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April 10 (or 16), 1349:
The Hundred Year War had
been raging between France and England for over eleven years and the
Black Death had just finished ravaging most of Europe when Geoffrey
de Charny, a French knight, writes to Pope Clement VI reporting his
intention to build a church at Lirey, France. It is said he builds
St. Mary of Lirey church to honor the Holy Trinity who answered his
prayers for a miraculous escape while a prisoner of the English. He
is also already in possession of the Shroud, which some believe he
acquired in Constantinople.
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1355: According to the "D'Arcis Memorandum",
written more than thirty years later, the first known expositions of
the Shroud are held in Lirey at around this time. Large crowds of
pilgrims are attracted and special souvenir medallions are struck. A
unique surviving specimen can still be found today at the Cluny
Museum in Paris. Reportedly, Bishop Henri refused to believe the
Shroud could be genuine and ordered the expositions halted. The
Shroud was then hidden away.
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September 19, 1356: Geoffrey de Charny is killed
by the English at the Battle of Poitiers, during a last stand in
which he valiantly defends his king. Within a month his widow,
Jeanne de Vergy, appeals to the Regent of France to pass the
financial grants, formerly made to Geoffrey, on to his son, Geoffrey
II. This is approved a month later. The Shroud remains in the de
Charny family's possession.
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August 4, 1389: A letter signed by King Charles VI
of France orders the bailiff of Troyes to seize the Shroud at Lirey
and deposit it in another of Troyes' churches pending his further
decision about its disposition.
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August 15, 1389: The bailiff of Troyes reports
that on his going to the Lirey church, the dean protested that he
did not have the key to the treasury where the Shroud was kept.
After a prolonged argument, the bailiff seals the treasury's doors
so that the Shroud cannot be spirited away.
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September 5, 1389: The king's First Sergeant
reports to the bailiff of Troyes that he has informed the dean and
canons of the Lirey church that "the cloth was now verbally put into
the hands of our lord the king. The decision has also been conveyed
to a squire of the de Charny household for conveyance to his
master".
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November (?) 1389: Bishop Pierre d'Arcis of Troyes
appeals to anti-pope Clement VII at Avignon concerning the
exhibiting of the Shroud at Lirey. He describes the cloth as bearing
the double imprint of a crucified man and that it is being claimed
as the true Shroud in which Jesus' body was wrapped, attracting
crowds of pilgrims.
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January 6, 1390: Clement VII writes to Bishop
d'Arcis, ordering him to keep silent on the Shroud, under threat of
excommunication. On the same date Clement writes a letter to
Geoffrey II de Charny apparently restating the conditions under
which expositions could be allowed. That day he also writes to other
relevant individuals, asking them to ensure that his orders are
obeyed.
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June 1390: A Papal bull grants new indulgences to
those who visit St. Mary of Lirey and its relics.
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May 22, 1398: Death of Geoffrey II de Charny. He
is buried at the Abbey of Froidmont, near Beauvais, his tomb
decorated with his effigy as a knight in armour.
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1400: Geoffrey II de Charny's daughter Margaret
marries Jean de Baufremont.
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June 1418: The widowed Margaret de Charny marries
Humbert of Villersexel, Count de la Roche, Lord of St.Hippolyte sur
Doubs.
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July 6, 1418: Due to danger from marauding bands,
the Lirey canons hand over the Shroud to Humbert for safe-keeping.
He keeps it in his castle of Montfort near Montbard. Later it is
kept at St.Hippolyte sur Doubs, in the chapel called des Buessarts.
According to seventeenth century chroniclers annual expositions of
the Shroud are held at this time in a meadow on the banks of the
river Doubs called the Pré du Seigneur.
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1438: Death of Humbert de la Roche, husband of
Margaret de Charny
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May 8, 1443: Dean and canons of Lirey petition
Margaret de Charny to return the Shroud to them.
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May 9, 1443: Parlement of Dole gives judgment on
case of Margaret de Charny v. the Lirey canons.
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July 18, 1447: The Court of Besançon gives
judgment on the case of Margaret de Charny v. the Lirey canons.
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1448/9: Archives of Mons record Margaret de Charny
(as Mme de la Roche) with in her care 'what is called the Holy
Shroud of Our Lord' entering Mons and ordering French wine there.
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1449: Belgian chronicler Cornelius Zantiflet
records Margaret de Charny exhibiting the Shroud at Liege.
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September 13, 1452: Margaret de Charny shows the
Shroud a Germnolles (near Macon) in a public exposition at the
Castle.
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March 22, 1453: Margaret de Charny, at Geneva,
receives from Duke Louis I of Savoy the castle of Varambon and
revenues of the estate of Miribel near Lyon for 'valuable services'.
Those services are thought to have been the bequest of the Shroud.
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1457: Margaret de Charny is threatened with
excommunication if she does not return the Shroud to the Lirey
canons. On 30 May the letter of excommunication is sent.
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1459: Margaret de Charny's half-brother Charles de
Noyers negotiates compensation to the Lirey canons for their loss of
the Shroud, which they specifically recognize they will not now
recover. The excommunication is lifted.
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October 7, 1460: Margaret de Charny dies, leaving
her Lirey lands to her cousin and godson Antoine-Guerry des Essars.
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February 6, 1464: By an accord drawn up in Paris,
Duke Louis I of Savoy agrees to pay the Lirey canons an annual rent,
to be drawn from the revenues of the castle of Gaillard, near
Geneva, as compensation for their loss of the Shroud. (This is the
first surviving document to record that the Shroud has become Savoy
property) The accord specifically notes that the Shroud had been
given to the church of Lirey by Geoffrey de Charny, lord of Savoisy
and Lirey, and that it had then been transferred to Duke Louis by
Margaret de Charny.
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1465: Duke Louis I dies at Lyon. Just over two
decades later a chronicle of Savoy will record his acquisition of
the Shroud as his greatest achievement. He is succeeded by his son
Duke Amadeus IX an inactive but devout prince who has a Cordelier as
preceptor and who shares with his wife Duchess Yolande of France a
particular devotion to the Shroud. Amaedeus is said in 1502 to have
instituted the cult of the Shroud in the Sainte Chapelle at Chambéry.
Yolande founds Chambéry's Poor Clares convent, whose sisters, in a
few decades time, will repair the Shroud after the chapel fire.
