Friday 6 June, 2025

A new documentary on the Shroud will be presented for a limited time from Saturday June 7 on the ARTE platform (Europe). Lasting 90 minutes, it features several speakers in several countries, including France, Italy, America, Turkey and Israel. The audio is in French, but some web browsers (e.g., Chrome) provide live translated subtitles into English: see the Accessibility options of your web browser.

Innovative, this documentary is the first, to my knowledge, to present the thesis of the passage of the Shroud through the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Unfortunately, the subject is treated so superficially that it is almost impossible to grasp its foundations. Fortunately, the film does not address implausible historical hypotheses, such as the supposed acquisition of the Shroud by the Knights Templar or the knight Othon de La Roche.

The documentary features Luigi Garlaschelli's alleged reproductions of the Shroud. Not only are these visually very different from the Shroud, but the fundamental aspect of examining linen fibers is ignored. Proof of a true reproduction of the Shroud would require photomicrographs of the threads, to confirm the absence of pigments or residues and to establish technical similarity.

The documentary includes misleading statements by historian Andrea Nicolotti. He portrays Henri de Poitiers, Bishop of Troyes, as an opponent of the Shroud during the first ostensions of the 14th century. The facts, however, contradict this assertion: the bishop always maintained cordial relations with the Lirey canons and actively supported the cult at the chapel.

For more information on the thesis regarding the Shroud's passage through the Sainte-Chapelle, please refer to the paper: The Shroud of Turin and the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris.

January 1st, 2025

Will the New Year 2025 bring any breakthroughs or revelations about the Turin Shroud? By whom and on what subject? I have no prognosis, either precise or certain. Precision remains uncertain, and certainty is always imprecise.

However, it is possible to provide some precision on the expectations related to the Shroud, whether they are realized or not. The first concerns the ostension, which will not take place in the long-awaited format. Instead, it will take the form of a virtual ostension, avoiding the need for travel. It could be the largest gathering of virtual pilgrims since the Shroud came into existence, but many were hoping for an onsite ostension.

There is also the symposium promised for this summer in Saint Louis, Missouri. The program is underway, but we're already seeing the return of familiar themes: the image being formed by an incomprehensible collapse of the Shroud, Otto de La Roche receiving the Shroud from who knows whom and bringing it back to France via a speculative route, the Templars guarding the Shroud who knows where, and many other subjects. However, many would like to add more details to these historical hypotheses. Unfortunatly, new speculations are invented with no sources, superfluous historical elements are added and ancient documents reinterpreted to fill in the gaps. Meanwhile, the search for new ancient documents is neglected. Can we expect a breakthrough in our understanding of the history of the Shroud? Some says no, all relevant documents would have been discovered. In any case, no certainty is possible, as everything is based on hypotheses. Can we at least debate the subject to get a clearer picture? That wouldn't be a good idea, as it would be criticizing friends. I think there are fundamental errors in this methodology.

The irony of names and events: Saint Louis, King of the Franks, would no doubt have loved to contemplate this extraordinary relic. Yet he focused all his attention on the Crown of Thorns, in which he placed all his hopes for the Second Coming of Christ. Although he had acquired twenty-two of the most precious relics from the imperial palace in Constantinople at a high price, and had built the majestic Sainte-Chapelle in Paris to glorify France in the eyes of Christendom, he didn't seem to feel any disappointment at not possessing the Shroud that Otto de La Roche would have obtained in Constantinople. But did he really own it? After all, there was no proof of ownership in the 13th century, any more than there is today, despite the claims of some. All the evidence suggests that it was elsewhere. Could Saint Louis have possessed the Shroud in the Sainte-Chapelle without even being aware of it? The idea is fascinating, almost fabulous. Yet, although the Mandylion had been deposited in the Sainte-Chapelle, neither the king nor the canons seem to have identified it as such. That's an observation to think about: Saint Louis knew nothing of the Mandylion, nor did his cousin Baldwin, Emperor of Byzantium, who also failed to recognize it. Unfortunately, this ignorance reflects a reality that is still common today: a lack of in-depth analysis by sindonologists of this relic at the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris.

Perhaps new documentaries will be produced. This is almost certain, given the invaluable publicity generated by this virtual ostension. But what will be the quality of the speakers? Will there be prodigious special effects? A visit to the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem? A presentation in Lirey? Or perhaps, a miracle, an interview at the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris? It's all possible, but we can't be sure.

We can hope that the Turin authorities will be more open to research. However, we're likely going to be sorely disappointed, as nothing has changed for decades. Although there is preserved material from 2002, it has been decreed inaccessible to anyone. But then, to whom and for what purpose could it be destined? Is there a fear that a discovery could be made without the possibility of controling its dissemination?

Happy and prosperous 2025!

