| II. THE DEVOTIO MODERNA (1453-1898) Between the 1st July and the 21st September 1998, the "Savoy museum" of Chambéry exhibited a collection of engravings, miniatures and ex-voto offerings, illustrating five hundred years of regular veneration of the Holy Shroud in Savoy, firstly at Chambéry then at Turin. Before his death in 1983, Humbert II of Savoy, the last king of Italy, bequeathed the relic of the Holy Shroud to the Holy See. The collection assembled by the late king, testifies to the fascination exerted by the Holy Shroud on the crowds who came on pilgrimage to Lirey, to Chambéry, to Turin, to adore the acheiropoietic (not made by human hand) imprint left by the Lord’s Body on this Shroud and the Precious Blood with which it is stained. The faith was so intense in those times that it would be moved by any reference to the Passion of Jesus. And so these crowds were not moved out of curiosity, but of tender compassion for the sufferings of our gentle Saviour and for the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin His Mother. One can say that the pilgrimage of the Holy Shroud, on the verge of the modern era, succeeded that of the Holy Sepulchre in the times of the Crusades, since this sacred Cloth was truly the "Place" where the Body of Jesus Christ was buried. After the seizure of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, the holy Relic was removed to Athens, where it entered into the possession of Charpigny family, a noble Franco-Greek family of the Morea. Agnes de Charpigny, Dame of the Vostitza, wife of Dreux de Charny, elder brother of Geoffrey, the Lord of Lirey, brought this «saincte relique» to France. Thus, having stayed for twelve centuries in the East, the Holy Shroud was shown for the first time in the West in the middle of the 14th century. It was displayed in Champagne by the canons of the collegiate church of Our Lady of Lirey, founded by Geoffrey I de Charny as an act of thanksgiving for his return from captivity in 1342, after a miraculous deliverance from the hands of the English. Even the anonymous document known as the "MÉMOIRE DE PIERRE D’ARCIS" recognises that «far from being limited to the kingdom of France, the news spread far and wide. From all points of the globe, people flocked in their masses», in a vast upsurge of faith and devotion. Unquestionable and extraordinarily eloquent testimony of this is provided by the lead pilgrimage medal worn by pilgrims in the Middle Ages, found at the bottom of the Seine in Paris, not far from the Pont-au-Change and now kept at the Musée de Cluny. (A real size photo of this medal appears in the English CRC no 237, p. 23, figure 11 and an enlargement, ibid, on page 22, figure 10). It represents two figures wearing a cope, whose heads have disappeared, presenting the Holy Shroud stretched out at full length. This exposition scene is identical to that of the first copper engraving of the exposition made to commemorate the annual expositions of the Holy Shroud at Chambéry (below, from Torino e la Sindone, Alfreda, 1978, p. 162). One sees the Holy Shroud borne by three bishops, each assisted by two acolytes, and behind them are two torch bearers. Beneath the inscription, the arms of Savoy are in the centre with those of Bishops Francesco Lamberti of Nice and Pietro Lamberti of Saint-Jean de Maurienne on either side. The ceremony appears to be much more solemn that it could have been at the collegiate church of Lirey.
Annual exposition of 4 May, feast day of the Holy Shroud, at Chambéry (anonymous). Acquired in 1453 by Louis of Savoy and his spouse Anne of Lusignan, the Holy Shroud was first kept in the church of the Franciscans, today the Cathedral church of Chambéry. In that same year, the duke had a medal struck with his own effigy and that of a kneeling figure, adoring the Holy Shroud which he carries with outstretched arms. One thinks of Saint John showing the linen cloth, which he discovered on Easter morning «rolled up and in a place by itself» (Jn 20.7). The Shroud is in the form of a semicircle, doubtless in order to follow the curve of the coin, and at the same time to recall Saint John’s phrase, which is so difficult to interpret.
