In his 2015 scholarly article titled, “Science and the Shroud of Turin,” Fr. Robert Spitzer, founder and president of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith, wrote:
“The Shroud has undergone considerably more scientific testing than any other relic in human history. Among all of these things, the Shroud has come up smelling like a rose.”
Believed by many to be the burial cloth used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth following his crucifixion, the 14-foot, 3-inch long by 3-foot, 7-inch-wide linen cloth bears blood-stained evidence of wounds sustained by a man in the same way as those suffered by Christ, Fr. Spitzer has said.
Fr. Spitzer, an educator, author and lecturer, who has given numerous presentations on the Shroud, will be one of two experts discussing the extensive research involving the relic and its relevance to Catholics at an event at Christ Cathedral titled “Light of the Sepulchre.”
The presentation takes place on Feb. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Freed Theater.
“You have essentially a perfect three-dimensional negative image on a non-photographically sensitive linen cloth,” Fr. Spitzer said in 2021 interview for Parouisa Media. “This is a most remarkable thing, because it not only gives us a very good sense of Jesus’ crucifixion and the historical validation of it, but a very good sense of His resurrection and
even a historical validation of that. There is really a supernatural remnant of that resurrection embedded on this cloth. For all intents and purposes is that it really is a testimony to a miracle.”
There is evidence that shows that the image could have only been produced by a tremendous burst of light in the order of 6 to 8 billion watts of magnitude, he said.
“The blood was on the Shroud before the image was,” Fr. Spitzer said. “The blood is there without any kind of a sketch or image, and then image comes over, the same sequence that would have happened if that body had been authentically placed in a Shroud and then the light burst thereafter.”
Fr. Spitzer will discuss the existence of the Shroud as a statement of faith during the Light of the Sepulchre event, said Nora Creech, a Shroud historian, lecturer and volunteer at the Shroud Center of Southern California, the organizer for the event.
“We want Fr. Spitzer to talk about why the Shroud is important to us,” said Creech, who has been involved in Shroud related projects since 2018. “It is the first Saturday of Lent and so we want to address the science and history side, but we really want to talk about what this means for having a meaningful celebration of the Lenten season.”
Full story at OC Catholic.
Jesus, I love You.
I hope Fr. Spitzer’s presentation will be available on-line. It’s so profoundly fascinating.
My gosh, people. Learn to use the internet. There are at least two videos of Fr. Spitzer talking about the shroud available now.
Pretty dang cool!
Another little miracle associated with the Shroud. I was looking for a holy card with the shroud image of Christ’s head. There is no Catholic book store anywhere around. I thought about ordering it online, but got busy and forgot. The next morning, in my mail delivery, was an envelop with several. holy cards of Christ’s head from the shroud. Jesus heard my request and filled it! Thanks be to God!
I just finished reading the Wikipedia thread on the Shroud, and as you can imagine, it argues the case is closed on the Shroud as it has been determined to be medieval forgery. An example from the article: ” In 1390 the Bishop of Troyes, Pierre d’Arcis, who had jurisdiction over the church in Lirey, wrote a lengthy memorandum to Antipope Clement VII (recognized as Pope by the Church in France during the Western Schism), declaring that the shroud was a forgery and that a previous Bishop of Troyes, Henri de Poitiers, had identified the artist who had made it.”
It would seem an uphill battle to argue on the contrary that the Shroud has come out, upon scientific testing, “smelling like a rose.” I am no Shroud expert and rely on the investigatory work of others, and I have no dog in this fight as the Shroud has immense value, indeed, incalculable worth, as an icon of the crucifixion, regardless of its authenticity as the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ. I worry that in a predetermined conviction that it is the burial cloth of Christ, proponents will downplay or ignore the evidence that it is from the 14th century. I am therefore interested on what Fr. Spitzer, whom I regard highly, has to say, and hope, along with Axiom, that his talk is available online.
If it’s a forgery, no one can explain the image and its characteristics. The 14th century dating has been explained as carbon dating fiber samples from 14th century repairs, not the original cloth. That’s old news. The lack of pigment, the depth of the ‘burned’ image into the fibers, the 3 – D characteristic of the image.
Anyone that claims it’s a forgery has two problems. Where are other forgeries like it (with all of the attention, some huckster surely would have seen a way to capitalize on it) and why can’t anyone reproduce another one? Sort of like where is the Virgin Mary’s grave and where are all her relics?
And, why does a 14th Century image show nails through the wrists instead of through the palms, like literally every other piece of medieval artwork? That and the contaminated sample used for C14 analysis suggest to me that it’s authentic c. 1st Century. Whether it’s Jesus Bar Joseph or not, or one of the many other victims of the Roman method of crucifixion, I can’t say as a scientist (but it’s consistent with the Gospels). Whether it required immense energy to produce the image or if it was some other method, I think that’s still an open question (since we can’t reproduce a Resurrection, which would be required for scientific validation). Great topics for research.