The Wrong St Vincent

In Pierre Barbet’s book, A Doctor at Calvary, appears the following passage: Saint Vincent of Lérins (Sermo in Parasceve) was to write at a later date: “Coronam de spinis capiti ejus imposuerunt, nam erat ad modum pilei, ita quod undique caput tegeret et tangeret – they placed on His head a crown of thorns; it […]

The New Microbiome

A review of The Jesus Microbiome,An Instagram from the First CenturyBy Stephen J. Mattingly and Roy Abraham Varghesepublished by the Institute for MetaScientific Research, Texas The idea that the Shroud owes much of its interest to bacteria was first explored in a paper entitled “A Problematic source of Organic contamination of Linen”, by Harry Gove, […]

Giotto’s Jesus

The face that lies, eyes closed in death but very present in its immediacy, facing us in the negative of the Shroud of Turin, was envisaged by a craftsman in the late 13th or early 14th century. If there was a definitive likeness to follow, then he should best have followed it, or people would […]

The Day I Changed My Mind

Until a few years ago, I was as keen to believe in the authenticity of the Shroud as any devout authenticist, and had mounted two exhibitions to illustrate the evidence in favour of it. I had carried out some experimental confirmations of some ideas about the scourging and crucifixion, and had a letter about a […]

προεγράφη

Larry Stally is the latest of a line of interpreters to discuss a supposed reference to the Shroud in St Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In The Crucified Christ Seen by the Galatians: A Literal Context for ΠΡΟΕΓΡΑΦΗ (Galatians 3.1), he discusses the first verse of chapter three, which runs: “You foolish Galatians! Who has […]

When is a Charny not a Charny?

The very first we hear of the Shroud is in the indignant letter of Bishop Pierre d’Arcis to Pope Clement VII, written around 1390. Curiously, Geoffroy de Charny isn’t mentioned. The Dean of Lirey gets all the blame. This may be because the first public exhibition did not occur until after de Charny had died […]

Whose silly idea was it anyway?

Entering “radiocarbon” and “worst possible” into our favourite search engine brings up about 2000 hits. In the literature, and even more so in broadcast media, it is widely supposed that the people entrusted to select a single representative sample of the Shroud for radiocarbon dating first argued for a hour or so, and finally decided […]