THE Shroud of Turin is again back in conversation as studies suggest it is nearly 2000 years old, as believed by Christian tradition
The Shroud is a linen cloth that bears a faint image of a face on either side, and it has long been venerated as the burial cloth of Jesus.
A recent study by Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurements at the University of Padua, claims that a macroscopic and microscopic analysis of the bloodstains accurately reflects “the physical conditions relating to Jesus Christ” that are “consistent with the description of Jesus Christ in the holy Bible and, in particular, within the four canonical Gospels.”
Additionally, nanoparticles found in the blood “recognised as creatinine” are consistent with “the very heavy torture suffered by Jesus,” he said.
He adds that “the high level of urea hypothesised” in some of the blood “implies renal … malfunction or blockage, which is a condition compatible with intense flagellation … in the area of the kidneys, causing microcytic anaemia.”
“This microcytic anaemia, also increased by prolonged fasting, suggests the extreme difficulties Jesus had in exchanging oxygen, which most likely resulted in extremely laboured breathing,” he said.
This comes as a 2022 study by Dr Liberato de Caro on the Shroud has recently gone viral in Catholic spheres.
Although Dr de Caro concluded more research was necessary, he found that the Shroud’s threading is much older than previously thought, with linen dating to around 55 to 74 AD.
This evidence seemingly rebuts the position that the Shroud is a middle ages recreation, as claimed by a controversial 1988 study.
Dr de Caro’s work revealed that it is very unlikely the Shroud is from the 13th or 14th century, as the 1988 study concluded.
Through large x-ray imaging, he found that for the Shroud to be a recreation with its level of degradation, it would have had to be stored at a “room temperature very close to the maximum values registered on the earth.”
The New York Post also published an artificial-intelligence recreation of the face stained into the Shroud, furthering the public debate.