January 14, 2024

We begin 2024 with some never published material directly related to the Shroud of Turin: photomicrographs of the Shroud taken during the summer of 2002.

The six photomicrographs in Figure 1 were taken over a bloodstain, on the Shroud of Turin during its restoration in the summer of 2002. They were extracted from one of the many videos taken during that restoration using a camera mounted on a bidirectional track (see Figure 2). That explains a degree of their out-of-focus aspect. Their level of magnification is greater than all the photomicrographs taken by Mark Evans during the five-day STURP study in 1978 (see the Mark Evans photomicrographs and on the Shroud Scope). This magnification allows us to see more details at the level of the fibrils of the linen threads. For example, the red blood particles clearly agglutinate in very small specks, which is expected from blood. In the collection of Mark Evans, that can be envisioned on only one photomicrograph, but cannot be seen at the level of the fibrils (see the ME-06 photomicrograph ).

Figure 1. Six photomicrographs extracted from one video taken during the restoration of summer 2002. The video camera went over the main bloodstain on the right side of the chest as shown by segment 44 on the left Shroud map of Figure 3d. Kindly provided by Karlheinz Dietz courtesy of Giuseppe Ghiberti (click images for enlargements)

Figure 2. The camera mounted on a bidirectional track. Photograph kindly provided by Karlheinz Dietz. (click the photograph for an enlargement)

The videos are described on pages 133 to 136 in the book Sindone 2002, authored by Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, published in 2002 (see Figure 3 for these four pages). In the appendix on page 133, they are described as Videomicroscopic Photographs of the Shroud (Figure 3a) with a detailed list of the locations on pages 134 and 135 (Figures 3b and 3c), with timing and operators, and on page 136 with two photographs, the recto and verso of the Shroud, showing the locations captured by the videos with numbered line segments (Figure 3d). There are 24 videos from the verso, and 38 videos from the recto, for a total of 62 videos. The photomicrographs shown in Figure 1 are from segment 44 on the Shroud map shown on page 136, shown in Figure 3d.

As shown in Figure 3d, on the second map on the right with segments numbered 1 to 24, there are many videos taken on the verso, that is, the underside of the Shroud where there is no image but mostly bloodstains that seeped through the cloth. Photomicrographs that would be extracted from them would be unique on that side of the cloth because such photomicrographs were never taken before 2002.

3a	3b
3c	3d
Figure 3. Pages describing the videos and their location on the verso and recto of the Shroud. (click images for enlargements)

Naturally, the six photomicrographs shown on this web page are not the only photomicrographs we could extract from these videos taken in 2002. I had access to only a few minutes of them, although there are around two hours of such videos as compiled on page 135 with the timing of the videos. What other interesting photomicrographs that could be extracted is unknown to me, because, as far as I know, the other videos were not analyzed for such photomicrographs. They are kept by the authority of the diocese of Turin and are not made accessible. I could not find any good reason why they were never analyzed or used by the authority of Turin for promoting the Shroud. I know that some researchers close to the authority of Turin consider these videos useless, which I think is an incorrect assessment as can be attested by these six photomicrographs.

It appears to be such a waste of effort to have done all these videos in 2002 without doing anything with them, not even analyzing them and producing a report. Is it because the Pope does not allow the distribution of such information as the authority of Turin claims? That appears doubtful. It rather appears that the authority of Turin fears that this data could be used in an inappropriate way. But such a fear is unwarranted given that this data tends to show unique details reinforcing the genuine aspect of that cloth as a shroud, and not even close to any artistic rendering.

These videos can be used to go beyond the Mark Evans photomicrographs to show many details of the image on the Shroud, such as its superficiality. Other discoveries could be ascertained such as the possible images of blood instead of the expected bloodstains, that is, what appears as bloodstains are probably images of bloodstains. It would also be very interesting to look closely at the photomicrographs right next to the radiocarbon dating location. Unfortunately, the authority of Turin does not appear to have any interest of using these videos for such purpose.

There is a similar decision from the diocese of Turin regarding the high-definition photographs of the Shroud. Several years ago, the Italian Haltadefinizione company was contracted by the diocese to scan the Shroud to obtain a high definition image. It was possible to order large printed reproductions of that photograph. The company also developed the application Shroud 2.0 that allowed for visualizing the Shroud at a very high definition on iOS devices. That was similar to the Shroud Scope available on this web site (see Shroud Scope ). That application from Haltadefinizione was sold at a very low price. According to Haltadefinizione, the authority of the diocese of Turin did not renew the contract to sell Shroud 2.0, the production of printed copies of the Shroud, and showing the Shroud on their web site. All the Shroud 2.0 applications already sold became non-functional as it depended on a computer server controlled by Haltadefinizione. Why the authority of Turin decided to discontinue Shroud 2.0 and the sales of printed high-definition photographs by Haltadefinizione? I do not know and my inquiries remained unanswered.