelli added.

Are you saying Leonardo wasnt that brilliant? Castle

countered.

In Leonardo da Vincis day, the study o anatomy was pretty

primitive and the understanding o blood composition and circu-

lation was not well advanced, Morelli responded.

Midd h i d hi di i d


20/43


missed. Theres an important conclusion we can draw about the

blood we nd on the Shroud, Middagh said. The bloodstains

that penetrate through the Shroud and show up on the backsideo the Shroud are very dierent rom how the body image ormed

on the Shroud. We know the blood and serum inhibited the image

ormation on the Shroud. The Shroud o Turin Research Team in

1978 had instruments that could detect parts per billion o any

substance on the Shroud, and the scientists concluded there is

no body image under the blood and serum stains. What this

means is that the blood fows rom lie and the blood serum

draining rom the body ater death were both imprinted on the

Shroud rst, when the body was laid on the Shroud and it was

pulled over the head to cover the ront part o the body. The

body image ormed on the Shroud at a later time. In other words,

rontal and dorsal body images appear to have been imprinted

on the Shroud simultaneously, sometime ater the body hadrested in the Shroud and ater all blood fuids had stopped drain-

ing rom the body.

What exactly is your point? Castle asked.

My point is simple, Middagh answered. We know rom

studying the Shroud that there were two distinct steps in which

the image was ormed: rst the blood was deposited by direct

contact, then the body image was ormed subsequently by a pro-cess we dont understand.

What can you tell me about the wrist wounds? Castle asked

Middagh, wanting to know what the Shroud might tell him about

Father Bartholomews stigmata.

Middagh searched through his slides until he ound the one he

wanted, a close-up o the wrist wounds on the man in the Shroud.

The image he displayed on the projection screen showed some-

h h b d h did h l h h d


21/43


Middagh continued: Most classical pictures o Jesus show himbeing crucied by being nailed through the palms o the hands.

But as you can see here, the man in the Shroud appears to have

been nailed through the wrists. It is an interesting detail, but none

o the our gospels that discuss the crucixionMatthew, Mark,

Luke, or Johnsay whether Christ was tied or nailed to the cross.

Most o the ancient crucixion nails recovered by archeologists in

excavations throughout the wider regions o the Roman Empiregive no indication what limb they had pierced. But we know the

ancient Romans nailed people to the cross i they wanted the cru-

cixion to be particularly brutal or particularly short, and Church

tradition supports that Christ was nailed to the cross.

Castle wanted to make sure he understood the negative image

he was looking at. Dont most negatives have a mirror eect in

which, or instance, right is transormed to let in the negative?

h k d Th i h h l d h i h


22/43


Youre right, in that sorting out the right/let orientations

o various images o the Shroud is conusing, even or experts,

Middagh said. But since the Shroud itsel is a negative image, themirror-eect reversal occurs in what we see in the Shroud with

the naked eye. I you look at the Shroud, it appears the right hand

is crossed over the let. Im showing you a photographic negative,

which once again reverses let to right and vice versa. In other

words, the photographic negative has it right. In the corpse o the

man in the Shroud, the let hand was crossed over the right. All

the photographic negatives I am going to show you are correct

or the let/right orientation o the man in the Shroud as he was

buried.

Thank you or explaining that, Castle said. Im beginning to

get the point that the photographic negatives are perhaps the best

way to see the crucied body o the man in the Shroud.

I agree, Middagh said. Im showing you the negativephotographs because the image is more clearly seen when the

brownish-red image on the Shroud is transormed into the white

and gray-tone shadings o the negative. Also, Im showing you the

negative photographs because the let/right orientations you see

in the negative are true to the let/right orientation o the cruci-

ed man himsel. I you dont ollow all this technical discussion

precisely, it doesnt matter. Just remember that the images Imshowing you have been fipped appropriately so you are looking

at the body the way it would have looked in death.

Studying the wrist and orearms image, Castle could see

the wound in the wrist o the man in the Shroud correctly po-

sitioned in the carpal area, the right place or a crucixion, and

the absence o the thumbs in the image conrmed once again

Castles presumption that driving a nail through the wrist in

h l i h d b bl d d h di i


23/43


All this was consistent with his earlier discussion with Mo-

relli and with Dr. Lins analysis o Father Bartholomews wrist

wounds.Looking closely at what appeared to be two streams o blood

fow on the let orearm, Castle judged both streams o blood had

come rom the same puncture wound in the wrist. He estimated

that the arms would have been extended at about a 65-degree

angle with the horizontal to cause the blood to fow in the pattern

he was observing on the orearms. The blood fows appeared to

extend rom the wrist to the elbow, which would have been con-

sistent with the outstretching o the arm in crucixion. Castle was

beginning to have no doubt that in the Shroud he was looking at

the image o a crucied man.

