THE bloodstains and markings on the Holy Shroud of Turin correspond to the brutal treatment of Christ described in Gospel accounts of his crucifixion, a new study suggests.
The study, published by the University of Padua, is by Professor Giulio Fanti, co-ordinator of the international Shroud Science Group. Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurements, is the author of numerous works on the Shroud over 25 years, and is convinced of its authenticity.
The Shroud is a handmade twill linen cloth measuring 4.4 by 1.1 metres which contains the image of the front and back of a man, most clearly revealed in a photographic negative taken in 1898.
The Vatican, given ownership in 1983, has not officially pronounced on its authenticity. In 1988, it was carbon-dated to the 12th century, although some scientists claim that the testing was carried out erroneously on a piece of medieval cloth.
The new study reports: “There are hundreds of reddish spots of varying shapes and sizes which almost completely overlap the body image imprinted on it, and which seem perfectly consistent with the different types of torture suffered by Jesus who was wrapped in it as a corpse.
“Bloodstained marks on the head consistent with a crown of thorns, blood marks on the hands and feet with crucifixion, and a bloodstain on the chest with the post-mortem spear wound that Christ received.”
The presence of creatinine particles with ferritin, often a by-product of muscle contractions, provides microscopic confirmation of “very heavy torture”, he says. The right eye of the Shroud’s body image is “more sunken and apparently furrowed by a vertical mark”, indicating that the victim was “blinded by a blow to the head”, or wounded “by a thorn from the crown placed on Jesus’s head”.
The 11,300-word study, which includes medical and forensic images, concludes that the likely cause of Jesus’s “relatively early death on the cross” was “hemopericardial infarction”, brought on by kidney and liver failure from “flagellation and microcytic anemia”.
“Jesus was severely scourged and nailed to the cross — he died and his corpse was placed in the sepulchre in Jerusalem and wrapped in the Holy Shroud.”
It continues: “The strong uremia that produced an accentuated shrinkage of the volume of the erythrocytes in the blood caused serious problems in oxygen exchange during breathing. To compensate for these physical problems, Jesus had to increase his breathing heavily, as well as the frequency of his heartbeats, which prompted a heart attack as the main cause of death.”
Although apparent references to the Shroud were made in the early centuries, the object’s documented history dates from its exhibition in 1353 at the French town of Lirey, from where it was acquired by the royal House of Savoy.
Damaged by fire in 1532 while housed in a chapel at Chambéry, it was taken to Turin in 1578, and has remained in a specially designed chapel close to the city’s cathedral since 1683, apart from several brief periods of wartime concealment.
In his new study, Professor Fanti argues that the image on the Shroud was produced by radiation or an “electric-type energy” of unknown origin, “probably connected with the Holy Fire of Jerusalem which emanated from the corpse and reacted with the linen”.
Features of the facial image, he argues, “accurately coincide” with depictions of Christ on Byzantine coins from the seventh century, suggesting that the Shroud was “seen during the Byzantine Empire”.
His study refers to previous investigations, including those of 1980 and 1981 which confirmed the existence of human blood and fluid produced by pulmonary edema on the Shroud. The “different directions” of blood rivulets, bearing “different macroscopic characteristics”, indicate that the body was held in an upright position and later rotated and rested on its side, while traces of local clay and limestone also indicate a “quick burial”, the new study says.
Professor Fanti writes: “Jesus probably lost at least a third of his blood, thereby causing hypovolemic shock — a strong reduction in the volume of blood circulating in the body due to various hemorrhages and body fluid losses.
“Due to uremia, the red blood cells significantly reduced their ability to exchange oxygen, thus causing a notable tachycardia, which was also accentuated by tonic and clonic contractions, or muscle spasms, resulting from the hypertension of the limbs nailed to the cross. . .
“During Jesus’s last hour before dying on the cross, a reduced blood flow to the kidneys was also caused by hypovolemia and severe dehydration.”
Professor Fanti writes that his study was “partially supported by a religious group that requested anonymity”, which had backed his forensic work on other objects. The results, he says, are “fully consistent” with the description of Christ’s scourging and crucifixion in the Gospels.
In an interview in February 2023 with Italy’s La Voce dell’Ionio, the Professor dated his interest in the Shroud to a school visit, aged ten, saying that he was personally convinced that this development was a “work of God”.