However, Amadeus neglects to honor the terms of Duke Louis's
agreement to pay an annual rent to the Lirey canons.
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April 21, 1467: Pope Paul II elevates status of
the Chambéry chapel to a co llegiate church.
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1471: Beginning of second phase of construction of
the Sainte Chapelle at Chambéry.
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September 20, 1471: Shroud transferred from
Chambéry to Vercelli.
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1472: Death of Duke Amadeus IX.
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1472: Philibert I ('The Hunter') of Savoy succeeds
his father as Duke at the age of six, although his mother, dowager
duchess Yolande assumes the role of regent during his minority.
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May 14, 1473: Two delegates from the canons of
Lirey press regent Yolande for eight years arrears in the promised
rent, or, in place of this, the return of the Shroud to them.
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July 2, 1473: Shroud transferred from Vercelli to
Turin.
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October 5, 1473: Shroud transferred from Turin to
Ivrea.
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July 18, 1474: Shroud transferred from Ivrea to
Moncalieri.
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August 25, 1474: Shroud transferred from
Moncalieri to Ivrea.
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October 5, 1475: Shroud transferred across the
Alps from Ivrea back to Chambéry.
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1477-8: Shroud at Susa-Avigliano-Rivoli.
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March 20, 1478 (Good Friday): Shroud exhibited at
Pinerolo.
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1482: Warrant on behalf of the Lirey canons that
the dowager Duchess of Savoy should observe agreement made by her
late husband. About this same time Leonardo da Vinci leaves Florence
to serve as court painter and military engineer at the court of
Ludovico Sforza (Il Moro), Duke of Milan. He will stay in Milan for
the next 18 years.
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June 6, 1483: Jean Renguis and Georges Carrelet,
respectively chaplain and sacristan of the Sainte Chapelle at
Chambéry, draw up an inventory in which the Shroud is described as
"enveloped in a red silk drape, and kept in a case covered with
crimson velours, decorated with silver-gilt nails, and locked with a
golden key."
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1485: The Shroud is regularly carried around with
the Savoys as their Court journeys from castle to castle.
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1488 Easter Sunday: Shroud exhibited at Savigliano.
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1494 Good Friday: Dowager Duchess Bianca of Savoy
exhibits the Shroud at Vercelli in the presence of Rupis, secretary
to the Duke of Mantua. Leonardo begins painting of the Last Supper
in Milan, on which he will work for two years.
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1498: King Louis initates extensive remodelling of
the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. An inventory detailing the Shroud when
at Turin in this same year describes its case as "a coffer covered
with crimson velours, with silver gilt roses, and the sides silver
and the Holy Shroud inside wrapped in a cloth of red silk."
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June 11, 1502: At the behest of Duchess of Savoy
Marguerite of Austria, the Shroud is no longer moved around with the
Savoys during their travels, but given a permanent home in the Royal
Chapel of Chambéry Castle. Duke Philibert, Duchess Marguerite,
Francois of Luxembourg, viscount of Martigues, husband of Louise of
Savoy (grand-daughter of Duke Louis), together with nearly all the
local clergy, attend the ceremony of translation during which
Laurent Alamand, bishop of Grenoble, solemnly carries the Shroud in
its silver-gilt case from Chambéry's Franciscan church to the
Sainte-Chapelle. The Shroud is displayed on the Chapel's high altar,
then entrusted to the care of archdeacon Jacques Veyron and the
canons of the Chapel, who replace it in its case and deposit it
behind the high altar, in a special cavity hollowed out of the wall.
In this cavity it is secured by an iron grille with four locks, each
opened by separate keys, two of which are held by the Duke. Pope
Sixtus IV confers on the Chambéry chapel the title Sainte Chapelle.
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April 14, 1503 Good Friday: Exposition of the
Shroud at Bourg-en-Bresse for Archduke Philip the Handsome,
grand-master of Flanders, on his return from a journey to Spain. The
Shroud, which has been specially brought from Chambéry, with great
ceremony, by Duke Philibert of Savoy and Duchess Marguerite, is
exposed on an altar in one of the great halls of the Duke's palace.
Savoy courtier Antoine de Lalaing records of the events of that day:
"The day of the great and holy Friday, the Passion was preached in
Monsignor's chapel by his confessor, the duke and duchess attending.
Then they went with great devotion to the market halls of the town,
where a great number of people heard the Passion preached by a
Cordeilier. After that three bishops showd to the public the Holy
Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and after the service it was shown
in Monsignor's chapel." Lalaing adds that the Shroud's authenticity
has been confirmed by its having been tried by fire, boiled in oil,
laundered many times 'but it was not possible to efface or remove
the imprint and image.'
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1509: New casket/reliquary for the Shroud is
created in silver by Flemish artist Lievin van Latham, having been
commissioned by Marguerite of Austria at a cost of more than 12,000
gold ecus. The Shroud's installation in this new casket takes place
on 10 August, before the Sainte- Chapelle's grand altar, in the
presence of the presidents of the Council of Savoy and other
dignitaries. In return for the gift of the casket, the Sainte
Chapelle chapter are required to say a daily Mass for Marguerite and
her dead husband Philibert.
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1511: Private exposition for Anne of Brittany,
Queen of France, and for Francesco of Aragon.
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1513: Death at Chambéry of Marguerite's
mother-in-law dowager duchess Claude. She is buried behind the high
altar of the Sainte Chapelle, Chambéry, immediately facing the
repository containing the Shroud.
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1516: King Francis I of France journeys from Lyon
to Chambéry to venerate the Shroud after his victory at Marignan.
Copy of Shroud preserved in the Church of St.Gommaire at Lierre is
dated to this year.
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1518: Shroud exhibited from castle walls at
Chambéry in honour of the Cardinal of Aragon.
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1521: Duke Charles III marries Beatrice, daughter
of King Emanuel of Portugal in this year, and they make a pilgrimage
from Vercelli to Chambéry to venerate the Shroud. Shroud exhibited
at Chambéry for benefit of Dom Edme, abbot of Clairvaux. Carried by
three bishops, it is shown on the castle walls, and then for
privileged observers hung over the high altar of the Sainte Chapelle,
Chambéry.
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1530: Death of Marguerite of Austria.