Whoever orged the Shroud in medieval times had to have a

remarkable understanding o human anatomy and the mechan-

ics o crucixion to have produced an image that would standup to current medical analysis conrmed by twenty-rst-century

technology.

Again, we dont know exactly what the cross that Christ died

upon looked like, Middagh said. Typically the vertical beam o

the cross stood permanently implanted at the place o execution.

The victim oten carried the crossbeam to the place o crucixion,

with the crossbeam carried on the shoulders, behind the nape othe neck, like a yoke. The Roman executioners pulled back the

condemned mans arms to hook them over the crossbeam to hold

and balance it. At the place o crucixion, the victim was nailed to

the crossbeam at the wrists, or the arms were bound and tied to

the crossbeam. The Roman executioners then used orked poles

and maybe a pulley to lit the crossbeam up to where it could be

slotted into a notch at the top o the vertical beam to orm the

D di h d h h h b


24/43


on the letter T, or maybe it t into a deeper slot, orming the tra-

ditional our-point cross we see in most religious paintings rom

the Renaissance period until today.Castle listened, with his mind translating what he was hear-

ing into medical detail. With the massive trauma the arms o a

crucied man suered rom bearing the weight o his body, es-

pecially as the horizontal beam o the cross was lited to the ver-

tical beam, there was no doubt nails had to be placed through

the wrist. Otherwise, the crucied man could all o the cross-

beam as it was being elevated to the vertical beam o the cross.

I the crucied man were to stay on the cross any length o time,

the arms would end up supporting his weight, so the wrists had

to be pinned to the crossbeam rmly enough so as to not come

loose. Had the Shroud o Turin demonstrated anything dier-

ent, it could be disqualied immediately as an artists rendering.

Whether Father Bartholomew appreciated the medical acts ocrucixion or whether he was merely maniesting what his sub-

conscious recorded rom the Shroud, Castle did not know. But

Father Bartholomews stigmata were also in his wrists, not the

palms o his hands.

Looking closely at the projected image, Castle clearly recog-

nized what appeared to be the scourge marks he saw maniested

on Bartholomew yesterday. Looking at the photographs o theShroud that Morelli had shown him rom the Vatican, Castle had

not ocused on the scourge wounds, although those were obvi-

ously apparent in the body above and below the crossed arms,

once you began looking or them. Are those the scourge wounds

that appear to cover the body? Castle asked Middagh.

Yes, Middagh said. Let me show you a close-up image o the

scourge wounds suered by the man in the Shroud.

Midd h j d h d l i h i


25/43


As you can see, the man in the Shroud shows signs o an ex-

tensive beating rom a whip. The scourge wounds are especially

heavy on the shoulders and the backs, extending down the but-

tocks and the back o the legs. I have other images here that show

the same pattern o scourge marks on the mans ront side, al-

though there are not as many scourge wounds on the chest or

ront o the legs as there are on the backside.Seeing these wounds now, Castle could see the obvious resem-

blance to the wounds he saw on Bartholomew Sunday.

We have to get detailed photos o Father Bartholomews

wounds, Father Morelli said insistently. From what I saw o Fa-

ther Bartholomew in the ER, I believe the wounds he suered

all over his body will match precisely what we are seeing as the

scourge wounds on the Shroud.

Sil l C l d


26/43


Shroud, then the wounds on the Shroud document exactly where

Jesus was beaten, Morelli said. I believe we are going to nd one-

or-one that Father Bartholomew has exactly the same woundsthat we are seeing on this slide right here, not more and not ewer,

but precisely these.

Ive already ordered Dr. Lin at Beth Israel Hospital to

take very detailed examinations o Father Bartholomews body

wounds, not just photographic, but also CT scans, as well as a ull-

body MRI, Castle commented, as soon as Father Bartholomew

is strong enough to undergo that.

We look orward to seeing the results o those tests, Arch-

bishop Duncan said.

