Table of Contents

Veritas de terra orta est - Psa. 84

Letter from the Rev. Adam J. Otterbein, C.SS.R., President of the Holy Shroud Guild, Esopus, New York

Letter of "Welcome" from Don Piero Coero Borga, secretary of the International Center of Sindonology, Turin, Italy

THE CORONATION OF THORNS IN THE LIGHT OF THE SHROUD* SEBASTIANO RODANTE, M.D.

CARBON DATING AND THE HOLY SHROUD REV. CHARLES FOLEY

WHY DID GEOFFROY DE CHARNY CHANGE HIS MIND? DOROTHY CRISPINO

A MEDITATION ON THE HOLY FACE PAUL DE GAIL, S.J.

QUESTION CORNER

NEWS

Veritas de terra orta est
Psa. 84

This is the pilot issue of SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL; it is published by the Indiana Center for Shroud Studies. Beginning in 1982, the journal will be sent to subscribers every trimester.

SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL proposes to offer its readers reliable information about the Holy Shroud of Turin; information ranging over the entire spectrum of Shroud studies, from sources around the world and across the centuries.

Recent research has discovered amazing facts about the Cloth and the Image it bears. Astounding features, hitherto unsuspected, are revealed by every scientific and technological advance; and the Shroud marches always a few steps ahead of us, beckoning us on.

In this rapid and exciting progress, we must not forget that a wise steward draws from his treasury the old and the new. Indeed, a true perspective of Shroud studies can be visualized only when the background is filled in. A vast literature has accumulated over the years as succeeding generations explained and interpreted the relic in their own terms and expounded upon it within their own realm of knowledge. Never has any object been so effective in drawing all things to itself. Every branch of human learning—science, medicine, history, archaeology, iconography, exegetics; from the modest skill of sewing to the application of interstellar space photography — is mirrored in the Shroud.

Since 1959, every aspect of Shroud study has been presented in SINDON, official journal of the quadricentenarian Royal Confraternity of the Holy Shroud and its affiliate, the International Center of Sindonology in Turin, Italy. Predominantly in Italian and French, these scholarly articles are scarcely known to English-only readers.

Now, by special permission of that prestigious society, SINDON articles will be translated into English and appear in SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL.

Original articles will carry the by-lines of many of the world's most renowned sindonologists as well as other qualified writers recognized in their individual fields. These contributions will impart information that has been acquired in the past and is being acquired as research widens and enriches our present spectrum of knowledge and understanding about this peerless Linen. A linen burial cloth ... stained, in some way as yet unexplained, with the full figure, back and front, of a crucified man. Is there any justification for expending on it so much intellectual effort?

St. Paul was no opponent of serious study: "I want you to know how solicitous I am ... that their hearts be consoled, instructed in love and in all the riches of full intellectual assurance, in the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father, of Christ Jesus; in whom is found hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of science." (Col, ii, 2) Pondering the visible, we become aware of the invisible. Inscribed on the Shroud is a series of human events of inescapable reality; a negative narrative if ever there was one. And suddenly the hidden positive springs forth in a revelation of the awesome Reality of the Total Christ, and with inner vision we see that—yes—Truth has arisen from the earth.

In hope and humility, SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL is dedicated to relaying this many-dimensioned message to all who will receive it. And those who do receive it should not remain strangers to each other. We invite your communications, questions and cooperation in achieving for us all, through the Holy Shroud of Turin, a deeper insight into the inexhaustible riches of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dorothy Crispino,
Editor

Dorothy Crispino,
Editor

SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL
is published by the
Indiana Center for Shroud Studies
R. 3 Box 557
Nashville, Indiana 47448
U.S.A.
Editor: Dorothy Crispino

Cover photo by courtesy of Prof. Giovanni Tamburelli, Centro Studi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., Turin, Italy.

Letter from the Rev. Adam J. Otterbein, C.SS.R., President of the Holy Shroud Guild, Esopus, New York

Dear Mrs. Crispino:

Your proposal for an American sindonological publication brought great joy to my heart. The announcement of the publication of the first issue of SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL is the realization of one of my dreams.

Ever since the foundation of the Holy Shroud Guild in 1951 I have felt the need for some vehicle of communication with our members. Both our BULLETIN and our NEWSLETTER were feeble attempts. Unfortunately SINDON never attained the circulation in America that it deserved, perhaps because most of the articles were written in Italian, French, Spanish or German.

Now with the increased interest in America in the Holy Shroud I hope that SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL will bring to Americans the results of current sindonological studies. The research of American scholars will be more readily available internat ionally and by exchange with SINDON the research of European scholars will be available to Americans. I am sure that you will receive the wholehearted cooperation of the editor of SINDON, the indefatigable Don P. Coero Borga.

My very best wishes!

Sincerely, (signed)
Adam J. Otterbein, C.SS.R.
President

Letter of "Welcome" from Don Piero Coero Borga, secretary of the International Center of Sindonology, Turin, Italy

To the Editors:

A new publication is coming into existence; still unknown, it presents itself to the scrutiny of readers for their judgment. And the readers of a new publication must be left free in their judgment, prompted solely by what that publication offers them.

The International Center of Sindonology in Turin branches to hundreds of cities and nations, with their groups and single individuals intent on the study of the Shroud; eager to learn whatever science and devotion can tell them concerning this inexhaustible and fascinating Shroud.

As secretary of the International Center, I send these few words to SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL to welcome its inclusion in sindonological literature.

It is hardly necessary to say that the International Center of Turin wants to cooperate as actively as possible with the editors of the new journal. So also do our scholars, who have already declared themselves disposed to offer scientific collaboration.

In fact, we consider it of no small benefit that also in the United States—and in general in English-speaking countries, where numerous Shroud associations are already active—another voice should arise. Every organization has its own characteristic and the multiplicity of voices is favorable to a more complete and open presentation of the subject.

It is well that science, with its resources, comes to throw its light upon the Shroud: it is our hope that the sensitivity of the human mind will, in addition, receive that light which emanates from the Shroud itself. In this way, research is not merely an intellectual game but a means to perfect and ennoble man, rendering him a valid witness of a society capable of understanding the value of others—and the supernal significance of an apparent failure.

And this is the wish we extend to all those who receive this new voice now arising in Indiana.

(signed)

Don Piero Coero Borga
Secretary of the International
Center of Sindonology

THE CORONATION OF THORNS
IN THE LIGHT OF THE SHROUD*
SEBASTIANO RODANTE, M.D.

fig. 1) Crown molded onto the forehead. Larger number of thorns in contact with the bone.

In this study we will objectively examine the blood clots on the forehead and the nape of the neck, caused by the crown of thorns, as they appear in the black and white photo of the Holy Shroud; dark blood on the white background (figs. 2 & 3).

In order to better understand the location of the clots and the direction of the blood flows toward right** or left** in respect to the observer, let us imagine the imprinted sheet unfolded (fig. 4). Putting oneself at A, looking toward the head, the blood from the wound in the R side is at C, i.e. at the R of the observer. Therefore on the frontal imprint, everything which we see on our R corresponds to the R of the Crucified, and the direction of the blood flows toward the R or toward the L of the observer corresponds, in effect, to the R or the L of the Crucified.

Putting ourselves at B however, looking toward the feet, the imprint of the R shoulder is at D; i.e. at the L of the observer. Thus the dorsal imprint is laterally reversed.

This being granted, we will study the puncture lesions caused on the head by the crown of thorns.

For many years I have observed the sindonic Face in the life-size photo made by Giuseppe Enrie in 1931. I chose this particular photo in order to have the "real" vision and the precise dimensions of the blood clots produced by a device which was meant to be an instrument of mockery but which, in effect, was one of torture.

It is necessary to differentiate between puncture wounds caused by a thorn which was implanted in a blood vessel of the head and afterwards removed; and a wound from a thorn injuring a vessel and remaining in situ for a certain period of time. In the first case, there is the issue of blood (arterial or venous, according to the type of vessel injured) until, by the coagulative process at the point of the injury (inside the vessel and in its walls, as well as in the injured cutaneous capillaries)—until a clot forms and therefore the bleeding toward the exterior ceases. In a healthy organism, in which the coagulative factors are normal, this process takes place in a few minutes.