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December 4, 1532: Fire breaks out in the Sainte
Chapelle, Chambéry, seriously damaging all its furnishings and
fittings. Because the Shroud is protected by four locks, Canon
Philibert Lambert and two Franciscans summon the help of a
blacksmith to prise open the grille. By the time they succeed,
Marguerite of Austria's Shroud casket/reliquary as made to her
orders by Lievin van Latham has become melted beyond repair by the
heat. But the Shroud folded inside is preserved bar being scorched
and holed by a drop of molten silver that fell on one corner.
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April 16, 1534: Chambéry's Poor Clare nuns repair
the Shroud, sewing it onto a backing cloth (the Holland cloth), and
sewing patches over the unsightliest of the damage. These repairs
are completed on 2 May. Covered in cloth of gold, the Shroud is
returned to the Savoys' castle in Chambéry.
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1535: Savoy is invaded by French troops. Charles
III and his family abandon Chambéry. The Shroud is taken to
Piedmont, passing through the Lanzo valley.
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May 4, 1535: The Shroud is exhibited in Turin.
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May 7, 1536: Ths Shroud is exhibited in Milan.
Indicative of the rumours that it had been destroyed in the fire,
Rabelais' Gargantua published in France in this year includes a
scene in which soldiers sacking a monastery vineyard call upon
various saints and relics when attacked with a processional cross by
one 'Frere Jean':. 'Some made a vow to St.James, others to the Holy
Shroud of Chambéry, but it caught fire three months later so that
not a single scrap could be saved...'
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1537: The Shroud is taken for safety to Vercelli
because of French invasions.
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March 29, 1537: The Shroud is exhibited from the
tower of Bellanda, Nice.
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1540: The Shroud at Aosta.
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1541: The Shroud is once again at Vercelli, where
it will stay for the next twenty years.
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Early June 1561: The Shroud is brought back to
Chambéry and deposited in the Church of St.Mary the Egyptian, in the
Franciscan convent.
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August 15 and 17, 1561: Showings of the Shroud
from the walls of the city and in the piazza of the castello.
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1578: The saintly Cardinal Charles Borromeo
(1538-1584) decides to journey on foot from Milan to Chambery to
give thanks to the Shroud following release of Milan from the
plague. To save Borromeo the rigours of a journey across the Alps
Duke Emanuel Philibert orders the cloth to be brought from Chambery.
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September 14, 1578: The Shroud arrives in Turin,
heralded by a gun salute from the local artillery.
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Friday, October 10, 1578: Private showing of the Shroud for
Charles Borromeo and his companions. Upon removal of its black silk
coverlet, the cloth is shown stretched out on a large table.
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Sunday, October 12, 1578: The Shroud is carried in
procession from the Cathedral to the Piazza del Castello where, with
Borromeo, Vercelli's cardinal, the archbishops of Turin and Savoy,
and six other bishops officiating, it is shown on a large platform
before a crowd estimated at forty thousand.
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October 14, 1578: After forty hours of devotions,
a second procession brings the Shroud to the piazza for a second
showing.
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October 15, 1578:
Second private showing of the
Shroud for the close circle of Charles Borromeo. Cusano describes
the Shroud as 'testimony to its own authenticity'.
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June 13, 14 & 15, 1582: Showings of the Shroud on
the occasion of a fresh pilgrimage by Cardinal Charles Boromeo to
Turin, with Cardinal Gabriel Paleotto as another of the officiants.
These showings are recorded on a rare print preserved in the Ufficio
Manoscritti e Rari of Turin's Biblioteca Civica.
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May 4, 1604: Showing of the Shroud in the presence
of Duke Charles Emanuel I and his Court.
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February 14, 1606: Private showing of the Shroud
to Silvestro da Assisi-Bini, father general of the Capuchin order,
an offshoot of the Franciscans.
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May 9, 1606: Public showing. The crowd swelled by
40,000 foreigners who had come to Turin to see the Shroud.
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1608: The thirtieth anniversary of the Shroud's
arrival in Turin. A print issued to mark the occasion is preserved
in London's British Museum.
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1620: Shroud shown in the castle piazza to mark
the marriage of Duke Vict or Amadeus with Christine of France.
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June 16, 1633: Public showing of the Shroud in the
Castle Piazza, Turin.
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May 4, 1635: Public showing of the Shroud in the
Castle Piazza, Turin
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1638: Private showing of the Shroud at Turin for
St.Jeanne Franeoise de Chantal, founder of the Order of the
Visitation.
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1640: Shroud exhibited as an expression of thanks
for the release of Turin from plague. A painted copy of the Shroud
preserved at the Castillo de Garcimunoz was 'extractum ex originali'
at this time.
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1642: Solemn showing of the Shroud to mark the
conclusion of peace between the princes of Savoy, in the presence of
Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy, her young son Charles Emanuel
II, and the princes Maurice and Thomas of Savoy.
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May 4, 1647: At a public showing this year, held
in the Cathedral, some of the enormous crowd died of suffocation.
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May 16 and 17, 1663: Exposition of the Shroud in
the Cathedral of Turin is delayed from the normal May 4 date to
coincide with the wedding of Duke Carlo Emanuele II of Savoy with
Francesca d'Orleans. The copy of the Shroud preserved in St. Paul's
Church, Rabat, Malta was placed in contact with the Shroud at this
time.
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1665: Showing of the Shroud in the Royal Chapel,
in the presence of Archbishop Michele Beggiano, to mark the marriage
of Duke Charles Emanuel II with Maria de Savoy-Nemours.
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May 14, 1665 (Feast of the Ascension): Shroud is
shown in public before a huge crowd, held up by seven bishops.
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March 24, 1666: Private showing for Duke
Maximilian of Bavaria.
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May 4, 1666: Public showing conducted by the
Archbishop of Turin and four bishops.
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May 4, 1667: Public showing, with ambassador
Morosini of Venice in attendance.
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June 1st, 1694: The Shroud is brought solemnly
into the Guarini Chapel where it has remained almost uninterruptedly
for over three centuries.
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May 4, 1722: Public showing.
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May 4, 1737: Public showing of the Shroud to mark
the royal marriage, commemorated by a print showing a vast crowd in
front of the royal palace, as the Shroud is displayed from a
balcony.
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June 29, 1750: Showing of the Shroud, presided
over by Cardinal Delle Lan ze, to celebrate the marriage of Prince
Victor Amadeus (III) with Maria Antonia of Bourbon, Infanta of
Spain.
