The Shroud of Turin is one of the main mysteries of mankind. What is it: the very canvas in which the body of Christ was wrapped at burial, or a medieval mystification - this is the main intrigue. Serious study of this relic began 120 years ago, and in the coming months, scientists intend to put an end to the centuries-old dispute. About how researchers want to solve this problem and why the Russian Orthodox Church does not officially confirm or deny the authenticity of the shroud.
You believe?
Almost every temple in Turin has photographs depicting the shroud. There are many of them in local souvenir shops. The residents of Turin themselves, as soon as they talk about a shrine, always ask: "Do you believe in its authenticity?"
“To be honest, I don't think it's real. Alchemists lived in Turin and were engaged in all sorts of hoaxes,”a local resident Sessilia told RIA Novosti.
Therefore, she was very surprised when, in June 2015, tens of thousands of pilgrims from Latin America came to the city with Pope Francis (the pontiff himself is also Latin American) and sincerely prayed in front of the shrine. The Shroud is rarely exhibited for all to see. Over the past half century, it could be seen in 1978, 1998, 2000, 2010 and, accordingly, 2015. The rest of the time it is kept in a special ark in the local Cathedral of John the Baptist (Duomo di Torino).
However, even Cecilia, despite her skepticism, understands how valuable the shroud is. “It’s a pity that it is kept in a rather modest temple, compared to Milan and Florence,” she complains.
In fact, the shroud has long been considered not one of the greatest Christian shrines, but "a poorly preserved canvas of ancient Christian artists." It was under this name that the lawyer and amateur photographer Secondo Pia discovered her in the Duomo catalog in 1898.
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Everything was changed by a photograph he accidentally made: developing a photographic plate, he saw an image of a man with crossed arms, on whose body traces of bruises and numerous wounds are visible.
Shrine or fake
The Shroud is mentioned in the Gospel as a cloth, in which, according to ancient Eastern custom, the body of the crucified Christ was wrapped before burial. And on the third day, the apostles found her without the body of the risen Savior in the burial cave. Then, according to legend, they kept it.
Many church leaders from the 4th to the 10th century mention the "depiction of Christ on a long canvas", but without any details. Byzantine sources of the XII century speak about the relic, then its trace is lost. And at the end of the XIV century, in a letter, Pope Clement VII reports that the shroud has been exhibited since 1353 for the worship of believers in the French city of Lyra. Subsequently, the shrine was transported first to Chambery, and two hundred years later - to Turin.
And from about this time, there have been fierce disputes over the authenticity of the artifact, primarily among the Catholic clergy. Some say that this is the same canvas mentioned in the Gospel, others see the work of Byzantine artists in the relic.
Savior Not Made by Hands (Novgorod Icon of the XII century) (Tretyakov Gallery).
Surprisingly, even serious scientific research begun in the 20th century has not fully clarified the situation. In 1988, scientists from the University of Oxford, the University of Arizona and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology took four tissue samples and carried out their radiocarbon analysis. It turned out that the age of the samples dates from somewhere between 1260-1390 years. Since then, the researchers noted, the reliable history of the artifact has been known.
Is there a sensation?
The results of radiocarbon analysis have been questioned more than once. And now, 30 years later, a group of scientists from the International Center for Syndology (the scientific branch that studies the question of the authenticity of the Shroud) in Chambery intends to perform a repeated radiocarbon analysis. There are no more reliable dating methods yet.
Researchers disagree with colleagues' findings in 1988 for a number of reasons. “The calculation used for dating fabric is much more uncertain than with other hard specimens (eg bone) due to the textile's greater susceptibility to external agents (bacteria, mold, dirt),” the research team leader explains in an interview with Vatican Insider News Paolo Di Lazzaro.
Also, according to him, it is doubtful how the analysis itself was carried out. The fact is that all three laboratories "consistently refused to provide accurate data."
The scientist calls for one more circumstance to be taken into account: in 1532 the shroud was badly damaged in a fire, and then it was restored - it is possible that using fabric of the XIV century. It was these samples that could be accidentally taken in 1988. In addition, Di Lazzaro notes, the accuracy of the analysis is strongly influenced by the contamination of the tissue.
DNA will answer
In the 1990s, it was proposed to examine tissue for the presence of DNA from plants, animals and humans, which was done. The results were announced in 2013 by the University of Padua professor Gianni Borkaccia.
Whose DNA was not found on the shroud: European spruce, Mediterranean clover, chaff, banana tree, East Asian pears and even North American acacia. But it was much more interesting to study the found samples of human DNA.
“This fabric is believed to have been touched by many people, from North African Berbers and East Africans to the people of China,” Borkaccia said.
However, representatives of the ethno-confessional group of Druze living in the south of Lebanon and Syria have “inherited” most of all. The oldest DNA samples - surprisingly - belong to ethnic groups from India.
The results of this study are also controversial. Skeptics continue to insist that the Turin Shroud is an elaborate hoax of recent times.
True, last year they had one less argument. Specialists of the Institute of Crystallography in Bari, having carefully studied with the help of the latest electron microscopes, the traces of blood on the tissue and its very structure, came to an amazing conclusion: the blood is real.
“Nanoparticles attached to flax fibers confirm that the person wrapped in burial cloth has suffered suffering. It turned out to be possible to establish this only with the help of the latest methods in the field of electron microscopy,”said the head of the study Elvio Carlino in an interview with La Stampa newspaper.
Church out of position
There are five exact copies of the Shroud in the world. One of them is kept in the Moscow Sretensky Monastery. In 1997, the American scientist John Jackson donated it to the monastery.
And yet pilgrims from all over the world strive precisely to Turin. There are many Orthodox Christians among them, although the relic itself belongs to the Roman Catholic Church.
The Russian Orthodox Church has no official position on the Turin Shroud. “Nobody asked for this, and there is hardly a need to formulate it, since the shroud is in the Catholic Church, which is responsible for its history, preservation and related research,” explains Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, professor at the Moscow Theological Academy. "This question remains at the discretion of the lay faithful and clergy."
But for the scientific community, the question of the authenticity of the Turin Shroud is more and more interesting every year. Only on one point are scientists unanimous: the current level of development of science does not allow giving a 100% accurate answer to it.
Anton Skripunov