My guess, Archbishop Duncan, is that Father Morellis sup-

position is correct, Castle added. I too suspect Father Barthol-

omew suered these exact wounds Sunday night. Where we

dier is most likely in the interpretation. Even i the woundsFather Bartholomew suered are identical in every detail to the

scourge wounds we appear to see on the man in the Shroud, that

still does not prove Father Bartholomew is maniesting miracu-

lously the wounds Christ suered in his passion and death. Father

Bartholomew told me he has studied the Shroud or a long time.

His years o study undoubtedly impressed on his subconscious all

the details o the Shroud we are looking at today.Archbishop Duncan was skeptical. Do you really believe the

subconscious is that powerul?

Yes, Archbishop Duncan, I do, Castle said without hesitation.

Your subconscious is what keeps your body going. You depend

on your subconscious to keep your heart beating and your blood

circulating. Your subconscious regulates your breathing. You have

to consciously override your subconscious to hold your breath. I

ld Wh d hi k k li d i h i h ?


27/43


Anne was xated on a more undamental part o the discus-

sion. Does all this mean my brother was scourged exactly like

Jesus was scourged at the pillar? she asked, her voice giving awaythe horror she elt at the thought.

Maybe yes and maybe no, Castle answered. Not to be fip,

but I dont want us jumping to conclusions. First o, we dont

know that your brothers wounds are going to match what we are

seeing here exactly, not at least until I compare the hospital pho-

tos o his wounds to the wounds we are seeing on the Shroud. But

most important, I dont want anybody jumping to the conclusion

that Bartholomew is suering a repeat o Christs passion, not

even i the wounds are identical. Im a psychiatrist and Im inter-

ested in whats going on in Father Bartholomews mind. For me,

his body maniests his mental reality, possibly his religious belies.

Thats as ar as Im prepared to go right now.

We all understand, Archbishop Duncan said, making sure ev-eryone in the room knew he was not disagreeing with Dr. Castles

analysis by insisting on any dierent interpretation, at least not

right now. I understand your point about the subconscious. We

dont want to jump to any conclusions here.

While they were talking, Middagh ound and displayed an-

other image rom the Shroud, this time a detailed close- up o a

group o scourge wounds on the upper back o the man in theShroud. The close-up clearly showed the dumbbell nature o the

wounds.

The ancient Romans typically scourged a man beore they

crucied him, both to urther punish him as a criminal and to

weaken him so he would put up less resistance when they ulti-

mately xed him to the cross, Middagh said. The Romans could

also control how long a man would survive the crucixion by

h l h b d d Th i i h


28/43


cross. Judging rom the beating the man in the Shroud received,

the Roman executioners wanted him to die pretty ast. Jesus went

up to Jerusalem at the time o his death to celebrate Passover. Tra-

ditionally, the Last Supper is interpreted as a Passover meal. From

the beating the man o the Shroud received, the Romans may have

wanted Jesus to die ast, so he could be buried beore sundown on

the Sabbath.Castle listened to the historical explanation but his mind was

ocused on the wounds themselves. The dumbbell nature o the

wounds rom the Shroud seen in close- up looked exactly like the

wounds he observed on Bartholomew.

Middagh picked up on this exact point. As you can see here

in the close-up o the scourge wounds on the upper back, each

wound shows the dumbbell-shaped weights the Romans xed

i h d h l h h i hi T i ll h R


29/43


or three leather thongs attached. Sometimes, instead o a dumb-

bell piece o metal, the Romans just xed two small metal balls

on the ends o the leather thongs, a conguration that caused thewounds to look like dumbbell wounds just the same.

Anne could not believe what she was seeing. How could Fa-

ther Bartholomew be beaten like that and survive? she asked

Castle in disbelie.

Right now, we are not sure how your brother was injured,

Castle answered, irritated that hospitals were notorious rumor

mills. All Anne had to do was ask a ew questions and the nurses

and orderlies would probably have lled her in on all the gossip

about her brother. Immediately, Castles mind fashed on the tele-

vision reporter who accosted him leaving the hospital last night

and on the crowd o silent believers who held vigil outside the

hospital with their lit candles in the darkness. How much addi-

tional inormation did Fernando Ferrar have by now to broadcaston television?