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June 16, 1769: Private showing of the Shroud for
Emperor Joseph II of Hapsburg-Lorraine [?]. Shown in the Cathedral
from the balcony of the Royal Chapel for the large crowd gathered in
the Cathedral.
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October 15, 1775: Marriage of Piedmont Prince
Charles Emanuel (IV) with Princess Marie Clotilde of France marked
by showing of the Shroud with same ceremonial used in 1750.
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December 9, 1798: Forced to leave Turin and
withdraw to Sardinia, Charles Emanuel IV (1796-1802), venerates the
Shroud with the rest of the royal family before their departure.
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November 13, 1804: Private showing of the Shroud
for the visit to Turin of Pope Pius VII, virtually a prisoner en
route from Rome to Paris to crown Napoleon, who would be crowned by
none other than the Pope. According to Sanna Solaro '.. The Pope
knelt down to venerate it, then examined it in every part, kissing
it with tender devotion'. Seven cardinals, eight bishops and many
other notables were present.
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May 20, 1814: Solemn showing of the Shroud to mark
the return of the monarchy, in the person of King Victor Emanuel.
This is the first full public showing of the Shroud since 1775.
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May 21, 1815: Pope Pius VII's second presiding
over an exposition of the S hroud, this time marking his return to
Italy after Napoleon's defeat. He personally displays it from the
balcony of the Palazzo Madama. On the Shroud being returned to its
casket the latter is sealed with the papal and royal seals.
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January 4, 1822: Showing of the Shroud to mark the
start of the reign of Charles Felix, following the abdication of his
brother Victor Emanuel I. This is held out first in the Royal
Chapel, in the presence of the royal family, then displayed from the
Chapel balustrade for the benefit of the ordinary populace in the
Cathedral below.
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May 4, 1842: Showing of the Shroud to mark the
marriage of Crown Prince Victor Emanuel (II) with Maria Adelaide,
Archduchess of Austria. Lithographs show the Shroud being exhibited
from a balcony of the Palazzo Madama. The making of a daguerrotype
of the Shroud on this occasion is considered but rejected.
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April 24-27, 1868: During the brief archbishopric
of Alessandro Riccardi dei Conti di Netro, marked by exceptional
pastoral care, a showing of the Shroud is held to mark the marriage
of Prince Umberto with Princess Margaret. Instead of a brief holding
up of the cloth in the cathedral or from a balcony of the Palazzo
Madama as had happened in 1815 and 1842, the Shroud is properly
displayed on a board on the cathedral high altar for four days.
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April 28, 1868: Princess Clotilde of Savoy
(1843-1911), daughter of Victor Emanuel II and wife of Prince
Gerolamo Napoleon, changes the Shroud's former lining cloth of black
silk that had been sewn on by Bl. Sebastian Valfre back in 1694,
substituting for it one of crimson taffeta. An official record of
this, with sample of the former black silk lining, is preserved in
Turin. On this same date the Shroud is 'scrupulosamente' measured by
Monsignor Gastaldi, then bishop of Aluzzo, and later archbishop of
Turin, and found to be 410cm. x 140 cm.
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May 28, 1898: Public exhibition. Secondo Pia, an
Italian amateur photographer, makes the first photograph of the
Shroud of Turin. It ushers in a new era in the Shroud's history, the
era of science.
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1900: Canon Ulysse Chevalier's Etude critique sur
l'origine du Saint Suaire de Lirey-Chambry-Turin is published in
Paris, detailing the d' Arcis memorandum and other mediaeval
documents indicating the Shroud's fraudulence.
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April 21, 1902: (Monday afternoon) Agnostic
anatomy professor Yves Delage presents a paper on the Shroud to the
Academy of Sciences, Paris, arguing for the Shroud's medical and
general scientific convincingness, and stating his opinion that it
genuinely wrapped the body of Christ.
(Evening) Secretary for the physics section of the Academy, Marcelin
Berthelot, inventor of thermo-chemistry, and a militant atheist,
orders Delage to rewrite his paper (for publication in the Comptes
rendus de l' Acadmie des Sciences) so that it treats only on the
vaporography of zinc and makes no allusion to the Shroud or to
Christ.
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April 23, 1902: Paris edition of New York Herald
carries headline, 'Photographs of Christ's Body found by science'.
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April 27, 1902: Paris edition of New York Herald
carries headline, 'Scientists Denounce Turin's Holy Shroud. M.
Leopold Delisle tells Academy of Inscriptions "the claim has not
been proved"'.
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1918: Alarmed by the danger of air raids from the
World War then raging, King Victor Emanuel III orders the Shroud to
be put in a place of safety, on condition that it does not leave the
Royal Palace. A secret underground chamber is specially constructed
two floors below ground level in the south-east side of Turin's
Royal Palace, with not even the contractors told its purpose. On the
floor of this chamber is set a large strongbox with a complex
combination lock. On 6 May the casket of the Shroud is removed from
the Royal Chapel (in which it has lain undisturbed since 1898). It
is wrapped in a thick blanket of asbestos, put in a chest made of
tin plate, hermetically sealed with cold solder, then carried down
to the secret chamber, where it is solemnly locked inside the
strongbox. Prayers are recited, after which the chamber's heavy
entrance doors are locked.
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May 3-24, 1931: Eighth public exhibition on the
occasion of the marriage of Prince Umberto of Piedmont, later to
become Umberto II of Savoy, to Princes Maria Jos of Belgium.
Cardinal Fossati officiates. Two million visitors flock to Turin for
this occasion.
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May 23, 1931: Giuseppe Enrie photographs the
Shroud, confirming Secondo Pia's findings. He takes three pictures
of the Shroud face, one life-size; also a detail of the shoulders
and back, and a seven-fold enlargement of the wound in the wrist.
The photography takes place in the presence of the now seventy-six
year old Secondo Pia and scientists of the French Academy.
In this same year and the following one, Dr. Pierre Barbet conducts
experiments on cadavers to reconstruct the Passion of Jesus as
exhibited in the Shroud's bloodstains and wound marks.