The medal struck by Emmanuel-Philibert in 1578, the year when the Relic was transferred to Turin, represents an angel this time and not a man. It is the angel who, according to the synoptics, announced to the holy women the resurrection of Jesus: «Look, there is the place where they laid Him.» (Mk 16.6)
The father of Louis of Savoy, Amadeus VIII, become antipope in 1439 under the name of Felix V (1439-1449), had undertaken to construct a palatine chapel, represented in the exhibition by two 19th century watercolours. In 1842, King Charles-Albert constructed a marble monument to his memory, represented on an engraving, where one can see Felix V with his very fine beard, to which he was greatly attached. In order to be pope, he had to consent to having it cut… Historians are divided about him, but his great merit was to abdicate and thus allow the Great Schism of the West to be brought to an end, in 1449. His grandson, on the other hand, Amadeus IX, son and successor of Louis, was a true saint, since he has been beatified. In his lifetime, it was said of him that «he pilgrimaged more in Paradise than on earth». He can be seen on a devotional image made in Turin in the 17th century: it is printed on silk and stuck on paper, in a very bad state, but of a wonderful finesse. By the side of the Blessed are two martyrs of the Theban Legion, Saint Maurice and Saint George; the extreme ends of the Holy Shroud are held by the Blessed Marguerite, daughter of Amadeus VI (the "Green Count"), and the Blessed Louise, daughter of the Blessed Amadeus IX. Contemplating this image, one would think that this family of Savoy was a family of saints. Amadeus IX was born on the 1st February 1435. From his birth, he was promised to Yolande of France, daughter of Charles VII. He espoused her in 1452, when he was seventeen years old. The following year, Duke Louis, his father, acquired the Holy Shroud. Under the reign of Amadeus IX (1465-1472), Savoy was called «the poor man’s paradise». One day, whilst showing an ambassador a crowd of down-and-outs lodged in a garden house of his, he said to him: «As for my dogs and falcons, here they are: Yes, you see here those who, in my view, are purchasing paradise»! Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) granted the chapel of Chambéry castle the title of «Sainte-Chapelle du Saint Suaire», with indulgences and privileges. At the same time he demanded that the sacred Relic be given the same homage and adoration due to the Cross, out of consideration for «the true blood of Christ Himself» with which it is stained. In 1506, Julius II authorised the public veneration of «the very Shroud in which Our Lord Jesus Christ was wrapped and laid in the tomb». He fixed its annual feast day for the 4th May and gave it its own Office and Mass. He also prescribed that the Holy Shroud should be adored and venerated, using the very same terms as his predecessor: on account of the «true blood of Christ Himself» which everyone can see on this linen Cloth with his own eyes. The fire that devastated the Sainte Chapelle of the Holy Shroud in the night of 3 to 4 December 1532, broke out «during the Calvinist and Huguenot troubles», observes Doctor Hynek. Is it rash to suspect an attack? The Protestants vowed a special hatred for relics in general and for the Holy Shroud in particular. The day after the fire, Calvin thought he was rid of it for ever: «When one Shroud has been burned, a new one is always found the next day. They say that it was this new one which had been there before, and which was miraculously saved from the fire. But the painting was so fresh that the lie was worthless for anyone who had eyes to see.» But Pope Clement VII – the true pope, that of Rome, please note Father Maldamé! – proceeded to officially recognise the relic. Then the Holy Shroud was taken in procession to the convent of Saint Clare where it stayed for fifteen days. Whilst praying and kneeling, the Poor Clares sewed pieces of cloth onto the burnt parts, then backed the Holy Shroud with Holland cloth in order to strengthen it. Then on 2 May 1534, to the sound of the ringing of all the church bells in the town, the Relic was taken back to the Sainte Chapelle. A witness wrote: «There was a great number of pilgrims who came from Rome, from Jerusalem and from several other distant countries.» And so it can be said that the Holy Shroud of Chambéry» was the principal pilgrimage centre of Christendom at that time. The holes left in the material and the patches sewn on by the pious Poor Clares of Chambéry preserve the disturbing traces of this fire. And they are «a warning for us», wrote the Abbé de Nantes following the blaze that almost destroyed the Holy Shroud at Turin on the night of 11 to 12 April 1997. A warning «not to turn our eyes, thoughts and hearts away from this divine Relic if we wish to keep it in our midst! Never to neglect our devotion to it if, in return, we wish to have our towns and countryside blessed, and our parishes and all creatures sanctified, just as the shadow of Jesus worked miracles.» (English CRC no 295, p. 32) Already in the 16th century, as Doctor Hynek recalls, the sacred Relic was saved by its faithful people, moved by a grace from the omnipotent Providence of our dearest heavenly Father: «At the risk of their life, two Franciscans, the Duke’s wine waiter, and a blacksmith ventured into the flames. The blacksmith broke the locks and freed the Holy Shroud from its silver casket, which was beginning to melt.»