Reluctantly, Castle realized this was going to be an impossible

story to contain, even i he gave no press conerences. He sus-

pected Anne was already concluding her brother was replicating

the passion o Christ. He was certain that in no time at all the

story that Father Bartholomew had been mysteriously scourged

by unseen assailants would be circulating throughout New YorkCity, possibly around the world, now with the added detail that

the scourge wounds he maniested were exactly like the scourge

wounds on the Shroud o Turin, wound or wound, blow or

blow.

Just then Castles cell phone rang. It was the hospital. Barthol-

omew was coming out o sedation. The nurse on duty was calling

him as instructed, so he could be there to examine the priest as

h i i


30/43


were going to have to resume this at another time. The hospital

just called and Father Bartholomew is coming around. Ive got to

get there immediately.I want to come with you, Anne said urgently.

Morelli chimed in: Id like to go as well.

No, Castle said politely but rmly. Neither one o you has

any medical training as ar as I know. Im sure there will be an ap-

propriate time or you to visit with him, but now I need to exam-

ine my patient alone.

Id like some time to speak with you privately, Anne said.

Can we arrange a time to get together?

Thinking quickly, Castle realized he could use the drive time

questioning Anne, to nd out exactly how she t into Father Bar-

tholomews lie and why nobody seemed to know anything about

her, until now. Asking to meet with him privately, Anne must

have seen the same need to explain her background in more de-tail, Castle guessed.

Okay, you can ride with me in the car to the hospital, Castle

said. That will give us a ew minutes to get started.

Thank you, Anne said appreciatively. When we get to the

hospital, I promise I will stay out o your way.

Father Morelli, you join Anne in the waiting room o the ICU

at Beth Israel, i you want, this aternoon, Castle instructed. Ieverything goes well, you and Anne should be able to visit with

Father Bartholomew or a ew minutes later today, ater I examine

him.

Ill do that, Morelli said appreciatively.

Next, Castle turned to apologize to Archbishop Duncan or

having to leave the meeting so abruptly. You will excuse me, your

Eminence, but I have to leave immediately, he explained. Castle

d b h l l i ll i h F


31/43


the room. Im sure you will understand, but I want to be the rst

to talk with Father Bartholomew when he regains consciousness.

Certainly, Archbishop Duncan said graciously, as Cas-tle gathered up his papers to leave. We are available to you on

a twenty-our-hour basis. The pope has made it clear that right

now nothing is more important to the Catholic Church than Fa-

ther Bartholomew and the Shroud o Turin.


32/43

Is the Shroud of Turin a Radiation Photograph

of Christs Resurrection?

By

Jerome R. Corsi

Scientists are building the case that the image of a crucified man on the

Shroud of Turin was created by radiation that emanated from the body itself,

elaborating a theory that is remarkably supportive of the traditionally-

described Resurrection that is central to Christian theology.

A scientific paper co-authored by attorney and historian Mark Antonacci and

physicist Arthur Lund, argues that the image of the crucified man in Shroudof Turin might constitute what amounts to a photograph taken at the instant

Christs body transformed as he rose from the dead.

In their paper entitled Particle Radiation from the Body, Antonacci and

Lunds argument centers around the 29 unique or unusual features that

scientists over the past 30-40 years have found on the Shrouds body image

and fiber.

Among the 29 features are the following:

Lack of fading of the image; Uniform coloring around each fiber of linen; All fibers collectively colored with the same intensity; Oxidation and dehydration of fibers; Stability of the body image to water and heating; Insolubility of the body image to acids, redox and solvents; Equal intensity of the body image for frontal and dorsal views;


33/43

Negative images of the body with left/right and light/dark reversalsthat develop into highly resolved, photographic quality images;

Three-dimensionality encoded through the space between the bodyand the cloth.

All of these features can be accounted for by radiation and only radiation

will account for them all, the authors concluded.

For instance, the authors noted the Shrouds frontal and dorsal body images

are encoded with the same amount of intensity, independent of any pressure

or weight from the body, such that the bottom part of the cloth that bore all

the weight of the crucified mans supine body is not encoded with a greater

amount of intensity than the frontal image.

Radiation coming from the body would not only explain this feature, but

also the left/right and light/dark reversals found on the cloths frontal and

dorsal body images, the authors noted.

In arguing that the source of light that created the body image on the Shroud

came from within the body, the authors observed that neither the outside or

inside of the tomb, nor the outside or inside of either the front or back sides

of the cloth are found on the Shrouds image.

