#005 Turin and the Shroud

Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist

The next morning, after having stayed in Lourdes for the night, we boarded the bus knowing that before the end of the day, we would be in Italy.

We drove straight through Monaco, and soon arrived in Turin.

There, we visited the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, where the Shroud of Turin is kept. When we arrived at the Cathedral, it quickly became obvious to us that we would be having to wait for quite a long time before being able to see the actual shroud. For one thing, the whole entrance was packed with visitors. And on top of that, before seeing the shroud, we would have the priviledge of walking through a whole explanatory exhibition so that by the time we actually arrived at

the shroud, we would be well informed about it.

The explanatory ehibition was actually quite interesting, in that it helped the visitors (at least myself) be better able to appreciate the shroud. There was even a short presentation that showed how each of the different blows described in the Passion can be seen on the shroud: the broken nose from the blow dealt by the soldier, the blood from the crown of thorns on his head, the wound on his side from the piercing of the lance after his death, the wounds on his wrists and feet from the nails, and even the lacerations on his back from the whipping he received on orders from Pontius Pilate.

It was also quite interesting to note that the image on the shroud itself seems to be a negative. In the picture on the left, the left half is what the shroud looks like to the naked eye (at least the part of the head). However, looking at a

negative of that image, it would almost seem as if one was looking at a photograph. Even more interesting is the fact that even the concept of a negative hadn't been concieved until pretty recently. In fact, it wasn't until the end of the 19th century that a photograph of the shroud was taken and it was discovered that the negative of that photograph revealed what looked very much to be a positive image!