*Translated and reprinted from SINDON 24, Oct. 1976 by kind permission of the International Center of Sindonology, Turin, Italy.

**Due to the very frequent use of the words "right" and "left," from here onwards "R" will indicate right, and "L" will indicate left. Ed.

Instead, in the Crucified of the Shroud, the crown of thorns must have remained implanted on the head for a certain period of time, either before the crucifixion or during the hours in which he remained on the cross right up until death. In this case, each thorn remaining in situ blocked the issue of blood onto the skin to some extent, depending on the calibre of the perforated vessel. But the spasms of the forehead muscle, contracting because of the pain provoked by the injurystimulus on the sensitive nerve-endings and making the infixed thorn move, kept the thornwound open. If the injured vessel was a vein, there was a determination of blood in a slow and continuous flow, helped in its course by the movements of the wrinkling forehead. However, the perforation of an artery of a certain calibre (such as the frontal branch of the R superficial temple artery), by its own arterial pulsation caused movement at the point of perforation. Therefore, while arterial pressure and the elasticity of the vessel walls, pulsing in systolic jets, aided the blood to issue around the implanted thorn, the thorn was moved externally by the paincontractions of the forehead muscle.

Directing a glance at the total forehead, we notice that there are clots isolated or in groups, and clots which, following the movement of the head and starting from the point of the wound on the skin, take a downward course in rivulets—perpendicularly or almost so—or diverge toward the R or toward the L (fig. 5). The isolated clots numbered 3, 5, 6—by their slimness—show that they come from wounds in the cutaneous capillaries. Those in a group at numbers 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, in the hair—being of larger dimensions—issued from larger vessels situated between the boney sheath (theca), the muscular tissue and the skin. Finally, the clots which run to R or to L —numbers 1, 4, 7—were produced by wounds in the walls of vessels of large enough calibre to allow the blood to issue in streams, running into an area free of hair (forehead).

I counted these clots, relating each one to a wound, either superficial or deep. Logically, each venous perforation was determined by at least one thorn; but it cannot be excluded that some clots could have been the result of two perforating thorns, contiguous on the thorny wreath. So that on the forehead and in the frontal-temple area, R and L, there are at least thirteen perforations. In fig. 5 one notices three isolated drops: G1, which separates from the epsilon and terminates on the L eyebrow; G2, coming from flow #7, falls toward the R, forming a certain angle (indicating the movement of the head in that direction); G3, at the outside limit of the L eyebrow.

In contrast to the forehead clots, those of the back of the head cannot all be discerned. In fact, it is not possible to detect the rivulets hidden in the thick hair. Mons. Ricci has studied the clots in relation to their directions: "Twelve bloodstreams with various directions start, in fact, from the eight wounds of the nape of the neck."

Completing the count of the clots (fig. 6), I have come to the conclusion that at least twenty thorns were implanted in the occipital region. And since the injuries reach the parietal-occipital area, we can suppose that the crown of thorns was in the form of a cap. These numerical calculations give us the certainty that at least some thirty thorns (thirteen on forehead, twenty in the occipital region) perforated the head in front and back. Since we have no way to study injuries produced in the parietal-temple area (because the sides of the head did not register) we can deduce that at least some fifty thorns tortured the head of the Crucified.

In his study on the Passion and Death of Christ, La Cava writes: "After the scourging, Jesus was crowned with sharp thorns which, binding the head in a painful circle, was then beaten upon with canes ... To understand well the extent of this torture, it is enough to consider that the forehead, temples and, in general, all the scalp, are provided with a rich, sensitive nerve web derived in part from the trigeminal, in part from cervical nerves, whose nervous sensitivity are among the most painful in the human body. Think of the degree of painful sensations produced by dozens and dozens of extremely sharp, directly-stimulating points, lacerating the nerve-endings, not only of the skin, but also of all the layers of soft tissue of the scalp and even the cranial bones; and one will understand, with a certain approximation, the pain of the tragic coronation."

John the Evangelist (18:18) tells us indirectly how the thorny material was right at hand, being used as fuel in those chilly nights (Jerusalem is at 760-790 meters above sea level): "In the meantime, the servants and the guards, having made a bonfire of briars, because it was cold, stood around it to warm themselves." Thus it was easy for the soldiers of the praetorium to obtain the spiney branches and improvise a tangle of sharp thorns to place, as a cruel joke, on the head of the Condemned.

After this look at the overall picture of the wounds produced by the crown of thorns, we will now study the individual bloodclots on the forehead. Much light on their formation and characteristics has been shed by notable authorities (G. Judica-Cordiglia, Caselli, Masera, Barbet, Hynek ... ).

Caselli in particular, during the 1939 National Convention of Holy Shroud Studies, was the first to distinguish arterial blood from venous blood. "Analyzing these injuries, we see on the right temple (at the right of the observer, since the image is reversed as in a mirror) at the roots of the hair, a small puncture wound (fig. 2, A1) from which two rivulets depart, one of which goes downward along the hair toward the shoulder, the other perpendicularly on the forehead toward the eyebrow. The thorn has injured the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery. The characteristic of the blood, in fact, is distinctly arterial."

To Caselli's truly important consideration, we add that the blood starting at the point of insertion of thorn A1, spurts out and arrives lower down, in a rivulet, along the frame of the hair, being impelled by the pulsation of this artery; the surge of blood in its progression inside the vessel, having reached the point of the thorn's insertion, by the elasticity of the walls and by the arterial pressure, rhythmically opens the wound around the thorn, assisting the issue of blood. "Looking instead toward the middle of the forehead," Caselli continues, "a little to the left of the median line (fig. 5, clot 4) we see a brief hemorrhage in the form of a reversed 3; blood that is dense, of homogenous tint, uniform, opaque and very dark. It has distinct characteristics of venous blood, quite different from that of the right temple described above, which—we have seen—is arterial. Here the thorn certainly injured the forehead vein, called by anatomists the `prepared vein;' sometimes single, more often double, as in this case ... The curious aspect of a 3 is due perhaps to the furrowing of the forehead muscle in spasms of pain."

After this surprising anatomical correspondency, it seems to me closer to reality to differentiate the characteristics of venous blood, not so much by density or homogenous uniformity, as put forth by Caselli's serious study, but more by the modality of the coagulation of venous blood ascribed to it so magisterially by Barbet. In fact, in analyzing the epsilon blood clot, Barbet says that it is blood with venous characteristics because it has "a slow and continuous downward flow. And since a few minutes are required before coagulation occurs, only a small part of it clots near the wound. The farther it goes from the wound, the greater is the quantity of blood reaching the coagulation-point, and which, continuing to flow, coagulates in successive layers. Therefore the mass of the clot becomes increasingly thicker and wider as it descends; and that much more so since the blood encountered obstacles."

After this precise description by the French surgeon, as we observe that clot (fig. 5) we do indeed notice how, close to the wound, it is narrower and thinner; while farther from the skin-puncture the clot is thicker and wider (as at the middle, or the elbow of the epsilon) and even more so farther down in the terminal area (knee of the epsilon) to the extent that a drop of blood (G1) falls on the L eyebrow.

In various anatomy atlases, I have carefully observed the position of the frontal vein and the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery (figs. 7 & 9) in respect to the location of the two clots (A1) studied above (fig. 8). The perfect correspondency of the forehead clots imprinted on the sheet, overlaying as they do the vein and the artery in mirror image, gives us the certainty that that linen covered the corpse of a man who, while living, suffered the lesion of these blood vessels.

I said "while living," because it is not possible to demonstrate by crowning a cadaver with thorns. A crown of thorns placed on the head of a corpse would cause not a drop of blood to issue forth, for example, from the scalp; or even if some came, even if one succeeded in injuring the frontal vein above the bifurcation or to perforate the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery, one could not produce a blood clot in the form of an epsilon. We know, in fact, that the,epsilon was determined by the spastic contractions of the forehead muscle as a reaction to the pain provoked by the lesion of the extremely fine, sensitive nerve-endings with which the scalp is richly provided ... A dead man does not react to pain. Nor could one obtain a clot of arterial blood at the temple which would fall far down along the hair, impelled by the pulsation of this "living" artery.