This means that the source of light does not originate outside of the body,

the cloth or the tomb, but with the body itself, they wrote. The weave of

the inner part of the cloth containing the frontal and dorsal images is not

even part of the distinctive images, which they too, would have been, if the

light came from anywhere outside the body.

Antonacci and Lund ask, What if the mans body became insubstantial or

dematerialized instantly, leaving behind some energy in the form of the

basic particles of matter, such as protons, neutrons and electromagnetic

waves, such as gamma rays?

They answer that the part of the cloth that was originally closest to the body

would have received the most radiation, while the part originally farthest

away would have received the least a phenomenon that would result in

true three dimensional information being encoded onto the two dimensional

cloth, precisely as is found on the Shroud.


34/43

The evidence acquired from more than a century of scientific, medical,

archaeological and historical examination of the Shroud is not only

consistent with its authenticity as the burial garment of the historical Jesus

Christ, but with every element of his passion, crucifixion, death, burial and

resurrection as described in the Gospels, they concluded.

Mark Antonacci is the founder and president of the non-profit Resurrection

of the Shroud Foundation and author of the book entitled The Resurrection

of the Shroud.i

Arthur C. Lind, Ph.D. is a physicist who created Lind Scientific after retiring

from Boeing in 1998; he obtained a doctorate in physics from Rensselaer

Polytechnic Institute in 1966.

Is the Shroud of Turin a Forgery? Not So Fast, Say Scientists

The radiocarbon dating that placed the Shroud of Turin as a medieval

forgery dating from 1260 to 1390 AD has been called into question by a new

study published by the Italian Society of Statistics that claims the 1988

radiocarbon results contain huge inconsistencies.

The article, authored by three Italian university-based statisticians and aprofessor of statistics from the London School of Economics, was published

in Italian on April 7, in the magazine of the Italian Statistical Society.ii

The authors charge that the results of the 1988 radiocarbon testing

performed at the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona and at the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and published in 1989 in

Nature magazineiii

failed upon subsequent and more thorough testing of the

margin of error to reach the level of statistical significance needed to

establish with 95-percent confidence, as was originally claimed from the

1988 tests, that the Shroud of Turin was a medieval creation.

Moreover, the authors charged that the 1988 radiocarbon tests failed to take

into consideration pollution on the Shroud both from plant life from the

many locations the Shroud had traveled and from centuries of contact with

human hands, which even Nobel Prize-winning chemist Willard Frank


35/43

Libby, the creator of the carbon-14 dating method, had warned could

contaminate the results.

The statisticians further detected a systematic contamination in the

samples of the Shroud selected for radiocarbon dating tests that could have

produced, in the results of all three laboratories, a non-negligible error that

accounted a wide variety of dates being produced from the samples tested at

the three laboratories, ranging from 1260 to 1390 AD.

These conclusions coincide with other independent scientific research that

suggests the samples taken in 1988 from the edge of the Shroud may have

been contaminated by expert medieval reweaving with cotton sewn into the

cloth in 1532 when the Poor Clare nuns repaired the damage from a 1532

fire that nearly destroyed the artifact.

Medieval Reweaving

In 2005, Ray Rogers, a chemist with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

and a member of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project, published

posthumously a scientific paper in which he argued the samples taken from

the Shroud in 1988 for the radiocarbon dating were contaminated by

medieval reweaving.iv

The crux of the argument is that after a fire in 1532 nearly destroyed the

Shroud, French Poor Clair nuns repaired the Shroud by adding sixteen burn

patches and stitching to the back of the Shroud a reinforcing cloth that is

known as the Holland cloth.

The nuns were able to repair the edges of the Shroud by expertly reweaving

with cotton much of the damage the fire did to the Shrouds original linen

cloth.

Rogers was able to detect the reweaving under a microscope, because thecotton had been dyed to match the linen and the fibers could be

distinguished in the reweaving at the edges of the Shroud. Linen is resistant

to dye; cotton is not.

Rogerss reversal of opinion made an impact on the Shroud of Turin

research community worldwide, largely because immediately after the


36/43

results of the 1988 radiocarbon dating were made public, Rogers was an

outspoken voice among critics charging the Shroud was a medieval forgery.

In a video interview recorded with Barrie Schwortz, the official

photographer of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project, shortly before

Ray Rogers died, Rogers said that as a result of his research on the

reweaving, he had experienced a change of heart and was now of the opinion

that the Shroud was the authentic burial cloth of Jesus Christ.v

Rogers concluded that the combination of sixteenth-century cotton and first-

century linen skewed the 1988 radiocarbon dating tests.