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September 24 to October 15, 1933: At the request
of Pope Pius XI the Shroud is exhibited as part of the celebrations
for Holy Year. The young Salesian priest Fr. Peter Rinaldi, fluent
in French and English, as well as Italian, acts as interpreter. On
the final day, 15 October, the Shroud is held out in daylight on the
steps of the cathedral where Dr. Pierre Barbet views it from a
distance of less than a yard. He writes: 'I saw that all the images
of the wounds were of a color quite different from that of the rest
of the body, and this color was that of dried blood which had sunk
into the stuff. There was, thus, more than the brown stains on the
Shroud reproducing the outline of the corpse. The blood itself had
colored the stuff by direct contact. It is difficult for one
unversed in painting to define the exact color, but the foundation
was red ('mauve carmine' said M. Vignon, who had a fine sense of
color), diluted more or less according to the wounds'.
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1937: Father Edward Wuenschel, a teacher at the
Redemptorist school at Mt. St. Esopus, New York, with a strong
interest in the Shroud, corresponds with Giuseppe Enrie and Paul
Vignon. He and Vignon collaborate on an article for Scientific
American and, later in the year, he founds the American Commission
on Studies of the Holy Shroud. Although it lasts less than two
decades, it gains the distinction of being the first Shroud research
organization in America.
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1938: Publication of Paul Vignon's Le Saint Suaire
de Turin devant la science, l' archologie, l' histoire, l'
iconographie, la logique, by far the most definitive book on the
Shroud published up to that time.
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May 1939: First National Congress on Shroud
Studies held in Turin, with some twenty papers presented, including
Dr. Maser' 'The Verdict of Forensic Medicine upon the Imprints on
the Shroud', and Cecchelli', 'The Dependence of Early Byzantine
Iconography upon the Face on the Turin Shroud'.
-
September 1939: The outbreak of World War II
brings European Shroud research to a halt. The Shroud is secretly
taken for safety to the Benedictine Abbey of Montevergine, in the
province of Avellino, northeast of Naples. There are brief stops in
Rome and Naples on its journey.
-
September 25, 1939: The Shroud arrives at the
Abbey. Only the Prior, the vicar general and two of the monks are
entrusted with the knowledge of what they are protecting.
-
June 1946: The Italian people vote for a republic,
ending the rule of Umberto II of Savoy, the Shroud's legal owner.
-
October 28, 1946: The Shroud is exhibited to the
monks of Montevergine prior to its post-war return to Turin. It is
laid on a table in the abbey's reception hall, but strict orders are
given that no one should directly touch it.
The Shroud returns to Turin and its traditional housing in the Royal
Chapel. However, with the fall of the monarchy, and because the
Chapel is part of the now state-owned Royal Palace, the Shroud is
technically on Italian state territory.
-
1950: International Sindonological Congress held,
as part of Holy Year celebrations, at the Palazzo della Cancelleria,
Rome. Pope Pius XII sends telegram of benediction.
In Esopus, New York, Father Adam Otterbein, now responsible for the
Shroud work begun by Father Wuenschel, begins distributing pamphlets
of some of his mentor's manuscripts. He decides on "Holy Shroud
Guild" as a simple mailing address.
-
October 6, 1951: The Holy Shroud Guild is
canonically erected as a Pious Sodality of the Venerators of the
Most Holy Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Its founder and first
president is Rev. Adam J. Otterbein. Father Wuenschel, away in Rome,
is named Honorary President. There were also two Councilors, Frs.
Francis Filas and Peter Rinaldi.
-
Holy Week 1954: British war hero, Group Captain
Leonard Cheshire VC, having become inspired by the Shroud face while
recuperating from tuberculosis, uses touring bus to tour Britain
with an exhibition of Shroud photographs.
-
Easter 1955: Group Captain Cheshire publishes
articles on the Shroud in the British Picture Post and Daily Sketch.
-
May 11, 1955: Cheshire receives letter from Mrs.
Veronica Woollam of Gloucester, asking if her ten-year-old daughter
Josephine, crippled with osteomyelitis in the hip and leg, 'could be
blessed with the relic of the Holy Shroud'. Unable to travel by air
because of his lungs, Cheshire takes Josephine and her mother by
train, first to Portugal, for ex-King Umberto's permission, then to
Turin in the hope of her being healed via the Shroud. The Shroud is
taken out of its casket, its seals are broken and Josephine is
allowed to put her hand in beneath the silk covering. But it is not
unrolled. Although there was no immediate change in Josephine's
condition, she later recovers to lead a normal life, though she will
die young.
-
December 18, 1959: Formation of the Centro
Internazionale di Sindonologia, the Turin International Center for
the Turin Shroud.
-
1960: British Shroud enthusiast Vera Barclay
writes to scientists at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE),
Harwell, regarding the viability of radiocarbon dating the Shroud.
Dr. J. P. Clarke and P. J. Anderson respond, expressing serious
doubts.
-
December 17, 1961: Death of Dr. Pierre Barbet.
-
June 16-18 1969: On the orders of Turin's Cardinal
Michele Pellegrino, the Shroud is secretly taken out of its casket
for its state of preservation to be studied by a team of experts.
These examine, photograph and discuss for three days, but do no
direct testing. During this same period, and with the Shroud hung
vertically for the purpose, Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia takes
the first ever Shroud photo in color, also fresh black and white
ones, and ones by Woods light.
-
October 1, 1972: Attempt to set fire to the Shroud
on the part of an unknown individual who breaks into the Royal
Chapel after climbing over the Palace roof. The Shroud survives due
to its asbestos protection within the altar shrine.
-
October 4, 1973: Dr. Max Frei and others,
assembled in Turin's Hall of the Swiss and with the Shroud
apparently in a frame before them, notarize as authentic the Shroud
photographs taken by Giovanni Battista Judica-Cordiglia. Although it
is not stated, the Shroud would seem to have been brought out on
this occasion as a test-run/frame fitting for the TV exposition
seven weeks later.
-
November 22, 1973: (Thursday) The Shroud is
displayed in the Hall of the Swiss, within Turin's Royal Palace, in
preparation for its first ever television showing. International
journalists and some serious researchers on the subject, including
Britain's Dr. David Willis and Fr. Maurus Green, are allowed to view
the Shroud directly during this time.
-
November 23, 1973: (9.15-9.45 p.m.). The Shroud is
exhibited for the first time ever on television, in color, and with
a filmed introduction by Pope Paul VI.