Exposition of 12 October 1578 at Turin, by Saint Charles Borromeo, Piazza Castello. A very beautiful print represents the first exposition of the Holy Shroud at Turin, in 1578 (above, from Torino e la Sindone, p. 163). The exposition of 1978, which celebrated the fourth centenary of that event, drew three and a half million pilgrims in forty-three days. In 1578, the sacred Relic was borne by eleven prelates, whose names and titles are inscribed beneath their mitres. In the centre, between Cardinal Ferreri and the Apostolic Nuncio, is the «Cardinal of Saint Praxede, Archbishop of Milan», that is to say, Saint Charles Borromeo, whom Saint Francis de Sales will take as his model, regarding him as «the great mirror of the pastoral order», and whom Saint Pius X will call «the champion and indefatigable counsellor of true Catholic reform against the innovators». His charity knew no bounds: the plague that broke out at Milan in 1576 is known as «the plague of Saint Charles», so much did he give of himself for the temporal and spiritual welfare of his flock. What is less known is the vow whereby he obtained the cessation of the plague. Having obtained this grace, he kept his word and made a pilgrimage, on foot, to the Holy Shroud, which his friend the Duke of Savoy had transported from Chambéry to Turin to shorten his journey. The sacred Relic will never return to Chambéry. There then began an era of public veneration, of which the print below gives a very picturesque idea (from the exhibition catalogue: The Holy Shroud down the centuries. Collection of king Humbert II, Savoy Museum, 1 July - 21 September 1998, Gribaudo ed., p. 79). It represents the exposition of 4 May 1613, feast day of the Holy Shroud. On the royal square in Turin, a pavilion has been set up from where Saint Francis de Sales is showing the Shroud to a crowd of people bristling with halberds, crosses, standards and torch holders! In the foreground to the right, a man out of curiosity is climbing onto the barrel of a cannon in order to see better. The Saint presents the cloth together with some other prelates, for only bishops were allowed to touch and handle the Relic.
Exposition of 4 May 1613 at Turin, by Saint Francis de Sales, before the palazzo Madama. What exuberance and what popular fervour! So unlike the sad funeral procession we endured in Turin last May! Saint Francis went back from Milan, where he spent the night in prayer by the tomb of Saint Charles Borromeo. The following year, on 4 May 1614, he referred to this unforgettable memory in a letter to Saint Jane Chantal in which he gives expression to his wonderful devotion: «At about this time, a year ago, I was in Turin, and while displaying the Holy Shroud to a great concourse of people, a few drops of sweat fell from my face onto the Holy Shroud itself. Whereupon, our heart made this wish: May it please Thee, Saviour of my life, to mingle my unworthy sweat with Thine, and let my blood, my life and my affections merge with the merits of Thy sacred sweat!» (full text in the English CRC no 295, p. 18)
Duke Emmanuel-Philibert had ordered in his will, in 1580, that a church be built where the Relic might be kept. It was another hundred years before this project was realised, and would never have seen the light of day were it not for the constant entreaties of the Blessed Sebastian Valfré, an Oratorian (1629-1710), chaplain to Duke Victor-Amadeus. He can be seen here backing the Holy Shroud with a piece of black silk, which the pious princess Maria-Clotilda will replace in 1868 with a piece of red silk. Father Valfré said: «The Cross receives the living Saviour and gives Him back dead; the shroud receives the dead Saviour and gives Him back alive.» He wrote to Duke Victor-Amadeus II: «I feel impelled to beg Your Royal Highness to have the chapel of the Holy Shroud completed as a matter of urgency. Because I ought not to resist such an impulse, I mention it to you, in the hope that you will construct an even more magnificent chapel in your heart.» Finally, on 1 June 1704, the Relic was transferred to the chapel constructed in the apse of the cathedral of Saint John the Baptist by the Theatine father, Guarino Guarini. The most precious part of this exhibition was the collection of devotional images. Mgr Camus, Bishop of Belley, said of Saint Francis de Sales, his friend and neighbour: «The reproduction of this sacred effigy was his favourite image. He had it in embroidery, in painting, in oils, in line engraving, illuminated, half raised, engraved. He placed it in his bedroom, in his chapel, in his oratory, in his study, in his main room, in his gallery, in his breviary, everywhere.» An image dated from the end of the 16th century presents the Holy Shroud being shown and adored by the angels, surmounted by the Holy Crown of thorns and the Holy Face. This picture shows that our elders did not have to wait for us to associate the "Veil of Veronica" with the Holy Shroud, through a mystical intuition which has been confirmed today by our historical research (cf. B.B.-E., The Umbella of Pope John VII, English CRC no 237.) One must not forget that the first expositions of the Holy Shroud at Lirey (1356) followed, in the wake of the Holy Year Jubilee (1350), those of the "Veil of Veronica" in Rome. The exhibition also displayed "the sacred clock", dated from 1685. Five Aves and thirty-three Paters, correspond to a meditation on Christ’s Passion, divided into as many episodes, from the washing of the feet to Longinus piercing Christ’s side with a lance. From the same year comes the "Sacred Anatomy"; "the image of Christ Our Lord imprinted on the Holy Shroud" is marked with letters of the alphabet which refer an explanatory legend listing the sacred Wounds exactly located by the bloodstains. The various instruments of the Passion surround the image of the Holy Shroud. From the very first expositions in the 14th century, the effigies of the Holy Shroud renew the exposition of the wounds which the "Poverello" of Assisi displayed in his own flesh in the 13th century. Other images associate the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Holy Shroud, as one would expect at Turin, the city of the Consolata. Our studies of the most ancient versions of the Transitus justify this intuition (cf. B.B.-E., BIBLE, ARCHÉOLOGIE, HISTOIRE, 1995, vol. I, p. 72). Another theme: The Holy Shroud and the Heart of Jesus. We forego describing the allegories contained in these compositions.