Rogers also examined the rate of loss of vanillin in the linen fibers of the

Shroud.

Vanillin disappears in the thermal decomposition of lignin, a complex

polymer that is in the cells of the flax plants used to make linen.

Rogers concluded in his 2005 scientific paper that the linen in the main body

of the Shroud had lost vanillin, much like the Dead Sea scroll linens,

suggesting the Shroud itself is much older than the radiocarbon dating had

suggested, very possibly reaching back two thousand years to the time of

Christ.

Is This the Face of Jesus?

People are not going to forget the face of Jesus this Easter, Ray Downing,

the creator of the 3D computer technology that produced the real face of

Jesus from the image of the crucified man in the Shroud of Turin, as seen in

The Real Face of Jesus?, a highly watched documentary that has been

broadcast repeatedly since first shown by the History Channel nationally in

2010.vi

Jesus was more than just a spiritual event, Downing said. Studying the

Shroud to produce the 3D face of Jesus, we encountered scientific evidence

that the Resurrection was a real physical event that happened in a moment of

time 2000 years ago.


37/43

In the two-hour documentary, Downing brought together science and

religion by using cutting-edge computer technology to create a life-like

image from the Shroud of Turin of the man millions have believed for

centuries to be Jesus Christ.

The Shroud of Turin provides actual scientific proof that Jesus rose from

the dead, Downing insisted, explaining that the Shroud is encoded with a

message undecipherable until the most recent advances of modern particle

physics.

Properly understood, the code contained in the Shroud of Turin records the

moment of the Resurrection, he said.

Viewed through the lens of science, the Shroud of Turin contains a code

that when deciphered provides actual, physical evidence that theResurrection of Jesus Christ was an actual, historical event.

The History Channel has been satisfied the documentary met their

expectations.

History Channel is doing what we feel we do best, explained

spokeswoman Vicky Kahn. We took an element of history that people may

have thought was fully explored and then we delved even further.

We found The Real Face to be incredibly awe inspiring, taking an ancient

relic and pulling out information long buried inside.

In producing the documentary, the History Channel worked with Ray

Downing of Studio Macbeth to reveal the image embedded in the linen

fibers of the Shroud to turn the faint, negative-like, brownish-red image of

the crucified man depicted in the Shroud into what may be the most accurate

depiction ever made of the face of Jesus Christ.

In a previous collaboration with the History Channel, Ray Downingbrought Abraham Lincoln back to life in a special entitled Stealing

Lincolns Body.

In reconstructing the real Abraham Lincoln, Downing worked from life

masks made of Lincoln while he was alive, as well as over 100 photographs

contemporary Lincoln photographs.


38/43

In recreating the face of Christ, Downing was faced with a greater challenge

in that the Shroud of Turin contains a faint image of a crucified man.

Moreover, the complex herringbone weave of the Shrouds linen makes

extracting the real image of the face and the body difficult, a process

compounded by the reality that the Shrouds linen contains actual human

blood, centuries of dirt, burn holes and water stains from a fire in 1532, and

numerous other distortions.

The presence of 3D information encoded in a 2D image is quite unexpected

as well as unique, Downing said. It is as if there is an instruction set

inside a picture for building a sculpture.

For Downing, the Shroud of Turin contains two intertwined stories.

There is the story of the Shroud which, artistically and scientifically, is the

story of a transition from two dimensional to three dimensional, he

explained. But there is as well the story of the man in the Shroud, and a

record of his transformation from death back to life.

The Face of Jesus is quintessential history, Kahn said. It fully met and

exceeded our goals.

Kahn explained that the History Channel has had an overwhelming response,

not just from viewers, but from all over the world, as well as major media

outlets from around the world Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia, to name just a

few.

Second Face on Shroud Points to Supernatural Origin

Scientists examining the Shroud of Turin since the restoration that began in

2000 have found a second face on the back hidden side of the Shroud, adiscovery scientists believe adds evidence to the argument the Shroud is not

a painting or a medieval photographic rendering.

As part of the restoration undertaken in June-July 2002, the Holland cloth,

the backing cloth placed on the Shroud by the Poor Clare Nuns to preserve


39/43

the Shroud after the 1532 fire, was removed, permitting for the first time in

centuries an examination of the back side of the Shroud.

