Copyright © 2020 Guido Pagliarino
All rights reserved
Book published by Tektime
Tektime S.r.l.s. - Via Armando Fioretti, 17 – 05030 – Montefranco (TR)
Guido Pagliarino
SINDÒN
THE MYSTERIOUS SHROUD OF TURIN
Essay
Translation by Annibale Marsili
Guido Pagliarino
SINDÒN The mysterious Shroud of Turin
Essay
Translation from Italian to English by Annibale Marsili
Tektime Distribution
© 2020 Guido Pagliarino - All rights belong to the author
Previous editions:
First printed edition: “La misteriosa Sindone di Torino”, © 2007-2012 Boopen Editore
Second revised and enlarged printed edition and first e-book edition [only Pdf]: “Sindòn la misteriosa Sindone di Torino”, © 2013-2014 Editrice GDS. This edition is out of print from 2015, and all the rights are returned to the author
Third edition only on e-book mobi Amazon and epub Kobo, by the author, © 2015 Guido Pagliarino
Fourth edition on printed book and e-book, all formats, Tektime distribution © 2019 Guido Pagliarino
On the cover: One of the two paintings by Giovanni Battista della Rovere “il Fiammenghino” depicting Jesus wrapped into the Shroud
The general and detailed photos of the Shroud inside the book belong to the Catholic Church, therefore they belong to all of us
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapters and paragraphs
- History of Shroud until A.D. 1356 and the first definite historical record in the same year
- Some have attempted to create a Shroud-like image recently, but they have failed to reproduce the relic same specificities so far; who produced similar images, however, was unable to replicate all its characteristics
- Why are the thumbs not visible on the Shroud and the right foot covers the left one on the positive photographic image?
- Coins
- Aloe and myrrh
- Crurifragium
- Wounds and abrasions marks
- Wounds, injuries, bloodstains detected on the Shroud exactly match the Gospels descriptions of the Passion of Jesus Christ
- Statistics
- Forensic examination by the pathologist Professor Pierluigi Baima Bollone
- B) In detail:
- I - PHOTOGRAPHS
- II - THE RESEARCH BEGINS
- III - CARBON-14 DATING EXPERIMENTS
- The underlying principle of the radiocarbon dating (C-14)
- The first and little-known dating experiment (unofficial) on a Shroud's sample with the C-14 method
- The 1988 authorized radiocarbon dating experiments: why they did not produce acceptable results
- IV - A POTENTIAL MEDIEVAL FORGER WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ALL-TIME GREATEST GENIUS AND A MURDEROUS CRIMINAL MONSTER
- V - CHRONOLOGY (Brief hystory of the Shroud of Turin)
- PRIMARY SOURCES
- Appendix - “Amici della Reale Chiesa di San Lorenzo [Friends of the Royal Church of St. Lawrence]”: association of volunteers for the Shroud explanation during the 2000 Jubilee
If it is true that the Cloth par excellence has led many people to embrace or rediscover Christianity, a phenomenon called “apostolate through the Shroud”1 , this book is not going to persuade that the Shroud truly wrapped Christ's body two thousand years ago or, as commonly said, that it is authentic. On the other hand, the concept of authenticity could have a different meaning in this context, because you can even believe that the relic preserved in Turin is the shroud which enveloped Jesus' body, but you can simply assume that this sheet is just a two thousand years old item. I suppose that we cannot deny that the Shroud is a very ancient relic, but I do not wish to take a position on the circumstance that it really would wrap the body of Christ. At the moment, there are much evidence to support the hypothesis that it is a very ancient relic rather than the only two against this theory, which are: a) radiocarbon dating experiments on Shroud's samples, which determined the age of the Sheet at lower medieval period (although many Christian scholars express scientific doubts regarding those tests); b) the prejudice, both from anticlerical laity and from most of the Reformed Christians. The first simply neglect the argument, and sometimes they mock it; the Protestant believers, on the contrary, condemn the veneration of the Shroud, which they consider to be a simple “icon” created by human hands: they follow the Old Testament verse “you must not to make for yourself an idol of any kind of image...”, which was historically written down for anti-idolatrous reasons2 .. In this regard, the Catholics argued that this banning existed only before the Incarnation of God in Jesus, when God made flesh and showed himself to the world as an “image”. Moreover, there are Catholics who deny the authenticity of the Shroud as the relic which wrapped the body of Jesus3 . And, on the contrary, there are Protestants who believe it is a genuine 1st century artifact, and sometimes even the real burial cloth of Jesus. In any case, it should be stressed that the Christian faith is not based on the Shroud of Turin but, historically, on the oral testimonials of the Apostles on the Christ's resurrection, collected during the 1st century in the New Testament's books4 ; the work of the Church to match, over the centuries, the new evidence with the oldest one, has allowed to pass them down to us5 . I admit that in the past I was not particularly interested in the Shroud. But in 1998 I met Dr. Giovanni Latino, who was introduced to me by a common friend, and since then I was intrigued and involved by the relic. The passion of Dr. Latino prompted me to attend conferences of experts; and, besides, the weekly meetings arranged by him and the association “Amici della Reale Chiesa di San Lorenzo [Friends of Saint Lawrence Royal Church]” in a room of Saint Lawrence Church during the two years before the 2000 Holy Year Exhibition, aimed at deepening the study and the debate on the Shroud. Later, I became a member of that organization and a volunteer for the Shroud explanation during the Exhibition6 . But my belief is always based on the New Testament's books, not on the Sheet. With that idea in mind, I'm publishing this new