At this point I would like to make a logical consideration; we know that in the course of the centuries, the Shroud disappears from one place to reappear later somewhere else. Periods of absence more or less long which—we must be honest—certainly do not bolster the continuity of historical documentation concerning the passage of ownership of the Shroud. And historians rightly give weight to these serious lacunae.

But of the Shroud which has come down to us and which we are now studying, one thing is certain and cannot be placed in doubt by anyone: that this Shroud is the same one that, in 1534, the Poor Clare nuns of Chambéry, for fifteen days, mended with triangular linen patches over the triangular burns (fig. 10) produced, two years earlier, during the fire in the sacristy of the Chambéry chapel.

Well, the fact that, for long periods in the peregrinations of the Shroud, there were serious historical gaps (begging the historians' pardon!) does not interest me. It does not even interest me to know what happened to the Shroud prior to 1534. I hold instead that it is of extreme importance to have the certainty that the sheet which interests me is that of 1534.

Studying this sheet, I limit myself to an objective examination only of the blood on the forehead, produced by a crown of thorns. And I come to the conclusion, as I said above, that "the perfect correspondence of the forehead bloodclots imprinted on the sheet in mirror image at the vein and the artery being studied, gives us the certainty that that sheet covered the corpse of a man who, while alive, endured the lesion of these blood vessels." So—since the circulation of blood (the difference, i.e., between arterial blood and venous blood) was discovered by Andrea Cesalpino in 1593-60 years after the fire—nobody of that era or anterior to the fire could possibly have had a precise notion of the different modalities of coagulation, on the skin, of arterial blood and venous blood.

This, for me, a medical doctor who seeks to study the bloodstains objectively, is the most important intrinsic detail which constrains me to testify in incontrovertible manner, over and above any existing historical gaps, to the authenticity of the Shroud, a medicolegal document. Regarding the forehead clots, Mons. Ricci had the merit to establish the movements of the head of the Crucified during the whole torture. He followed the observation first made by Barbet who—attentively studying the flow on the L wrist (on the cross the flow had to be perpendicular to the ground, according to the laws of gravity)—said that "this flow divides into two diverging traces, forming an angle of about 10 degrees" (fig. 11). On the basis of this important fact, Ricci reasoned that, to escape asphyxia on the cross, the Crucified must have assumed two positions: of slumping forward and straightening up. Measuring more exactly the angle of the two diverging rivulets of the wrist, he determined the kinetics of crucifixion and—for what applies to this study—the movements of the head, deduced from the angles of some rivulets on the forehead (fig. 12). In fact, the blood flows A1, A2, A3, each start from the points of penetration of a thorn and are compelled in two directions, denoting the movements of the head. "On the cross, the head of That Crucified had to undergo two extremely painful positions: that of slumping, and—to avoid asphyxia—that of straightening up. These positions obligated the head to bend to the right in the straightening up and to remain immobile and forward at the center when the body hung from the arms in the state of slump. Consequently the blood of the three wounds of the crown of thorns remaining open on the forehead when Jesus hung on the cross, signals the two positions of the head, in the vertical flow and the flow toward the right (as is clearly seen on the Shroud)."

In my opinion, it should be specified that flow A3 (fig. 12), diverging to the R in the L temple region, is not formed by a rivulet but by the droplet G2, which fell from the point of perforation, above it, at one of the times when the head leaned toward the R, its axis thereby marking the angle of opening in relation to the inclination of the head. Concerning what Mons. Ricci established, we can therefore be certain that the three rivulets were formed on the cross; produced therefore by the crown of thorns which the Condemned wore on the cross.

May Mons. Ricci amiably permit me to disagree with him when, admitting that the Crucified wore the crown along the Via Dolorosa, he thinks that Jesus did not have it on when he was crucified: "Because of the very few traces on the right of the face, I think that on the cross he must not have worn the crown of thorns."

At the beginning of this study we noted the difference between a puncture wound (thorn) which perforates a vessel and is then removed, and a puncture wound of the same agent remaining for a certain time in situ and which is moved in the place of fixation by the movement of the forehead muscle (and, for the arteries, moved also by pulsation). In the first case (hypothesis of Ricci), there is the issue of arterial or venous blood until, by the coagulative process, the blood ceases to issue through the open wound; a coagulative process which requires some minutes to occur, according to the diameter of the wounding agent which, whatever its size, is always a thorn. However, if we consider the time spent: to remove the tunic from the Condemned (and immediately beforehand, he had to remove the crown of thorns, since the tunic was "without seams"); laid on the ground (to permit the nailing of the wrists to the patibulum); hoisted onto the stipes (so that the patibulum could be inserted); and the feet nailed (so as to be definitely fixed, vertically, to the stipes); one would have to deduce that the hematic flux of the three wounds—already existing when he arrived to Golgotha—must have stopped. So much the more so because the blood inspissation, due to the loss of organic liquids (hematidrosis, flagellation, crown of thorns) as well as the lack of food and drink after the Last Supper, certainly would have accelerated the coagulative process. And the cry of the Crucified, "I thirst;" was it not the imperious need to restore the hydrate equilibrium in the dehydrated organism?

If the three wounds had been produced by the crown "before the crucifixion" (Ricci's hypothesis), as soon as the crown was taken off, the blood—initially fluent—would have determined rivulets confusedly to R and to L on the forehead precisely for those movements of the head which the Condemned would have made while the executioners pulled the tunic over his arms and head.

For the reasons above, it is more probable that the three wounds were produced when the crown of thorns was adjusted on the head of the Crucified, already nailed to the cross; adjusted, perhaps, by the same person who fixed the superscription atop the stipes, once the crucifixion was completed. From that moment, three of the thorns perforated that many vessels; remaining infixed and at the same time being moved inside the mass of the forehead muscle (which contracted as a result of the painful efforts of straightening up), they aided the issue of the bloodstreams on the forehead with the divergent angles to the R, first studied by Ricci. Returning to the origin of these trickles; from the studies of Caselli, cited above, we know that the trickle of the R temple region derives from the forehead branch of the superficial temple artery (fig. 13, flow A1). I have observed at length and for a long time the other two flows, A2 and A3. Having had the Enrie photo printed in natural size in black and white and with a bit more contrast, I was able to better study the characteristics of coagulation (fig. 13). Flow A2 is disturbed by a dark wrinkle of the sheet, which goes from L toward the R. Since the imprint of the two rivulets, one perpendicular, the other diverging to the R, is somewhat pale on the sheet despite the greater contrast achieved in this photo, one cannot establish (from the manner of efflux and coagulation of the trickle) whether it was an artery or a vein that was lesioned.

But one can study quite well the flow A3 (fig. 13) which, with the drop G2, forms the angle diverging to the R. At the origin of the skin injury, one notices a roundish formation C3, dark enough to denote a more homogenous clot around the thorn. The trickle descends perpendicularly downward, slowly and continuously, helped—so to say—by the movement of the thorn in the vessel walls as a result of contractions of the forehead muscle (fig. 14). This rivulet, formed in the slumping position, gradually thickens as it flows away from the wound, so that in the terminal part T (fig. 13) it forms a large roundish drop. The mass of the clot, therefore, is that much thicker and wider the farther it is from the wound. Such behavior then—as also for the epsilon clot—is of venous blood.

I have observed with a certain interest the position of clot A3 and its opposite A1, which is arterial. Dividing the Face in two parts (fig. 14) with a line passing along the ridge of the nose, it is seen that the skin lesion, through which the blood issues from the forehead branch of the superficial temple artery A1, is—in the natural size photo—at 3.6 cm from the median line dividing the Face into two parts. Observing now the position of clot A3, one sees that the skin lesion around the infixed thorn is at 4.3 cm from the upper-external margin of the arch of the L eyebrow and at 4.8 cm from the same median line. This clot, with venous characteristics, is therefore 7 mm higher and 5 mm more inward than its opposite A1, coming from the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery.