In 2004, Professors Giulio Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo of the Department of

Mechanical Engineering at the University of Padua in Italy published in the

peer-reviewed Journal of Optics their study entitled The Double

Superficiality of the Frontal Image of the Turin Shroud,vii

concluding there

exists a second, even fainter face image on the backside of the Shroud of

Turin, corresponding but not identical to the face image of the crucified man

seen in head-to-head dorsal and ventral views on the front side.

The second face image on the back of the Shroud was hidden for centuries,

until the 2002 restoration when the Holland cloth was removed.

Fanti and Maggiolo used image-processing techniques including Gaussianfilters and Fourier transformations to highlight the extremely faint second

face on the backside of the Shroud, including details of a nose, eyes, hair, as

well as beard and mustache.

To the naked eye, the backside of the Shroud appears to show no image

whatsoever.

Like the face image on the front side of the Shroud, the previously hidden

second face image on the backside is a superficial image that exists onlyon the topmost linen fibers, created by the same dehydration process

characteristic of the face and body image on the front of the Shroud.

The backside of the Shroud contains only a limited ventral image of the

crucified man in which a stain appears to correspond to the crossed hands

seen on the front side.

Fanti and Maggiolo found no dorsal image of the crucified man on the

Shrouds back side.

The researchers concluded the image of the face on the backside of the

Shroud was not created by a process of painting in which the facial image on

the front bled through to create the face image on the Shrouds reverse

side.


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Similarly, if a photographic process created the image of the face on the

Shroud, the photographic emulsion on the Shroud must have been applied

separately on the front surface and the reverse surface, without any

photographic emulsion soaking through the linen fibers at the center.

The two scientists demonstrated this by noting the image of the face

impressed on the backside has some slight differences with respect to the

face image on the front side.

For instance, the nose on the backside presents the same extension of both

nostrils, unlike the front side, in which the right nostril is less evident.

Moreover, Fanti and Maggiolo concluded that the central part of the fabric

was clearly not involved in the creation of the image [on the backside] i.e.,

the internal part of the linen fabric does not have an image.

In other words, the researchers found a doubly superficial face image on

both the front and back sides such that if a cross-section of the fabric is

made, one extremely superficial image appears above and one below, but

there is nothing in the middle.

Their conclusion is that the presence of a face on both sides of the Shroud

was not created by paint soaking through the linen or by a photographic

image printing through to the reverse side, because the front and back facialimages are not identical and the center fibers show no image creation

whatsoever.

Rejecting the theory the image of the crucified man seen on the Shroud of

Turin was created by a painting or an early medieval photographic process,

Fanti and Maggiolo concluded the Shroud image was created by a corona

discharge, understood as a radiant burst of light and energy that scorched

the body image of the crucified man on the topmost fibers of the Shrouds

front and back sides, without producing any image on the centermost of the

Shrouds linen fibers.

Imagine slicing a human hair lengthwise, from end to end, into 100 long

thin slices; each slice one-tenth the width of a single red blood cell, writes

Daniel Porter, editor of ShroudStory.com. The images on the Shroud of

Turin, at their thickest, are this thin.viii


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Fanti and Maggiolo found the faint image of the face on the reverse side of

the Shroud contained the same 3D information contained in the face and

body image of the crucified man seen on the Shrouds front side.

Shroud of Turin Exposition, Turin, Italy, April 10-May 23, 2010

Beginning on April 10, 2010 and closing some six weeks later, on May 23,

2010, nearly 2 million pilgrims traveled to Turin, Italy, to see the

bloodstained cloth many believe to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

On display for the first time this third millennium and for the first time in 12

years, the Shroud of Turin was seen publicly in 2010 for the first time since

the 2002 restoration removed the 30 patches sewn into the cloth in 1534,

when the Poor Clare nuns repaired the damage from a 1532 fire that nearlydestroyed the Shroud.

The original backing cloth, known as the Holland Cloth, that was added in

1534, was also removed in the 2002 restoration and replaced with a new,

lighter colored cloth that can be seen through the triangular burn holes

evident on the left and right sides of the front and back image of the

crucified man evident in the cloth.