In contemplating the lithographs of the 1898 exposition, we have to remember that they were printed before photography, which opens a new era. Until then, the only model for the copyists of modern times, from the 14th to the 19th century, was this inexplicable and hardly aesthetic imprint. They could only grope their way towards its… "negative". In the end, the negative was to reveal, thanks to the providential invention of photography, an incomparable image of Jesus Christ, justifying the devotion of past centuries. Until then, the Holy Shroud was sufficient proof for itself, and science had no part in it, so much did tradition, the experience and supernatural intuition of the faithful affirm its identity. This remarkable exhibition allowed us to relive this calm possession of the sacred Relic by a Christendom unanimous in its faith and in its love. It is for us to conserve its sweet perfume in order to spread yet again the good odour of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.
Having become the pole of attraction for princes and kings, bishops and learned men from all over Christendom, pushed and jostled by the crowds drawn by their example, the most remarkable Relic in the world was the butt of much sarcasm on the part of the Philosophes and of hatred on the part of heretics during these last centuries. Expositions became rarer… «One would not have bet too much on the Turin pilgrimage continuing to the end of the 19th century. And to be precise: it is a hundred years ago today!», wrote the Abbé de Nantes. «But this fragile material, this Sacrament of the Presence of Jesus, had within its fibres all sorts of beauties and perfections which were unknown or as yet unperceived. It was the photograph of 1898 that instantly and effortlessly brought out the figure, the image, the striking and undeniable reproduction of Jesus Son of God. Immediately, pious souls, and sometimes unbelievers like Delage, felt moved and drawn by the Holy Shroud, as Zachaeus, Mary Magdalene, the Samaritan woman and Matthew the publican were drawn to Jesus. Despite the barrage of a modernist clergy, of the anticlerical Sorbonne and of the atheistic world of science, the silent, pure, sweet and humble Glory of Jesus began to radiate from Turin, over Rome and Paris, over the whole of France as well as throughout the world» (The Holy Shroud saved from the flames, English CRC no 295, p. 32.) Today, it can be said that all the scientific disciples together, including the carbon 14 dating, have verified the authenticity of the Holy Shroud. "Research" has no further object. It must put away its instruments and leave the place for contemplation. There is only one valid "research" worth pursuing now, and that is the study of the sacred wounds that bruised the Body of Jesus from head to foot, leaving nothing untouched. These wounds are marked on the Cloth by bloodstains, and they are worth studying because they nurture the compassionate and grateful love of souls for Jesus. It is for this reason that we asked Dr Mérat to verify, through experimentation, an hypothesis concerning the place of the wounds in the feet, correcting the location proposed by Barbet (English CRC no 237, March 1991, p. 26-27). Here is the magnificent reply, which provides new insights on many hitherto obscure points. It comes from Dr Olivier Guillaud-Vallée, who made it the subject of his State diploma thesis as a doctor of medicine, successfully defended at Poitiers on 29 May 1998, the centenary date of the photograph of 1898: The Shroud of Turin: a critical re-reading of the anatomical works. He was kind enough to send it to us, thanking us for the help contributed by our works, and announcing his intention of continuing his research in the medico-surgical field. From his pen, «the doctor’s rigorous study» proceeds like an «autopsy» of the divine victim, as it seeks «to retrace the chronology of events and thus to deduce the most probable cause of the death of the man of the shroud". Here are the results. They lead to a partial revision of Barbet’s results. THE TESTIMONY OF THE BLOODSTAINS «The blood images are an exact reflection of reality: they are basin shaped with a central depression, circumscribed by a clear peripheral circle left by the serum. Their precise contours and they way they flow is, as we shall see later, perfectly realistic from an anatomical perspective.» Not only the outline, but the effective presence of serum and of human serum, tested in the borders of the bloodstains, certify that this cloth did indeed wrap a human body. But then another question arises: how does one explain that there is no trace of any tearing? There appears to be not the least blurring or distortion of the images as should have occurred when the Body separated from the Linen: «Everything occurs as though the Body had passed through the Shroud or else had literally evaporated inside it!» «The "resurrection", certain consequences of which were seen by the Evangelists in the new state of Jesus’ earthly Body, would provide the perfect solution… at least if