-
November 24, 1973: The Shroud is secretly examined
by a new Commission of experts, brought together by Cardinal
Pellegrino. On this occasion Professor Gilbert Raes takes from one
edge of the Shroud's frontal end one 40x13-mm sample, also from the
side-strip one 40x10-mm portion, together with one 13-mm warp thread
and one 12-mm weft thread. Dr. Max Frei, Swiss criminologist, is
among the other specialists present, and is allowed to take 12
samples of surface dust from the Shroud's extreme frontal end, using
adhesive tape to remove these. The Shroud is returned to its casket
the same evening.
-
February 19, 1976: In the U.S.A., at Sandia
Laboratories, Dr. John Jackson and Bill Mottern view for the first
time the Shroud three-dimensional image via a VP8 Image Analyzer. It
is a moment that would prove to be significant in Shroud history,
since it catalyzed the interest of a diverse group of scientists
that eventually would become the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP).
They ultimately would spend 120 hours performing the first in-depth
scientific examination of the Shroud.
-
April 1976: Release of Report of the Turin
Scientific Commission, with the first public information of the
pollen findings of Dr. Max Frei, who claims that the Shroud's dust
includes pollens from some plants that are exclusive to Israel and
to Turkey, suggesting that the Shroud must at one time have been
exposed to the air in these countries.
-
March 23-24, 1977: First U.S. Conference of
Research on the Shroud, at the Ramada Inn, Albuquerque, New Mexico,
attended by Frs. Rinaldi and Otterbein, Rev. David Sox, Dr. John
Robinson, filmmaker David Rolfe and many members of what would
become the STURP team.
-
May 1977: First experimental use, at Rochester
University, New York State, U.S.A., of the accelerator mass
spectrometry (AMS) method of radiocarbon dating, by which very much
smaller samples can be dated than had previously been thought
possible. This is the method that will be used to date the Shroud.
One of the leading pioneers of this method is Rochester University's
Professor Harry Gove.
-
June 24, 1977: Rev. David Sox, General Secretary
of the newly formed British Society for the Turin Shroud, writes to
Professor Harry Gove of Rochester, following an article in Time
magazine about the new radiocarbon dating technique.
-
September 16-17, 1977: A Symposium on the Shroud
held at the Anglican Institute of Christian Studies, London, with
Drs. Jackson, Jumper, Frei, and McCrone among the speakers, also
Frs. Rinaldi and Otterbein, Monsignor Ricci, and Don Coero-Borga.
-
January 20, 1978: Anastasio Ballestrero, the new
Archbishop of Turin, announces that the Shroud is to be publicly
exhibited from 27 August to 8 October of this year, with an
International Congress on the last two days.
-
June 3-4, 1978: In Colorado Springs, U.S.A., John
Jackson Eric Jumper's group of scientists meets for a conference to
plan their scientific testing of the Shroud.
-
August 6, 1978: Sudden death of Pope Paul VI, who
had expected to visit Turin to view the Shroud during the period of
the expositions, one of his only two out-of-Rome engagements
pencilled in for the autumn. Convening of conclave to elect the next
Pope.
-
August 26, 1978: The Shroud is exhibited at
inaugural Mass on the first day of a five-week-long period of
expositions commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Shroud in
Turin. It is the first public exhibition since 1933. In the very
same hour of the inaugural Mass, Cardinal Luciani of Venice is
proclaimed Pope in Rome, becoming Pope John Paul I, to live just
thirty-three days more. During the five weeks the Shroud is publicly
displayed, more than 3.5 million visitors view the cloth.
-
September 1, 1978: Among the pilgrims who view the
Shroud on this day is Karol, Cardinal Woytywa of Poland, shortly to
become Pope John Paul II.
-
September 2-3, 1978: In Amston, Connecticut, Dr.
John Jackson's group of scientists, at this time calling themselves
the United States Conference of Research on the Shroud of Turin,
meet to finalize their plans, following Turin having agreed to a
twenty-four hour test period on 9 October. This meeting would become
known as the "Dry Run" and was the first time that the entire team
assembled together. They spend their time reviewing the planned
experiments and testing their equipment, including the special table
designed to hold the Shroud. They also sign the agreement that
formally creates the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP).
-
September 28, 1978: Sudden death of Pope John Paul
I. While Cardinal of Venice he had planned to visit the Shroud on 21
September and was rumored to have been intending a quiet private
visit before the close of the exposition.
-
September 29, 1978: The STURP team departs the
United States for Turin under a cloud of doubt, concerned that the
death of the Pope John Paul I the night before might cause the
cancellation of their testing.
-
September 30, 1978: The STURP team arrives in
Turin. Some of their luggage is lost and Italian Customs authorities
hold all eighty cases of their test equipment, refusing to release
any of it. One particularly delicate piece of x-ray equipment needs
to be filled with liquid nitrogen or it will be damaged beyond
repair. Access is denied.
-
Early October, 1978: En route to Turin to take
part in the Second International Symposium on the Shroud, Professor
Harry Gove stops off in Oxford to inform Hall of Oxford about the
possibility of radiocarbon dating the Shroud. Although Hall does not
yet have an AMS facility, he expresses himself and his colleagues as
being very enthusiastic to 'get in on the act'.
-
October 1-5, 1978: The STURP team, originally
planning to use the week to set up and test their equipment, spends
their time holding planning meetings three times a day and making
continued attempts to get the equipment released by Italian Customs.
-
October 5, 1978: At 2:30 p.m., the truck bearing
eighty cases of delicate STURP equipment finally enters the
courtyard of the Royal Palace. The team begins the task of unloading
the truck and moving the crates of instruments into the Hall of
Visiting Princes. They are five days behind schedule.
The first piece of equipment opened by the STURP team is the
delicate x-ray device requiring the liquid nitrogen. To everyone's
amazement, there is just enough of the cold liquid remaining in the
device to keep the delicate tube functioning. It has lasted days
beyond its rated capacity.
-
October 6-7, 1978: The STURP team works around the
clock to prepare the palace and unpack and setup their equipment. A
number of team members leave the palace to attend the Symposium.
-
October 7-8, 1978: Second International Symposium
on the Shroud is held at the Istituto Bancario San Paolo, Turin, at
which Gove's new method is announced. Jackson and Jumper attend and
present their work.