Carefully observing fig. 16, we notice that the frontal branches of the artery and the superficial temple vein are close beside each other and, advancing upward, approach the median line. Well, in the L frontal temple area at A3, a thorn injured the frontal branch of the superficial temple vein a little higher—therefore a little closer to the median—than the thorn opposite it which injured the superficial temple artery at A1.

A last look at the forehead, and precisely at the venous clot in form of an epsilon (fig. 18). Here one sees quite well the circular clot C around the thorn which perforates the frontal vein. Since the rivulet has assumed this form not only by the furrowing of the forehead muscle (pain reaction), but especially for the movements of the head to R and to L, one can be certain that it would have been formed before the crucifixion. In fact (fig. 17), the line AB and CD denote a movement of the head toward the L; the line BC a movement toward the R; and even the terminal line DE follows the transverse flow, from L to R, of wrinkle R3.

Using a tube of narrow calibre, I let some citrated blood run for about 5 minutes onto the forehead of a colleague who, keeping his head immobile, wrinkled and relaxed his forehead muscle. The blood fell slowly and perpendicularly, surmounting the obstacles of the moving wrinkles but without forming any elbow or knee.

The epsilon form, then, was not produced solely by the wrinkling of the forehead but especially by movements of the head to R and to L. Thus we have reason to think that this clot was formed in the atrium of the praetorium during the mocking ceremony of coronation; i.e., before the crucifixion.

We read in Mt. 27:29-30; "And braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head ... took a cane and beat on the head." And in Mk 15:17, 19: "And braiding a crown of thorns they put it on him ... and beat on his head with a cane."

The cane-blows on the head were evidently dealt in every direction by soldiers who, excited by the cruel jest, took turns at hitting the king's head for fun; on the top, in front, at right, at left, on the nape of the neck. Only a thorn infixed in the forehead vein—a thorn moving with the repeated blows and the painful furrowing of the forehead—could produce a clot so abundant and so accurate. And as the blows brandished to R and to L induced the "Crowned King" to bend his head to L and to R, the venous blood, running slowly from the open wound, formed the epsilon.

A detail: the drop of blood G1 (fig. 18) fell from the terminal part of the epsilon (the knee) upon the L eyebrow as if it had been jerked from such a distal place by an abrupt movement of the head (a slap or a push). In fact, the knee G of the epsilon lacks a part of its rotundity, as can be observed in fig. 18, greatly enlarged. "And the soldiers, braiding a crown of thorns, put it on his head ... and slapped him" (John 19:2, 3). Also the other lesions visible on the forehead which, in fig. 5, we have indicated with numbers 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, could have been determined by blows on the spiney wreath. Numbers 3, 5, and 6 show evidence of small clots, the small capillary vessels having been injured; while numbers 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are larger clots (coming from wounds of arteries and veins of a certain calibre) detected amidst the hair. Because of the presence of the hair, the issue of blood from the respective vessels could not give the characteristic flows which, on the free zone of the forehead, permitted us to differentiate arterial blood from venous blood.

The paucity of clots on the forehead in respect to the abundant bloodflow on the nape induced me to study more attentively a head crowned with thorns. Using common briars which grow in the Mediterranean climate of Siracuse, I entwined at random five thorn branches, arranging a rudimental crown. I put it on a skull, trying to make it adhere as much as possible to the cranial bone (fig. 19). I was able to determine that, on the forehead, only seven thorns were in contact with the bone, while another seven remained raised above, although directed toward the bone. Calculating, then, the whole cranial circumference, there were about thirty thorns infixed while just as many—due to the flexibility of the wreath—did not touch the skull (fig. 20).

Then I tried to arrange four flexible branches on the forehead of the skull, each one parallel above the other and clinging well to the bone by being tied with rubber bands at each end. Stretched and settled against the bones of the cranial base, these bands held the branches firm (figs. 1 & 20). Only if a casque were made to measure and patiently modeled, could so many wounds have been produced, at least on the forehead.

But in the atrium of the Antonia fortress, the soldiers—finding themselves for the first time in their careers before a malefactor who dared to proclaim himself a king—impatient to give vent to their glee, must surely have improvised a crown by twining it at random and very hurriedly. The observation springs spontaneously that the blows of the cane must have injured also the blood vessels on the sides of the head; but since on the Shroud the sides are not printed, it is not possible to take any of them into consideration. However, the clots of the nape (fig. 3) do fall under our observation; some of which were formed as a result of the blows in the praetorium but most of all, by the repeated falls on the way to Calvary.

Observing the L knee on the frontal imprint of the Shroud, one notices an excoriation surely due to falls on a stoney, uneven terrain. One may be permitted, then, to think that during the staggering and—above all—the falls, the patibulum struck against the occipital region, driving in the thorns even more deeply. And since the depth of the puncture wounds is related to the traumatic blow, vessels farther beneath the surface would also have been injured.

Thus, for these blows—continuous during the staggering course (between two wings of a ferocious crowd) and specifically at times of the falls, certainly there would have been an abundant issue of blood in the hair. But the atrocity of such traumatic blows was caused, we repeat, by the lacerations of the nerve-ends of the cervical region and even more by the thorns driven against the occipital bone.

The blood clots of the nape (fig. 3) have been studied quite well before now by G. Judica- Cordiglia and G. CaseIli, who differentiate their arterial or venous origin in relation to the density as imprinted on the Shroud. We will not linger upon these characteristics because the present study proposes to consider the difference between arterial blood and venous blood solely from the differing coagulation processes of the two types of bleeding on the skin. And this is only possible on the forehead, free of hair. By the abundance of clots on the nape, however, we are certain that the Crucified wore the crown of thorns along the way to the place of torture. Had the crown not been worn, the patibulum, striking forcibly on the occipital region during the falls, would have caused a dark formless impasto and an amorphous mass of clots. Instead, the crown, acting as insulation between the nape and the patibulum, allowed the clots to remain so clear and clean that they can be counted.

So we have to suppose that—because of the traumatic blow striking forcibly on the nape of the neck and the natural flexibility of the wreath—during the falls, all the thorns were pushed forward, moving away from the forehead teguments; while the thorns infixed in the temple regions, vigorously pushed forward, produced cutaneous lacerations, stimulating the relative nerve-endings. One more time, we repeat that the epsilon flow on the forehead was more likely formed in the praetorium when the crown was steady on the head rather than along the way to Calvary when, because of the falls, the thorns moved away from the frontal region. My supposition has been strengthened by a subsequent coronation of the skull. After having fixed a band of foam rubber 4 cm wide and 5 mm thick on the whole cranial circumference (to simulate the soft parts of the head), I set a crown of thorns upon it. As I exerted pressure on the occipital region, the frontal thorns moved away from the bone while those infixed laterally tended to lacerate the foam rubber.

We have reached therefore the end of this work; in the light of evidence which every observer can see on the Face and head of the Man of the Shroud. We have striven to present a study of the objective examination of the clots, differentiating, wherever possible, the arterial and venous characteristics solely by their modality of coagulation on the skin. This distinction, together with the position and direction of the flows and the number of the wounds, has brought us, indirect ly, to relive the man's torment. May we submit ourselves, in love, to such atrocious outrage.

My own conclusions from the coronation of thorns on a skull may perhaps not be shared by other, more attentive, scholars; who might deduce different and more acceptable arguments. If nothing else, the present study will have served to bring into consideration this important aspect of the Passion of Christ; testimony of his grave sufferings during all that time from Pilate's praetorium to the Cross.

RODANTE REFERS TO:

G. RICCI: "L'Uomo della Sindone pati sotto Ponzio Pilato?", Porziuncola, Assisi, 1960;
"L'Uomo della Sindone e Gesù," Studium, Rome, 1969
FRANCESCO LA CAVA: "La Passione e la morte di N.S. Gesù Cristo illustrata dalla scienza medica," D'Auria, Naples, 1953
GIUSEPPE CASELLI: "Le constatazioni della medicina moderna sulle impronte della S. Sindone," La S. Sindone nelle ricerche moderne, Lice, Turin, 1950
PIERRE BARBET: "La Passione de Cristo secondo it chirurgo," Lice, Padua, 1965; "Le cinque piaghe di Cristo," S.E.I. Turin, 1940 (for English versions, see below)
G. JUDICA-CORDIGLIA: "La Sindone," Lice, Padua, 1961

FURTHER STUDIES ON THIS SUBJECT: Dr. Rodante's Report to the Second International Congress of Sindonology, Turin, 1978: "The Shroud: Witness of the True Death of Christ." Published in LA SINDONE E LA SCIENZA, Turin, 1979.