we knew what it was!» (Ibid.) The rest of the diagnostic, far from dispelling this mystery, invites us to penetrate still further, in the light of the Sacred Wounds which are the cause of these bloodstains. FLAGELLATION «The first description of the bodily marks was the work of the Poor Clares of Chambéry, who repaired the linen saved from the fire in 1532. "The marks of the lead pellets and of the whip are so frequent that scarcely a spot the size of a pinhead can be found that is not exempt from the blows…."» This torture was so shameful that no artist ever dared to imagine it in all its cruel truth, as revealed to us by the Holy Shroud. Jesus, entirely naked, is attached to a column. The blows rain down on His shoulders, His back, His thighs, His calves, well beyond the forty statutory blows. It is enough to count and examine only those marks left by the most violent blows, without forgetting others that have left no trace, to contemplate the mystery of a superhuman energy, wholly applied to enduring this ignominious torture for love of us. Sorrowful mystery: «The loss of blood together with the profound intensity of the pain suffered by the condemned man, as well as his being deprived of food and water since the previous day, evidently contributed to a profound clinical deterioration and to a clinical condition of "pre-shock".» But there is also the glorious mystery revealed by the microscopic examination of the Shroud undertaken by Miller and Pellicori using ultraviolet rays: «These traces are darker than the rest of the image and clearly better defined than they seem by the simple light of day. The curious thing is that they do not seem to be more marked on the dorsal side, which nevertheless rested firmly on the shroud at the moment of burial.» This is what the Abbé de Nantes calls «the state of "weightlessness" of this Body, which seems to indicate that the dorsal imprint, clearly not distorted by pressure, has an aerial quality to it» It is a mystery, therefore, in two stages, sorrowful and glorious. The data from the microscopic examination allows us to be present at the sorrowful scene and establishes «the directional image of the marks left by the flagrum, writes Doctor Guillaud-Vallée, more marked depending on the angle from which they are considered, thus reflecting the different spatial origins of the blows inflicted». I do not know of any closer connection between science and faith, and already these marks so clearly outlined speak to the heart, leading it from faith to love. THE CROWN OF THORNS The «numerous dark and irregular marks scattered all over the circumference of the skull» are so physiologically authentic that they would absorb the clinician’s entire attention, to the extent of causing him to forget the horror of «this abominable torture». Thorns were interwoven and plaited into the form of a «royal head-dress», then placed on the head of Jesus with the sole aim of mocking the royalty He claimed before Pilate (Jn 19.2). A cruel mockery and profound abjection on which Jesus founded His kingship: heroic obedience to the Father, which confirms the divine origin of the most noble of kings. Glorious mystery. One cannot see how a mediaeval painter, even the most skilful, could have included in his work such a precise localisation of the arterio-veinous network of the face, published for the first time by Cesalpino in 1593. Already in 1534, the Poor Clares of Chambéry had described the blood flow which «wound its way like a wave», in the form of an inverted three (e). It originates in the roots of the hair from a lesion in the middle frontal vein, caused by a thorn stuck in the scalp where the flow starts to fork. It then flowed slowly from right to left and from left to right, gradually thickening before coming to rest over the left eyebrow. «The precision of the rounded image situated at the level of the left superciliary arch is quite remarkable since, like a classical blood clot, it is shaped in the model of a basin, depressed at its centre with its circumference edges enlarged and slightly raised.» How can we not tremble with compassion on reading the following clinical observation: «It is to be noted that the position of these wounds on the highly vascular surface of the cranium is certainly the cause of a very major loss of blood. A loss of blood all the more serious in that the wounds caused by the thorns could not but be reopened as the torture proceeded and thus give rise to continual bleeding.» Sorrowful mystery. THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS Jesus had warned His disciples: «If anyone wishes to be a follower of mine, he must renounce himself, take up his cross and follow Me!» (Mt 16.24) The Dominican, Father Étienne Nodet, of the Biblical School of Jerusalem, sees in Jesus no more than «an exceptional master who unfortunately disappeared». And so he does not believe that Jesus foresaw the lamentable «failure» that would lead Him to the «gallows», still less that he recommended it to His disciples as the ideal «course» to take. Later on, this «second sense» will become dominant «through the kerygma»: «The cross of Jesus becomes a metaphor for the trials of His disciples». But in the «first sense» of this expression, Jesus merely intended to recommend that His disciples… wear their badge! (Ét. Nodet and J. Taylor, Essai sur l’origine du christianisme, Cerf 1998, p. 421; cf. English CRC no 314, January 1999, p. 1-18.) As for old Father Boismard, of the same school and congregation as Father Nodet, he believes none of it. We heard him declare in the course of the television programme Corpus Christi that Saint John had written that Jesus «carried the cross Himself» (Jn 19.17) in order to correct the bad impression made by the synoptic Gospels, according to which the soldiers requisitioned Simon of Cyrene. «In which case, this Reverend Father declares, if Jesus did not carry his cross, if it is Simon of Cyrene who bore it, Jesus’ recommendation makes no sense. In other words, Jesus is asking of his disciples an attitude, an action which he himself apparently did not have the courage to bear.» (English CRC no 299, August 97, p. 9) Intolerable insults. Note that these two explanations cancel each other out. We must, therefore, come back to the texts, and to the historical circumstances of the carrying of the cross certified by the Holy Shroud. The text: «And Jesus went out, carrying the cross for Himself.» (Jn 19.17) We have explained, following Father de la Potterie, the very eloquent nuance introduced by Saint John: the expression does not only mean that Jesus «carried the cross Himself», as the Jerusalem Bible translates it. It means that He bore it «for Himself» (heautôi in Greek, sibi in Latin), in His own interest, «willingly» the Abbé de Nantes comments. (English CRC no 310, June 1998, p. 16) He grasped it ardently and joyfully, thinking of my salvation and that of the whole world. But the Holy Shroud reveals to us how terrible was this instrument of our life and happiness, this instrument of torture and death! The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak: «The left shoulder region and also the right shoulder show two large areas of excoriation which have clearly aggravated the skin abrasions already caused by the flagellation.» The medical expert, therefore, confirms that the heavy patibulum was loaded onto the poor bruised shoulders lacerated by the terrible scourging. This beam could measure up to 1.5 metres long and weigh between 35 and 50 kilograms. The most likely way of carrying this heavy load is, as one can prove by experiment, to maintain it in a pseudo equilibrium on the right shoulder with a third of its length jutting forward, and with the right hand making sure that it does not slip back. The front end, therefore, veers out and to the right whilst the opposite end is drawn back and down, towards the central line.» This indeed is what an ultraviolet examination of the dorsal image of the Holy Shroud reveals: «A bruised area around the upper right shoulder, oblique at the bottom and inside, rectangular in shape, measuring ten centimetres long by nine centimetres wide, extending as far as the middle of the right clavicle, and superimposed on the stigmata left by the flagrum.» The knees present marks of contusions, and traces of mud – also visible on the nose – testifying to the fact that Jesus fell under the horrible weight, once, twice, and finally at full length: «It is these successive falls which led to the Roman cohort requisitioning Simon of Cyrene to relieve Jesus of His exhausting burden.» (Mk 15.21; Mt 27.32; Lk 23.26) The American scientists came up against this brutal fact during their tests of 1978. With their macroscope set to its maximum enlargement level, Eric Jumper and Samuel Pellicori discovered «minuscule grazes with blood and a little dust at the end of the nose and on one knee. It is as though the man had fallen but was powerless to put out his hands to ward off the fall, and so had half grazed his nose and knee.» Once again, faced with the material facts, science comes into contact with mystery : for «the man» did not stay on the ground. He got up again – moved by what energy? – like a Son whom nothing can defeat until He Himself «lays down» His life, at the hour fixed by the Father. In any case, with a will to «carry His Cross» not «as one condemned to death who is enduring his torment unwillingly, going passively to His destiny and facing the torment under constraint. NO, Christ carries the cross "for Himself", as the privileged instrument of His work of salvation, the sign of His triumph and of His sovereignty.» (I de la Potterie, La passion de Jésus selon l’évangile de Jean, Cerf 1986, p.130.) Thus is dispelled the supposed contradiction between the fourth Gospel and the Synoptics. The Synoptics relate how Simon of Cyrene was requisitioned to carry the cross. Saint John does not deny this, but emphasises something else: Christ’s victory, which the Fathers of the Church vied with one another in extolling, celebrating the Cross as "the King’s standard", Vexilla Regis. Glorious mystery.