The Holy Shroud Exhibition is a spiritual and religious event, it is neithertouristic nor commercial, Cardinal Severino Poletto said at the expositions

opening press conference as reported on the Shroud of Turins official

website.ix

Our eyes can finally see the image of the Holy Shroud, which is displayed

here in front of us, Cardinal Poletto said in the homily delivered at the mass

celebrated in St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin, Italy, at the opening of

the exposition last Saturday.

The silent image of a crucified man with all the marks of the violencesuffered by the body of Jesus during His Passion, as they are described in the

Gospels the crown of thorns, the scourges, the wounds caused by the

spikes through both his hands and feet, and the chest pierced with a lance of

the soldier these are all the elements of Jesus Christs passion that are

readable in the image of this sacred linen.


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The Archdiocese of Turin established an official committee to make

arrangements to handle the thousands of visitors expected to see the Shroud

each day.

Displayed at the front of the Cathedral in a glass-front case elevated within a

few feet of visitors, the 14-foot by 3-foot Shroud of Turin shows the faint

image of the front and back of a crucified man laid out such that the burial

cloth wrapped in front of the body by folding across the top of the head.

A new introductory 3-minute video shown visitors as they enter the Shroud

exposition features high-definition images created in 2008 that clearly

distinguish the signs of the scourges, the lesions caused by the crown of

thorns in the head, the wounds in the chest, and the holes from the spikes

that fixed the wrists and feet to the cross.

The theme of the 2010 Holy Shroud Exposition was Passio Christi, passio

hominis, which translates as Passion of Christ, Human Passion, a theme

selected by Cardinal Poletto to highlight the strong link between the

passion of Jesus Christ and the human suffering in the world.

Pope Benedict XVI visited Turin to venerate the Shroud on Sunday, May 2.

The Pope said he hoped the Shroud Exposition would help people seek the

Face of God.

I rejoice for this event, which once again is encouraging a large movement

of pilgrims as well as studies, reflections, and above all an extraordinary

recollection of the mystery of Christs suffering, Pope Benedict XVI said

from Castle Gandolfo before leaving for Turin. I hope this act of

veneration will help all to seek the Face of God, which was the intimate

aspiration of the Apostles and is also our own.

The Archdiocese of Turin has scheduled the next public exposition of the

Shroud to occur in 2035.

iResurrection of the Shroud Foundation, 122 South Central Avenue, Eureka, Missouri 63025, at

http://www.resurrectionoftheshroud.com/Index.html. See also: Mark Antonacci, Resurrection of the

Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence (New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc.,

2001).


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ii Marco Riani, Universit di Parma; Giulio Fanti, Universit di Padova; Fabio Crosilla, Universit di

Udine; and Anthony C. Atkinson, London School of Economics, Statistica robusta e radiodatazione della

Sindone, SIS Magazine, April 7, 2010, at http://www.sis-statistica.it/magazine/spip.php?article177.

iiiP.E. Damon, et.al., Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, Nature, Feb. 16, 1989, at

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v337/n6208/abs/337611a0.html.

iv Raymond N. Rogers Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the shroud of turin, Thermochimica Acta,

Volume 425, Issues 1-2, Jan. 20, 2005, pp. 189-194, at

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6THV-4DTBVHC-

1&_user=946211&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000049007

&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=946211&md5=7a372bf81a4b2a56bef468b8deb8b28a.

vThe video of the interview can be viewed at New Evidence Overturns Shroud of Turin Carbon Dating,

at Metacafe.com, posted Feb. 25, 2010, at

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4222339/new_evidence_overturns_shroud_of_turin_carbon_dating/.

vi The Real Face of Jesus? History Channel, at http://www.history.com/shows/the-real-face-of-jesus.

vii Guilo Fanti and Roberto Maggiolo, The double superficiality of the frontal image of the Turin Shroud,

Journal of Optics: Pure and Applied Optics, Volume 6, Number 6, April 13, 2004, at

http://iopscience.iop.org/1464-4258/6/6/001/.

viii Daniel Porter, Shroud of Turin Story, at http://www.shroudstory.com/.

ixPress Release, The Holy Shroud Exhibition: a religious event, Presentation speech of Cardinal Severino

Poletto 2 days before the opening, Sindone.org, April 8, 2010, at

http://www.sindone.org/the_holy_shroud__english_/news_and_info/00025174_The_Holy_Shroud_Exhibit

ion__a_religious_event.html.

Documents

The Shroud Codex by Jerome R. Corsi, plus bonus research from the author