PIERRE BARBET: "Proof of the Authenticity of the Shroud in the Bloodstains;" 1950. In SINDON 14- 15, Dec, 1970, p. 31 ff. "A large skull-cap ...held on by a band of entwined rushes, circling the nape and the forehead. This bandeau is ... at Notre Dame of Paris; St. Louis had constructed the Sainte Chapelle for the relic ...The flow of blood from thorn punctures was arrested by this bandeau; then, passing over it, the blood ran down into the hair. For three hours, the head, leaning backwards, struck against the patibulum and the thorns were thus driven further into the scalp."

Also: PIERRE BARBET, "A Doctor At Calvary;" Doubleday Image Book, 1963, p. 93; or, "La Passion de Jesus-Christ selon le chirurgien;" Editions Paulines, Sherbrooke, Canada, 1965, pp. 126-130.

PAUL DE GAIL, S.J.: "Le Visage de Jesus-Christ et Son Linceul;" France-Empire, 1972, p. 212 ff., note B, Annex: "It is certain, particularly since He was dressed again in his own garments [in the praetorium that Jesus did not wear the crown of thorns on the way to Calvary, nor on the cross."

ANTOINE LEGRAND: "Le Linceul de Turin;" Desclée de Brouwer, 1980, pp. 118-126: Author observes that the soldiers would not have risked pricking their fingers by braiding the thorny branches, suggesting that the reeds served as a support for the thorns. He cites Josephus' account of the burial of Herod, whose corpse was crowned with a diadem, over which was placed his crown. A. believes that the abundance of sweat on Jesus' forehead caused the deviations in the epsilon bloodflow, and that the line of the reed diadem can be reconstructed, from left to right across the forehead, through the epsilon. He points out how one blood-drop shows a crater; at first a blood drop is convex, then forms a depression in the center, while the edges retain a certain relief. "A painter would never have dreamed of reproducing such minutiae." The flows at the nape originate high up on the head, where they cannot be seen because of the hair; while the reeds, binding the hair to the nape, arrested the flows at that level. Legrand also observes that the bloodflows at the back of the head reveal a detail which is not found on any other part of the body; i.e., the blood is speckled with tiny clear spots, as if the blood had slipped off these areas as it could have slipped off some oily substance. He supposes that the oily substance derives from the unguent with which Jesus was anointed at Bethany. (Mc 14:3)

fig. 2) The face with bloodclots on forehead. The arterial flow A1 falls down along the hair.

fig. 3) Clots on the back of the head.

fig. 4) Positions of the imprint and blood spots on the sheet in relation to an observer and the position of the body.18

fig. 5) Number of forehead clots in reduced size.

fig. 6) Number of clots observable on the back.

fig. 7) Position of the frontal vein which branches at B. A thorn has wounded the vein above the bifurcation at V.19

fig. 8) Position of the frontal vein V and the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery A1on the forehead. The venous clot V in the form of an epsilon lies to the left of the medianline. The frontal vein was perforated above the bifurcation.

fig. 9) Position of the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery wounded by a thorn at A1.

fig. 10)The Shroud with the triangular patches ab, cd, ef, gh, sewn on by the Poor Clare nuns.20

fig. 11)Clot on the wrist, formed on the cross. The two diverging flows denote the positions of slumping and straightening up.

fig. 12)Three flows A1, A2, A3, indicate the movements of the head falling forward (slumping position) and toward the right (straightening up).

fig. 13)In A3 can be seen the circular zone of the clot around thorn C3 and the venous blood which, falling slowly, becomes larger, forming the roundish terminal drop T.21

fig. 14)R1, R2, R3: wrinkles made by contraction of the forehead muscle. VT: frontal branch of the superficial temple vein. AT: frontal branch of the superficial temple artery.

fig. 15)Photo in reduced size. Position of perforations in the frontal branch of the artery (A1) and the superficial temple vein (A3). The point of lesion A3 of the vein lies higher and closer to the median line than its opposite, A1, of the artery.22

fig. 16)In the right hemisphere a thorn injured the frontal branch of the superficial temple artery at A1. In the left hemisphere a thorn injured the frontal branch of the superficial temple vein, which runs upwards and medially, at A3. This point (cfr. fig. 14) lies higher and closer to the median line than the arterial wound A1.

fig. 17)By the movements of the head toward the left (AB and CD) and toward the right (BC andDE), the three forehead wrinkles R1, R2, R3 aided in the formation of the epsilon flow.23

fig. 18) C: circular clot very precise around the infixed thorn. G: knee of the epsilon lacks its natural roundness. C1: drop of blood fallen from the knee because of a brusque movement of the head (slap or push). This drop seems to have been "torn" from the knee.

fig. 19)Crown of thorns on a human skull. Only seven thorns are in contact with the bone; seven others point toward it.24

Fig. 20) Same experiment as in fig. 19, seen from above. P: parietal bone. Thorns in contact with the forehead bone are few.

Fig. 21) Detail of fig. 1 on page four. F: forehead bone. P: parietal bone.

CARBON DATING AND THE HOLY SHROUD
REV. CHARLES FOLEY

When the exposition of the Holy Shroud was held in Turin in 1978, the feasibility of carbon dating was again broached. At that time, the Turin Authorities (scientists of European reputation) refused to permit this experimental dating method. Now, three years later, science has itself rejected the Libby test, and for clarity it can be said that not a single laboratory exists which can carbon date the Shroud with accuracy.

To substantiate those statements: Natural carbon is the result of interaction of cosmic-ray neutrons with nitrogen atoms in the upper atmosphere. Small amounts of carbon 14 are produced which rapidly oxidize and disperse into the atmosphere. Plants take up the carbon dioxide in photo-synthesis, together with a very minute quantity of radioactive carbon 14, and as this passes up the food chain, all living organisms take it in. With death, the carbon begins to decay; the longer the organism is dead, the less carbon remains. Measure the amount of carbon 14 using the known rate at which the isotope decays, and you have the age of the specimen.

That is the theory. The facts are different. First, the concentration of carbon 14 is very low (only one atom of carbon 14 for every million million of carbon 12 living tissue). Secondly, the decay rate of carbon 14 is a low energy process difficult to detect or monitor with accuracy. Then also the further difficulties of "calibrations" which are applied to offset the natural fluctuations of carbon 14 production in the atmosphere, the half-life "best figure" etc. Even the scale of the calibrations (by checking the tree rings of very ancient trees) differs slightly depending on the sample wood.

More formidable unreliability arises from the fact that the sun does not radiate energy as uniformly as was once thought. On the contrary, solar flares display the explosive force and release of high energy radiation and particles. Sunspots show the same variability in waxing and waning in eight and fifteen random cycles of years. Dr. W. Maunder of the Royal Greenwich Observatory has drawn attention to the almost total absence of sunspots from 1645 to 1715, and the consequent violent see-sawing of carbon 14 production in the earth's atmosphere. Further investigations have proved that there have been at least five long-term periods, each of the order of 100-200 years with similar characteristics. In 1976, Dr. Eddy of the American Atmospheric Research Centre pinpointed twelve major variations in sunspot activity during the past 5,000 years, including a sunspot MAXIMUM period which began at about the time of Our Lord's birth. It is now known that the solar magnetic fields which cause the fluctuations reverse their polarity from cycle to cycle, each cycle being remarkably irregular. If to that we add that the magnetic field of our earth from time to time goes into reverse, at one time attracting and another repelling the incoming particles, it must surely follow that little trust can be placed in results claimed for the carbon 14 dating process.