THE HAND WOUNDS Our author has entitled this chapter: «The marks of the wrists», doubtless out of fidelity to Doctor Barbet. But we prefer to speak of "hands", so convincing are the results obtained by Professor Zugibe of the University of Columbia, quoted by Doctor Guillaud-Vallée. Zugibe begins by pointing out «the tangible fact of the mark made on the shroud by the nailing of the visible carpus. This mark, located on the back of the wrist, plainly indicates the opening from which the nail came out and not its point of entry, which cannot be located with anatomical precision. The two openings are not necessarily opposite each other and the hypothesis of the nail being driven in obliquely cannot be excluded.» Now, experimentation together with clinical observation suggests that «the nail was placed level with the groove separating the two thenar and hypothenar protuberances and driven in tangentially at an angle of fifteen degrees in the direction of the thumb. The nail then naturally occupies the space demarcated by the second metacarpal, the capitatum and the trapezoid.» The nail then goes through the hand from one side to the other, the hand and not the wrist. «This probability, originally advanced by Monsignor Paleotto, Archbishop of Bologna at the end of the 16th century (A Paleotto, Esplicatione del Sacro Lenzuolo ove fu involto il Signore, Grossi ed., Bologna, 1598), and refuted by Barbet as anatomically impossible, is fully accepted by Zugibe who, even though he cannot exclude the hypothesis of the passage facing the radial edge of the carpus, baptizes this passage "space Z".» «It is an hypothesis, moreover, which has the advantage of being more like the traditional iconography and similar to the wounds in the palms of the stigmatics.» Not to forget agreement with the texts: «Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands, unless I put my finger into the place where the nails were…» (Jn 20.25) Eight days after: «Put your finger here, and see My hands» (Jn 20.27). Nor forgetting the Psalmist’s prophecy, fulfilled in all truth by these facts: «They have pierced my hands.» (Ps 22.17, according to the Greek of the Septuagint, rendered unintelligible by the Hebrew… as if by chance!) And the absence of thumbs? «Lampe and Kaplan, two of America’s most renowned hand surgeons are in agreement over the fact that any suffering of the median nerve makes flexion of the thumb and of the second and third fingers impossible (personal communication).» Following Barton, an English orthopaedic surgeon, Guillaud-Vallée suggests «a very simple reason for the disappearance of the thumbs on the Shroud: it would have been sufficient to cross the two hands as they are found in most ossuaries, the left hand over the right, the left thumb hidden by the back of the right hand, the right thumb also invisible since in contact with the palm of the left hand.»
Archaeology confirms this explanation: «It is to do with the relatively classic mortuary position frequently found in different ossuaries of the time of Jesus Christ. When the two hands are set in this position, crossed one over the other, the presence of the thumbs is effectively hidden.» THE FEET WOUNDS Nothing new. Explanation of the "Mérat space" with references to the CRC. A rare honesty, which deserves to be pointed out. But it is in the chapter on the medical interpretation of the death of Jesus that this hypothesis finds itself contested by Zugibe’s experiments. In fact, Mérat starts from the idea that if the nail is placed facing the Lisfranc space, though anatomically possible as Barbet showed, it does not give the Crucified any support to fight against asphyxia by catching His breath. But is it a question of fighting against asphyxia? «The first medical studies led their authors to suppose that asphyxia was inevitable, through paralysis of the respiratory muscles.» Zugibe contests this. THE MYSTERY OF THE DEATH OF JESUS What did Jesus die of? «The agony of Jesus lasted three hours, whereas the two thieves, still alive, had to have their legs broken in order to hasten their end…» Not three hours, but six: «Now, it was the third hour when they crucified Him» (Mk 15.25), that is to say nine o’clock in the morning. «At the sixth hour, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour» (15.33). Then Jesus gave a loud cry and died. Jesus, therefore, remained on the cross from the "third" to the "ninth hour": «For six hours His sacrifice lingered on, six holy hours during which His atrocious sufferings were the matter of His sacrifice and its form was His prayer» (Georges de Nantes, Chemin de Croix, preached in Canada, November 1974, 12th station). «It seems evident, remarks Doctor Guillaud-Vallée, that the length of one’s survival on the cross depended on the intensity of the preliminary cruelty, to which must be added the enforced fast (Eusebius of Cæsarea writes that some victims of crucifixion died of hunger), dehydration, exposure to the burning sun and the physical and moral pain inherent in this terrible execution. The pain felt by the crucified, especially that produced by contact between the nail and the wounded trunk of the median nerve, was terribly intense. «All the authors agree in thinking that the hematidrosis in the Garden of Olives described