www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Shroud of Turin hidden by Knights Templar

Knights Templar hid the Shroud of Turin, says Vatican
The Knights Templar, a crusading order which was suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy

Richard Owen in Rome

Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said yesterday in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years.

The Knights Templar, an order which was suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy, took care of the linen cloth, which bears the image of a man with a beard, long hair and the wounds of crucifixion, according to Vatican researchers.

The Shroud, which is kept in the royal chapel of Turin Cathedral, has long been revered as the shroud in which Jesus was buried, although the image only appeared clearly in 1898 when a photographer developed a negative.

Barbara Frale, a researcher in the Vatican Secret Archives, said the Shroud had disappeared in the sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, and did not surface again until the middle of the fourteenth century. Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, Dr Frale said its fate in those years had always puzzled historians.

The Knights Templar were founded at the time of the First Crusade in the eleventh century to protect Christians making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Order was endorsed by the Pope, but when Acre fell in 1291 and the Crusaders lost their hold on the Holy Land their support faded, amid growing envy of their fortune in property and banking...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6040521.ece

PBS made a fascinating documentary on the Shroud of Turin that aired Christmas 2007.Perhaps it can be found on line.

I've heard it speculated that the Shroud was the same one that vanished at the sack of Constantinople, but this is obviously more official. I wonder if this is based on documents in the possession of the Vatican.

I used to doubt the Shroud of Turin, largely because of the scientific tests that gave it a recent date, but I learned recently that the portion that was tested was a rewoven portion, and that subsequent tests have proven that it was a mix of ancient and mideval fabric. Now I've become more and more convinced that it is authentic.

Peace and God bless!

Greetings to All!

My personal faith does not depend upon the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Whether or not the Shroud is in fact the actual burial cloth used in Our Lord's interment is certainly an interesting possibility, but far secondary to the Reality of His Resurrection for me.

Even so, the Shroud of Turin does present many unique and still inexplicable anomalies pointing to the probability of its authenticity. As numerous authors on the subject have stated, if the Shroud was a historical artifact associated with virtually any other famous historical person other than Jesus of Nazareth, it would most likely be widely accepted as authentic with little or no debate.

How sad it is that so many people deny that Jesus ever really lived, and thus also deny the validity of any possible proofs of his life and Resurrection. Acceptance of these things would undoubtedly complicate their justifications for abandoning their Christian Faith or for rejecting Christ's claims regarding Who He Is.

Equally sad is the unfortunate fact that by the time their errors become self-evident, it will be too late to recant their disbelief. Perhaps it is significant that an artifact such as the Shroud has survived for 2 milleniums to a point in human history when science and technology, the final word of authority for so many, will finally prove the Shroud's authenticity once and for all.

How fitting for an object related to Our Lord, Who promised "...Lo, I Am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Mt.28:20

+Cosmos

Perhaps the Vatican should give it back in light of the fact that it was purloined during the sacking of Constantinople?

Einar

A good point, except that in light of the very precarious future of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, any and all Christian religious treasures could feasibly end up in a Turkish museum one day...Lord have mercy!

Alice

Einar:

I have to echo Alice. The rleics of St. John Chrysostom, for example, recently given back to the EP, will never be allowed out of Turkey if the EP moves. The EP has no property rights in Turkey so everything that it holds would have to remain. I'd even be surprised if they could take their antimensia with them if the time came to pull up stakes and move the tents to a more hospitable place.

BOB

I hadn't even thought about this! Such a terrible thought.

The Turks have already had the colossal nerve to demand that Bari "return" the relics of Saint Nicholas - because Demre wants to manufacture a Santa Claus theme park!

Gobble, gobble!

Fr. Serge

I thought the same thing when that occurred many years ago! I understand the significance of the gesture, but could not those relics have been returned to the Patriarchate in some other location?

The thing to remember about the Shroud is why it provokes such strong reactions in the ungodly. If the Shroud is a medieval fake, it really doesn't affect our faith very much (or at least it should not), for Christ is still risen and nothing can change that.

On the other hand, if the Shroud is genuine, then your well-bred atheist has a lot a re-thinking to do.

Hence, it is in his interest to do everything in his power to debunk the Shroud. In the process, he does us a favor, since he seems incapable of finally putting the matter to rest.

Very true!