-
October 8, 1978: At around 10:45 p.m., and
slightly ahead of schedule, the Shroud is removed from public
display and taken through the Guarini Chapel into the Hall of
Visiting Princes within Turin's Royal Palace. Thus begins a five-day
period of examination, photography and sample taking by STURP, John
Jackson's group of scientists from the U.S.A. Dr. Max Frei, Giovanni
Riggi, Professor Pierluigi Baima-Bollone and others carry out
independent research programs alongside. During this time the Shroud
is lengthily submitted to photographic floodlighting, to low-power
X-rays and to narrow band ultraviolet light. Dozens of pieces of
sticky tape are pressed onto its surface and removed. A side edge is
unstitched and an apparatus inserted between the Shroud and its
backing cloth to examine the underside, which has not been seen in
over 400 years. The bottom edge (at the foot of the frontal image)
is also unstitched and examined. On the night of 9 October Baima
Bollone obtains sample of Shroud bloodstain by mechanically
disentangling warp and weft threads in the area of the 'small of the
back' bloodstain on the Shroud's dorsal image.
-
October 8-12, 1978: STURP continues its
around-the-clock examination of the Shroud, performing dozens of
tests, taking thousands of photographs, photomicrographs, x-rays and
spectra. A total of 120 continuous hours of testing is done, with
team members working on different parts of the Shroud
simultaneously. This is the most in-depth series of tests ever
performed on the Shroud of Turin.
-
October 13, 1978: (Friday) STURP completes their
scientific work during the evening of this day. The Shroud is
returned to its casket the following morning.
En route back to New Mexico Dr. Ray Rogers stops off in Chicago and
hand-delivers to Dr. Walter McCrone's laboratory thirty-two of the
sticky tape samples taken from the Shroud.
-
December 25, 1978: Dr. Walter McCrone begins
examination of image samples from the Shroud.
-
February 1979: Gove and colleagues write to
Archbishop Ballestrero of Turin, formally offering to radiocarbon
date the Shroud using their new method.
-
March 24-25, 1979: STURP holds its 'First Data
Analysis Workshop' on the Shroud, in Santa Barbara, California.
According to their preliminary findings, the image shows no evidence
of the hand of an artist; the body image does not appear to be any
form of scorch; and the blood image was probably present before the
body image. But Walter McCrone claims he has found evidence of an
artist and stuns the meeting by stating, "anybody who is emotionally
wrapped up in the Shroud should start to consider the possibility
that he better relax his emotions." McCrone's views are not shared
by STURP. Thus begins a highly polarized, long-term, often
adversarial relationship between McCrone and STURP.
-
October 12-14, 1979: The STURP team meets at Los
Alamos National Laboratory near Albuquerque, New Mexico, to review,
compare and correlate data from the various tests performed on the
Shroud and celebrate the first anniversary of their examination.
Reports are presented for each experiment and each team member
provides an update of his work. Father Francis Filas presents his
"Coin Theory" for the first time.
-
April 13, 1980: On a visit to Turin Pope John Paul
II has a private showing of the Shroud and kisses the cloth's hem.
-
September11, 1980: Dr. Walter McCrone lectures to
the British Society for the Turin Shroud in London, again claiming
the Shroud to be the work of a mediaeval artist who painted in iron
oxide, using a very dilute tempera binding medium. British
journalist Peter Jennings publishes the news without authorization.
-
October 17-19, 1980: A group of key STURP
scientists meets in Espanola, New Mexico, to review a rough draft of
the group's summary paper. The paper is scheduled for release
sometime before the expiration of STURP's formal agreement with its
team members, in October 1981.
-
Spring 1981: Dr. John Jackson and Larry Schwalbe
of STURP, together with Luigi Gonella, and Frs. Otterbein and
Rinaldi visit ex-King Umberto II of Savoy in Cascais, Portugal, to
report on the 1978 testing.
-
May 13, 1981: (Wednesday) Dr. John Jackson, Fr.
Adam Otterbein and other STURP representatives are in St. Peter's
Square awaiting an audience with Pope John Paul II to report to him
on the 1978 testing when the Pope is shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet
Ali Agca.
-
October 10-11, 1981: The STURP team meets at
Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, for an
invitation-only symposium closed to the public. The meeting, planned
for the final review of the group's scientific work, is sidetracked
and filled with conflict over the early release of a team member's
book and the lawsuit initiated against him and his publisher by
STURP's Board of Directors. The meeting also marks the official
expiration of the group's original written agreement with its team
members and brings to a close the most productive period of its
history.
-
December 1981: STURP informs the Turin authorities
that the Arizona, Brookhaven, Oxford and Rochester laboratories have
all agreed to participate in a radiocarbon- dating of the Shroud.
-
July 1982: The British Museum Trustees agree that
their Keeper of Scientific Services should act as supervisor of any
project to demonstrate satisfactory carbon dating of textiles, prior
to any dating of the Shroud. AERE Harwell and the Zurich AMS
facility are added to the list of laboratories willing to
participate in any radiocarbon dating of the Shroud.
-
October 28-30, 1982: Six of STURP's team members
present papers at the International Conference on Cybernetics and
Society, sponsored by the IEEE in Seattle, Washington.
-
January 14, 1983: Death of Dr. Max Frei, leaving
unfinished the book he was writing on his pollen findings. His
estate, with all his Shroud materials, passes to his widow Gertrud
and their son Ulrich.
-
March 18, 1983: Death of ex-king Umberto II in
Cascais. The Shroud's formal owner, his will discloses that he has
bequeathed the Shroud to the Pope and his successors, with the
proviso that the cloth stays in Turin.
-
October 16, 1984: Dr. John Jackson and Tom D'
Muhala present Cardinal Ballestrero with proposals for further
scientific work on the Shroud. They have quietly formed a new group
called "STURP II" and enlisted the participation of many of the
original team members. Their efforts would be in vain.
-
February 15, 1985: Jesuit priest Father Francis
Filas, best known for his controversial discovery of inscriptions on
the coins in the eyes of the man of the Shroud, dies of a heart
attack in his residence at Loyola University, Chicago, at the age of
69. His claims that the inscriptions could be used to date the cloth
to the first century were widely publicized and garnered both praise
and criticism from the scientific community. Filas was also one of
the founding members of the Holy Shroud Guild.