by Saint Luke, together with the cruelty inflicted by the Prætorian guard, and finally the crowning of thorns and the brutal flagellation, would have certainly caused a clinical condition of "pre-shock".» Yet «Pilate was surprised to hear that He had died so soon» (Mk 15.44). And the doctors are divided over the cause of so early a death. We have a presentiment here of a further mystery. THE ASPHYXIA HYPOTHESIS Olivier Guillaud-Vallée cites the testimony of Doctor Hynek concerning the traditional punishment inflicted on delinquent soldiers of the Austro-German army: «This punishment consisted in suspending the condemned man from a stake, with his wrists tied above his head, and his feet only just touching the ground, for ten minutes. After a time, as the whole weight of the body was being pulled downwards, the victim suffered a series of violent contractions in most of the body’s muscles and rapidly developed breathing difficulties.» That is not a reason for accusing the Germans of having conducted «crucifixion experiments» during the war, as Joe Zias, archaeologist of Israeli Antiquities, ventured to say on the Arte television channel in the course of the so-called "Corpus Christi" series. (B.B.-E., The truth of the Gospels. A reply to Arte’s "twenty-seven", English CRC, no 299, August 1997, p. 11) Father Dubarle wrote to me in a letter dated 21 October 1997: «Dear Brother Bruno, reading your commentary on the Arte programme in the CRC no 336, I see on page 11, at the top of the first column: "Crucifixions? Germans? During the Second World War? First news of that. One requires proofs." You will find them in the enclosed photograph from an article by A Legrand in 1952 […]. It is not first news.» Guillaud-Vallée also cites A Legrand who «has managed to collect several testimonies from former inmates of Dachau concentration camp». But what is the connection with the crucifixion? Doctor Zugibe is categorical: «The punishments inflicted by the Austro-German army on delinquent soldiers, then the cruelty perpetrated in the concentration camp of Dachau, have strictly nothing to do with the torment of the crucifixion: «In the first case, the poor wretches were suspended only from the wrists, their hands above their head and their shoulders drawn inwards, contrary to the crucified whose arms formed an angle of about sixty-five degrees with the stipes crucis (the upright post of the cross). The two positions are quite different, for the first position would seem to involve inevitable asphyxiation; the second in no way impedes breathing since there is no immobilisation of the accessory respiratory muscles.» So, let us come back to Barbet, who declared that he owed his whole diagnostic of the cause of death of those who were crucified to Doctor Hynek. And Hynek said that he owed all he knew to the Holy Shroud. «It is through the Turin picture of Our Lord’s Passion that I think I have been able to resolve the problem of the death of Christ, explaining it as a result of tetanus cramps and suffocation amidst atrocious pains, whilst fully conscious.» (Hynek, op. cit., p. 65) But that is not Zugibe’s diagnostic. This professor conceived and carried out a programme of experiments, according to the American method, overlooking nothing in his effort to «reproduce as exactly as possible the real conditions of crucifixion on a cross, as constructed for him by Father Weyland». To this cross, he attached volunteers, whose «wrists were held tight in a leather gauntlet, but not tied, against the cross, to resemble as closely as possible the cramped position of the crucified». The feet were bound side by side with a leather strap, their soles resting on the stipes. There was a meticulous medical examination beforehand, and sophisticated clinical supervision during the experiment. «All the volunteers quite naturally adopted an arched forward position, with the result that none of their backs touched the cross, unlike their shoulders which were bruised by it, forcing these young men to arch their backs even more until the backs of their heads rested painfully against the cross. «None of them felt the need to raise himself by pushing on his feet, and when Doctor Zugibe asked them to do this, the angle of the wrists did not change at all since their elbows bent naturally.» What are we to conclude? Guillaud-Vallée writes: «The serious experimentation conducted by Zugibe seems to exclude the theory of death by simple asphyxia. We must not, however, be too quick to draw a conclusion. The fact is that none of Zugibe’s experiments ever exceeded forty-five minutes, whereas we know that Christ’s agony ended after about three hours.» No not three, but six! «The previous anatomical experiments will therefore have to be repeated in order to be able to proceed, as Zugibe for his part has done, to a sort of medical counter-expertise». For our part, let us not cease to contemplate this admirable Man. Let us look at His Face. He has a lordly bearing, full of majesty. He does not look like a man desperately gasping for oxygen in order to survive. He is perfectly calm. It is the image of a man who has «given up the ghost» at the hour willed by the Father, and willingly, when everything had been «accomplished» (Jn 19. 30). BROTHER BRUNO BONNET-EYMARD |