Not only is the sun NOT the immutable "time-clock" it was thought to be, not only is the carbon 14 production so variable, but it is inherent in the nature of radioactivity that its decay is of a random nature! Nor do the difficulties stop there. Individual counters may have different ranges in dating: the traces of radio-activity in the materials and surroundings (e.g. in the 4-foot concrete shield for the cyclotron) etc. all have an effect on the result of the process. The Berkeley laboratory (foremost in the field of carbon 14 experiments) has refused to date a 13th-century fabric giving as its reason that once a cyclotron has been used for its dedicated purpose of atomic experiment, the chamber can never be free of atomic detritus, and false results must follow. Then too the Shroud itself will have accumulated layers of carbon 14 during the centuries of public exposition, as well as the present era. Today's level of atmospheric carbon 14 is 37% above the natural level; in 1963 it was 90% above normal in the northern hemisphere!

These then are some of the reasons why the Turin Authorities did not consider the carbon 14 analysis to be sensitive enough (only one in every ten thousand atoms of carbon 14 input are recorded) or accurate enough for the task of dating the linen.

In the same year of 1978, two important decisions were made: A. Seventeen threads and two small pieces of the linen which were removed for scientific examination in 1973 were not replaced in the sealed safe with the Shroud, but were kept in the Chapel Sacristy until either the carbon process can be improved, or some other and more scientifically precise method has been discovered. These pieces can then be used for such dating method.

B. Certain conditions were laid down for any future dating. They are that two laboratories would be involved, each using identical equipment and to each would be given three sample threads, equal in length and weight. Each thread would be identified by number only, the key being known to one person only, in Turin, until the tests were finished. One thread would be from an ancient linen of known date; the second from a modern fabric; the third from the Holy Shroud. No laboratories have accepted the challenge as yet.

Finally, one of the most fundamental problems in the techniques established in the carbon 14 dating process over the past thirty or so years lies in the measurement over a period of time of the number of carbon 14 decay events in the sample being dated. This means that only those atoms which fortuitously decay during the days or weeks of the monitoring are actually detected. The bulk of the carbon 14 present in the sample remains uncounted. To overcome this, it has been established in principle that it is possible to use a particle accelerator to measure, by mass spectrometry, the proportion of carbon 14 atoms present in a small but uncontaminated sample without waiting for the decay to declare itself. In September 1979, the British Science Research Council made a grant of £425,000 to construct at Oxford, under the aegis of Dr. E. Hall, a dedicated isotope beam facility, which should start up in the autumn of this year, 1981. A similar accelerator is being prepared for the geoscience laboratory in Arizona and it also is due to start up in the autumn.

It remains to be seen whether the problems which are inherent in the new procedures can be overcome, and whether the many difficulties outlined above can be surmounted.

WHY DID GEOFFROY DE CHARNY CHANGE HIS MIND?
DOROTHY CRISPINO

Crusaders, Templars, knights and knaves have been stalked by sleuths intent on identifying the man who carried the Holy Shroud away from Constantinople in 1204 and—presumably but not necessarily—took it to France. Some investigators have even alleged that the deed was done by Geoffroy de Charny, forgetting that he was not born until the next century. But no crusader, Templar, knight or knave left fingerprints on Exhibit A; so in default of evidence the case, for the moment, hangs suspended. We can confidently eliminate those who took part in the Fourth Crusade: the Shroud is still listed in Constantinople's inventory of treasures as late as 1247.

In his monumental opus "Ricerche Storiche sulla Santa Sindone"[1], Mons. Pietro Savio examines documents which almost certainly point to that crucially important moment in which Geoffroy de Charny receives the Holy Shroud. Other sindonologists —notably Luigi Fossati, S.D.B.,[2] — have added evidence from the same period, and the search goes on.

Andre Perret[3] remarks that the military career of Geoffroy carried him to too many places for us to determine, in the present state of our knowledge, where the relic came into his possession. From 1337, when he first distinguished himself in a battle in Guyenne, until his death at Poitiers in 1356, Geoffroy was constantly crisscrossing France from Flanders to Vannes on the Atlantic, from Picardy and Normandy to Anjou. Twice he was outside France: in 1345 he joined the Dauphin Humbert II on the Smyrna crusade and some authors have suggested that it was there the Shroud came into his hands. Undoubtedly he sailed; only first-hand experience could have dictated his descriptions, in his long poem, of the perils of the sea. But the problem of his participation in the Smyrna campaign has not yet been fully investigated; and since the documents we are about to consider in this essay pertain to a later period, the Smyrna question is chronologically not relevant.

The gallant soldier decidedly did not volunteer for his second departure from France. In 1350, villainously betrayed and after a furious battle at Calais, he was taken to London as Edward III's prisoner-of-war.

Not until 20 December 1350 did the English king give safe-conduct to a servant and two valets of Geoffroy to go to France to raise money for his release. In the meantime, Philip VI had died (1350) and on 31 July 1351 his son and successor, John II, paid the enormous ransom—a resounding 12,000 gold scudis. Geoffroy, however, had been allowed to return to France beforehand, for on 28 June 1351, John II appointed him Bearer of the sacred Oriflamme of St. Denis. In that same month, Geoffroy renewed his efforts to take Calais, attacking at Ardres.

In October of 1351, there were other combats in the Calais area. On 6 January 1352, at the ceremony inaugurating King John's new Order, Geoffroy was one of the first to be created Knight of the Star. Then, in February, he went to St. Omer as captain-general of the army, invested with all the authority of the king himself. At this time, he was counsellor to John II, as he had been to Philip VI from 1348 until Philip's death. The seigneur of three modest domains had risen to be one of the foremost figures in France.

Fighting the English again in June and September of 1352; in 1353, Picardy; 1354, Normandy; and after the battle of Breteuil in July of 1356, John II rewarded him with two houses in Paris.

He had precious little time to enjoy them; on 19 September 1356, at the disaster of Poitiers, Geoffroy de Charny was killed, holding aloft the Oriflamme until he fell. Charles V gave him a hero's funeral at the church of the Celestins in Paris.

That the preux chevalier did receive the Shroud in connection with a battle seems implied in the statement of his granddaughter, Marguerite de Charny, who claimed that the Shroud was "conquered" by the late messire de Charny.[4] A slightly different account was recorded in a Bull of Clement VII (1390) in which Geoffroy II attests that the Shroud was given to his father sibi liberaliter oblatam; freely or generously presented to him.

But Geoffroy himself, according to Mons. Savio's demonstration, may have circumscribed the time-frame in which the transfer took place.

Geoffroy de Charny was the second son and third child of Jean de Charny and great-grandson of Ponce de Mont-Saint-Jean, who founded the Charny branch in the XIIIth century. Geoffroy's elder brother Dreux became sire of Charny. Geoffroy inherited the property which had been his mother's dowry, consisting of the lands and tiny hamlet of Lirey,5 nearly a hundred miles away.

Tucked in a joyous dip of undulating Champagne in the diocese of Troyes, parish of St. Jean Bonneval, the Lirey fief provided very little revenue. At the end of the XIIIth century, there were fifty hearths; today the total population is less than sixty souls. To take up residence there, Geoffroy had to build himself a castle; of which nothing now remains but the stump of a tower buried in brambles and weeds.

And the village had no church.

Early in 1343, Geoffroy appealed to King Philip VI for revenues, land or other, which would accrue to 140 livres annually; as it was his desire to found a chapel with five chaplains, so that he and his family might hear Mass and benefit from the good works of the clergy. In an Act of June 1343, Philip donates to his amé et féal Geoffroy de Charny chevalier 140 livres of land, tax exempt, for financing the project.

These documents, dated seven years before Geoffroy's captivity, refute the romantic legend that the "perfect knight" was miraculously freed from prison after making a vow to the Virgin to build a church in her honor.

A document in the Lirey archives, dated 3 January 1349, confirms Philip's donation. Geoffroy himself contributed his inheritance from an aunt (undated).

Three months later, in a petition to Clement VI dated 16 April 1349,[5] Geoffroy announced to the Pope that he has constructed a chapel dedicated to Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation and therein established five canons, each to receive a stipend of 30 livres. He requests that the church be raised to a collegiate. In the petition dated 26 April 1349,6 he requests an indulgence of 100 days for all who, in devotion and penitence, visit the church on the feasts of the Virgin; that the church have its own cemetery beside it for the canons, chaplains and whosoever desires. As for the disposition of his own remains, he desires that, after the dissolution of his body, his bones be divided and buried in diverse places.

Item eidem supplicanti concedere dignemini, ut post dissolutionem corporis sui, quod idem corpus possit dividi et diversis locis sepeliri, prout duxerit ordinandem, et alias ut in forma.

All these requests were granted; but Item 1, concerning the collegiate status, was not accomplished because Geoffroy left again for Calais where, in the night between 31 December 1349 and 1 January 1350, he was taken prisoner.

There is some perplexity about Geoffroy's statement of 16 April 1349 that a church had been built:

Significat Sanctitati vestre devotus filius vester Joffridus de Charny miles dominus de Lirey Trecensis diocesis, quod ipse in villa de Lirey infra limites parrocchie Sancti Johannis de Bonnevauls eiusdem diocesis de bonis sibi a Deo collatis quandam ecclesiam in honore beate Virginis Marie et precipue Annunciationis Jhesu Christi fecit construi...

It is inconceivable that Geoffroy would have announced to the Pope (in 1349) that he had built a church if he had in fact not done so. Yet, according to the extant Act of Foundation,[6] construction was begun on 20 February 1353 and completed on 20 June 1353. Remarkably short time to build a church.[7]

And further surprises follow: on 30 January 1354, addressing himself to Innocent VI, who had succeeded Clement, Geoffroy renews his request to raise the church to a collegiate. This time, he asks that an indulgence of 1 year 40 days be granted to those who visit the church on the four principal feasts of the Virgin. Geoffroy requests that ius patronatus be accorded to him and his successors. He repeats his petition for a cemetery, but with an arresting modification: he begs permission for himself and his successors to be buried in the cemetery beside the church.[8] Geoffroy has changed his mind.

Item quod eisdem ...decano et capitulo concedere dignemini, ut cymiterium iuxta ipsam eccleseam habere valeant consecratum et in quod in eodem cimiterio ipsum dominum et successores suos dominos de Lireyo … sepeliri possint.

This petition is followed on 3 August of the same year by another which repeats Geoffroy's request to be buried in the cemetery beside the church, and asks the indulgence of 1 year 40 days for all who visit on Christmas, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost.

Furthermore, according to the Act of Foundation, the church is erected in honor of the Holy Trinity, dedicated to the Virgin of the Annunciation. It has six canons, one of whom is to be elected dean, and three clerics. Every day at Matins there was to be a Low Mass of the Virgin and, at 9 o'clock, a High Mass to invoke God's protection on the founder. And the Chapter's income was increased, as we learn from an Act dated 1 October 1353, in which John II concedes another 62 livres of revenue.[9]

Thus, the rural chapel dedicated to the Virgin—typical of countless thousands which dotted medieval Europe—appears to have grown to major dimensions. In fact, Geoffroy's foundation in a country village of fifty hearths became a center of pilgrimage for people "from all over the world,"[10] where indulgences were to be gained—not only on the feasts of the Virgin, but also on those holy days commemorating the great events of Redemption.

Is this the interval in which Geoffroy obtained the Shroud? Comparing the two petitions:

1349

1) 100 days indulgence on feasts of the Virgin
2) Geoffroy wants his bones to be distributed and buried in diverse places.
3) A church is built
4) Five canons established there
5) Stipends of 30 lvrs.

1353

1) 1 year 40 days indulgence on feasts of Virgin, and 1 year 40 days indulgence on feasts of Christ
2) Geoffroy and his heirs to be buried in the cemetery beside the church
3) Act of Foundation
4) There are six chaplains, three clerics
5) Their income is increased by 60 lvrs.

Several documents leave no doubt that the Shroud was publicly exposed for veneration in the Lirey church before Geoffroy died. The above-mentioned Bull of Clement VII dated 6 January 1390 (almost identical to another from that pontiff in 1389) records that Geoffroy de Charny placed the Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the church of Lirey. A document of 6 February 1464 states that Geoffroy de Charny placed in the church, along with other relics, "the Holy Shroud bearing the effigy of Our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ."

And two mute survivors from Geoffroy's own time signify the same;

1, Henry of Poitiers, Bishop of Troyes, on 28 May 1356, sent Geoffroy a letter of praise and approval.

2, In 1855—the year Secondo Pia was born—a souvenir medallion representing the Shroud and the arms of Charny and Vergy (Geoffroy's wife) was found in the Seine at the Pont-au-Change.

The relic could not have been publicly exposed without papal permission. Geoffroy would had to have sent a report and a petition to the Pope. This document has not yet been found; but as Prof. Francesco Cognasso observed in his address to the Turin Congress of Shroud Studies in 1939,[11] the "documents pertaining to the installation of the Shroud in St. Mary of the Annunciation certainly exist."

At this Congress, Prof. Cognasso expressed his opinion that there were two possible periods in which the Shroud was placed in the church: either in 1349, or between 1351 and 1356, year of Geoffroy's death. At the 1950 Congress in Rome, Mons. Joseph Roserat de Melin, vicar-general, diocese of Troyes, was more definite: "Between 20 June 1353 and 19 September 1356, the collegiate church of Lirey receives a Shroud which is presented to the faithful as that which covered the Body of Our Lord ..."

It seems reasonably certain that the evidence so far accumulated applies to the time-frame in which the Shroud was placed in the Lirey church. Knowing Geoffroy's religious character,[12] we can be morally certain that he would have provided a "decent and venerable"[13] setting for it as soon as possible after it came into his hands. It would seem to me that he obtained the Shroud surely after 1349, and not long before February 1353; that the Act of Foundation refers to an enlargement or embellishment of a church already existing since 1349; and that Geoffroy was exposing the relic prior to the congratulatory letter from Henry of Poitiers.

Medallion found in the Seine in 1855.

NOTES:

1. MONS. PIETRO SAVIO: "Ricerche Storiche sulla Santa Sindone," Societa Editrice Internazionale, Italy, 1957.

2. LUIGI FOSSATI, S.D.B.: "La Santa Sindone; Nuove Luce su Antichi Documenti," Borla, Turin, 1961.

3. ANDRE PERRET: "Essai sur l'histoire du Saint Suaire du XIVe au XVIe siècle." in Mémoirs de l'Academie des Sciences Belles-Lettres et Arts de Savoie, 1960.

4. Fossati's amputated quotation, "Conquis par feu" gives the impression that the Shroud had been taken in the fire of battle. The complete phrase, given by Perret, reads that the Shroud "Fut conquis par feu messire Geoffroy de Charny;" 'feu' in French have the two meaning of 'fire' and late, lately deceased.'

5. Charny is located in the Cote-d'Or; Lirey is in the Aube.

6. Savio explains that Vatican recorders affixed the date of the Pope's Fiat to the documents they copied, without mentioning the date of the petition which preceded.

7. Is it possible that the 1353 records refer to an addition or enlargement of a building of 1349? Whatever happened, the church, erected inside the castle moat, was built of wood—a fact which would have serious repercussions a century later. The chapel which stands today is the third erected on the same site. Built in 1897 of stone and brick, it serves only for weddings and baptisms. Otherwise parishioners go 1¼ miles to St. Jean Bonneval, as they did before Geoffroy built St. Mary in the 14th century.

8. Savio adds, "ai piedi della Sindone," at the feet of the Shroud.

9. This information was found by Fossati in the Archives of the Department of the Aube. Savio, relying on Père Anselme, gives the date as July 1356, and the amount as 60 livres.

10. Memo of Pierre d'Arcis, Bishop of Troyes; undated but shortly after 6 January 1390.

11. LA SANTA SINDONE NELLE RICERCHE MODERNE; Atti dei Convegni di Studio: Torino 1939; Roma e Torino, 1950. Riedizione anastatica per cura di Pietro Scotti, S.D.B., Marietti, Alessandria, Italy.

12. Abundantly attested by documents, chronicles and Geoffroy's own poetry.

13. Bull of Clement VII, 1390.

ALSO CONSULTED:
AUGUSTE ET EMILE MOLINIER: Paris 1968, "Chronique Normande du XIVe siecle.
FROISSART : "Chroniques."
AUGUSTE LONGNON: "Documents Relatifs au Comté de Champagne et de Brie 1172-1361."
COURTEPEE: "Description du Duché de Bourgone" Editions F.E.R.M., Paris, 1968.

Notes taken by Author sur place at Lirey, Charny, Mt. St. Jean, etc.

A MEDITATION ON THE HOLY FACE
PAUL DE GAIL, S.J.

"Show us your Face, Lord, and we will be saved" (Psa. 79:4). And now by the prestigious mystery of your Holy Shroud, revealed to us of the twentieth century, this Face upon which all the eyes in heaven plunge with adoration, this Face which the prophets and the kings of the Old Testament yearned to know, this Divine Face is there for us, before our marveling eyes, which never tire to contemplate its beauty.

A Face astounding in spiritual richness and simple majesty. A Face full of Light, where shimmers an ocean of thoughts vast as the world. A face lambent with absolute Truth! And at the same time, a Face of the Tenderness of that Eternal Love which draws near to seduce his ignoring or sinful creatures.

No one—if he looks with deference upon this admirable Face—no one can hide himself from the Light of God. With your eyes closed, Lord, You know us in our inner depths, as only the Creator knows what is in man.

And there we recognize You easily, for God is present everywhere; and it is by this prodigious "presence" that your features speak to us. They tell us of your powerfully reflective mind, which effortlessly knows everything in the entire universe.

You are there, silent, You who see us through your lowered eyelids. And when we fear, from the Almighty, a severe or judging word, we receive deep in our hearts the realisation of a Goodness without measure and without bounds.

You reproach us nothing. Neither the sordid sins, nor the long ingratitude of those who do not believe, nor the impious thoughts of those who find badly made this world of injustice, egoism and violence.

But who has made this world? Is it not sinning man, man guilty, before You, of an initial refusal, of a deadly deceit toward the Paternal Love?

You are the Creator: to man, made in your image, You gave liberty and You are the first to respect it. In the path of divine destiny which You assigned to him, man himself may choose: for or against. He says to You YES or he says to You NO; he loves or he rejects; he believes or he turns back into his piteous darkness.

That is why You come.

You, Absolute Being, Supreme Truth, Author of all justice, You come to us, touch-to-touch; You range yourself beside us in Your work. Of a Virgin loved and prepared since always, You request a Body. And You show men what real Love is, in submitting Yourself to men's villainies, their lies and injustices, their betrayals and their cruelties ...

You the Eternal Beauty, You the Infinite Love, the perfect Innocence, You accept the Cross as if it were your due. You suffer death, the legitimate punishment announced by the Father to creatures enamored of the forbidden fruit. You the Word of God, You make yourself Victim of all the human race in the sight of your Father who thus again becomes Father of mankind.

It is this which is revealed in your Face, tired with suffering, and your tortured Body furrowed with bleeding wounds, as presented to us on your Holy Shroud.

To invent all that, yes, it had to be at least God, and to accomplish it—how much more so ... It is for this that we believe.

Ah, do not permit that this unheard-of superabundance of pains and divine courage be useless to those whom You have loved to such lengths.

By your tortures and by your patience, oh Jesus, God of Love, we beg You, yes, have pity on us. Come near to us in spite of our incomprehension and our little faith, in spite of that hardness of our hearts toward You, and the stiffness of our necks. Come, You who are Love, love us in the dark realm of error into which the first father plunged us. May the Light of your Divine Being and your Tenderness chase away the shadows where Satan binds us.

May the excess of your pains and spilled Blood compensate the disorders of a pleasure-seeking immoralism living for itself and not for God, which saps our growth to holiness.

May your adorable Patience under the barbarous treatment of the leaded lashes, the thorns and the nails of the Cross, procure for us the Pity, the Pardon, the Divine Mercy for these sins which human egoism demands as its right. May your Patience win pardon for our ridiculous self-sufficiency, when our petty reason raises up its poor lucubrations against the faith and the filial confidence which God so well deserves.

May the plentitude of Life, of Truth and of Love, radiant in your features, melt into repentance our hearts bent upon the earth and worldly values, to open them to that Divine Life which You have come to give us and which is infused in us through your Sacraments. For "You have come that we might have Life, and Life increasingly abundant." (John 10:10)

Render to us that which we have lost, our authentic destiny, which permits us to enter, through You and with You, into the ineffable intimacy of the Three Persons. Prepare us to contemplate in heaven your Face and your Mysteries, for our eternal joy; with Mary, the angels and the saints.

For You are the Savior whom alone we need. 'Without me," You said, "you can do nothing." (John 15:15) No one can disregard You except to lose himself far from heaven and from all hope, in the endless and irremediable misery of offered happiness refused. Thank You, Lord; You give us hope. In Your Face we can touch, with our fingers, the reality of Redemption, and we hear anew your divine words, full of Love and Mercy: "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life." (John 14:6)

QUESTION CORNER

Q. I read somewhere that the name "Veronica" derives from an inversion of the letters of vera icon. Is that true?

A. Dispense me from repeating those two words together, for together they are a barbarism which no ancient could have perpetrated. Vera indeed is a Latin word; icon is Greek. The correct etymology will be found in Webster:

veronica [LL., fr. Gr. Beroniki, Bereniki, dial. form (Macedonian) for Gr. phereniki, lit., carrying off victory, victorious.]

Byzantine icons of the Holy Face were called acheiropoietos, "not made with hands." The Church of S. Silvestro in Capite, Rome, possessed a representation (see cut below) called Vera Effigies; some copies were known as Vera Immagine. The famous Veronica Veil was conserved in the Vatican from 1292 until it perished in 1527. The legend of a woman named Veronica (Phereniki, or Berenice), who wiped Christ's bloody face as He walked to Calvary, did not appear until the late Middle Ages, and was not inserted in the Way of the Cross until the 18th century.

A discussion of the Veronica Veil-mandylion-sudarium will appear in a proximate issue of SHROUD SPECTRUM INTERNATIONAL.

"True Effigy of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, reverently honored in the Basilica of St. Peter's in Vatican, Rome."

NEWS

Lafayette, Indiana—the Nov. 1981 issue of PAMI, a publication of Purdue University's IEEE Computer Society, School of Electrical Engineering, carries an article by Prof. Giovanni Tamburelli. The text, amply illustrated by photographs and diagrams, documents the results obtained by Prof. Tamburelli and associates in processing the Holy Face by electronic elaboration.

Quebec City, Canada—Some 2,000 people attended the annual Congress of the Holy Face, (Ralliement de la Sainte Face) held here on July 31-August 2. The Rev. Lucien M. Trudel, S.D.B., gave a talk entitled 'The Holy Face; mercy and reconciliation".

New London, Connecticut—The American scientists of the Shroud of Turin Research Project held a symposium at Connecticut College on Oct. 10-11. The STURP Report on the 1978 examinations of the Shroud will be published in the fall of 1982.

Bologna, Italy—European scientists convened Nov. 27-29 for the final touches, prior to publishing the results of their three-year research. Their reports were submitted to the Authorities in May.

Turin, Italy—In an interview on April 2, Drs. Pier Luigi Baima Bollone and Max Frei spoke of their research based on the 1978 examinations. The forensic pathologist attributed the somatic markings to a reaction of aloes and myrrh; and the bloodstains to aloes, myrrh, blood and possibly saponite. Baima Bollone, whose work is well known among sindonologists, is one among several to identify blood crystals in the blood areas.

In the same article, Prof. Max Frei, Zurich criminologist, confirmed that his examinations exclude the presence of paint or binder; and that the pollen indicates that before 1200 the Shroud was in the Levantine-Mediterranean basin, possibly for several centuries. He also found traces of socotrin, a substance similar to saponite.

Turin, Italy—The Reverends Adam J. Otterbein, C.SS.R., and Peter Rinaldi, S.D.B., president and vice-president respectively of the Holy Shroud Guild, in company with Drs. John Jackson and Larry Schwalbe and Turin's Prof. Luigi Gonella, in May presented their reports to the Archbishop Anastasio Ballestrero, then proceeded to Portugal to inform King Humbert of Savoy, legal owner of the Shroud, of the work they had accomplished. Later in the summer, Fr. Rinaldi was sent to Japan on a brief mission for the Salesians.