-
June 1, 1985: At a meeting in Trondheim, Norway,
Dr. Tite and Richard Burleigh of the British Museum, London, release
the results of an inter-comparison experiment conducted between six
radiocarbon dating laboratories, some using the old proportional
counter method, others the new AMS method pioneered by Dr. Harry
Gove. One of the samples was a 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy
wrapping for which one of the laboratories, Zurich, produced a
1000-year error due to faulty pre-treatment. Despite this gaffe, the
experiment is seen as opening the way for a radiocarbon dating of
the Shroud. Dr. Harry Gove sets in motion plans for a meeting of the
six laboratories and the British Museum to agree on a working
procedure for the Shroud dating. It is suggested that the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences be contacted.
-
August 1985: This idea is submitted to Professor
Carlos Chagas, President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
Rome.
-
October 1985: Professor Gove meets with Professor
Chagas in New York to discuss the holding of a workshop of all
parties interested to radiocarbon date the Shroud.
-
November 1985: Professor Chagas intimates that
there will soon be a meeting to discuss the dating of the Shroud.
-
January 1986: Paul Maloney of the U.S. Shroud
group ASSIST receives from Dr. Max Frei's widow two copies of Frei's
unpublished manuscript, together with five of the sticky-tape
samples he took in 1978.
-
February 1986: Professor Gove meets with Turin's
Professor Gonella in New York, who insists that the proposed
radiocarbon-dating workshop be held in Turin.
-
February 16, 1986: Shroud Conference at
Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, at which some of
Dr. Max Frei's pollen samples are examined by the attendees, who
include Walter McCrone. McCrone almost immediately confirms
observing pollen.
-
April 1986: Professor Chagas sends out invitations
for the workshop meeting to take place in Turin on 9-11 June. Chagas
has revealed this to the British journalist Peter Jennings, who
publishes the story, precipitating heated feelings concerning this
disclosure.
-
May 16, 1986: The Pontifical Academy of Sciences
sends a cable, postponing meeting to discuss the carbon dating of
the Shroud.
-
May 27, 1986: Dr. Harry Gove, with Professor Hall
of Oxford and British Museum Director Sir David Wilson as
co-signatories, cables Cardinals Casaroli and Ballestrero, angrily
protesting the postponement and warning that several institutions
may withdraw.
-
September 29 to October 1, 1986: Representatives
of several radiocarbon dating laboratories at last meet in Turin,
under Professor Chagas' chairmanship, to discuss the best 'protocol'
for radiocarbon dating the Shroud. A protocol is drawn up for seven
laboratories (five AMS, two small-counter) to take part, the AMS
facility at Gif-sur-Yvette, France, having been added to the list.
This is then submitted to both the Pope and the Cardinal of Turin.
-
October 6, 1986: News of the meeting is released
to the world's press.
-
April 27, 1987: The Turin paper La Stampa publicly
quotes Professor Gonella as saying that only two or three
laboratories would be involved in the testing.
-
July 1, 1987: Representatives of the seven
laboratories write a letter to Cardinal Ballestrero advising: 'As
participants in the workshop who devoted considerable effort to
achieve our goal we would be irresponsible if we were not to advise
you that this fundamental modification in the proposed procedures
may lead to failure'.
-
October 10, 1987: Cardinal Ballestrero of Turin
writes to the seven radiocarbon laboratories informing them that on
the advice of his scientific advisor Professor Gonella, it is only
three of their number, the Oxford, Arizona and Zurich laboratories,
who have been chosen to perform the testing. Ballestrero's letter
states that ' experience in the field of archaeological radiocarbon
dating' was a criterion. The cardinal also advises that certain
other details of the 1986 protocol have been scrapped, including any
further involvement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the
exercise. Also eliminated is the participation of Swiss textile
expert Mme. Flury-Lemberg who, it had been intended, would actually
physically remove the samples from the Shroud. Dr. Tite is named as
the appointed supervisor for certification of the samples.
-
November 1987: The directors of the three chosen
laboratories warn Cardinal Ballestrero: 'As you are aware, there are
many critics in the world who will scrutinize these measurements in
great detail. The abandonment of the original protocol and the
decision to proceed with only three laboratories will certainly
enhance the skepticism of these critics'. The chosen three declare
themselves 'hesitant to proceed', and request the matter be given
'further consideration'.
-
January 13, 1988: The Turin newspaper La Stampa
discloses that Professor Gove and Dr. Harbottle have written an open
letter to the Pope, also to Nature and the director of the British
Museum, deploring the rejection of the seven-laboratory protocol.
They claim that the Pope has been 'badly advised' and 'that he is
making a mistake if he approves a limited or reduced version of the
research whose outcome will be, to say the least, questionable'.
-
January 15, 1988: In a press release Gove and Dr.
Harbottle conclude, 'The Archbishop's plan, disregarding the
protocol, does not seem capable of producing a result that will meet
the test of credibility and scientific rigor' and that 'it is
probably better to do nothing than to proceed with a scaled-down
experiment'.
Professor Gonella declines to explain the reasons for his choice of
laboratories, terming it a private matter.
-
January 22, 1988: Professor Gonella and leading
representatives of the Oxford, Arizona and Zurich laboratories meet
in the Board Room of the British Museum, London, to discuss the best
procedures to be adopted. News of this meeting is released the same
evening.
-
February 1988: Dr. Tite tries unsuccessfully to
find control samples of weave identical to the Shroud.
-
March 25, 1988: Professor Gove writes to the Pope
outlining all that has transpired and appealing to him to persuade
Cardinal Ballestrero to revert to the original protocol. His letter
is ignored.
-
April 13, 1988: (Wednesday) Professor Paul Damon
holds an 'open house' for journalists at his Arizona radiocarbon
dating laboratory to show them where and how the work on the Shroud
samples will be done.
-
April 21, 1988: At 5 a.m. the Shroud is secretly
taken out of its casket. At 6.30 a.m. Dr. Tite and the
representatives of the three laboratories assemble at the cathedral.
In the cathedral sacristy the Shroud is unrolled and shown to
assembled representatives of the three chosen radiocarbon dating
laboratories. Professor Testore of Turin Polytechnic, Gonella's
choice as textile expert in place of Mme. Flury-Lemberg, reportedly
asks 'What's that brown patch?' of the wound in the side. Professor
Riggi and Professor Gonella reportedly spend two hours arguing about
the exact location on the Shroud from which the sample should be
taken. During the event, it is Riggi who seems in charge of the
operation.
At 9.45 a.m., with a video-camera recording his every move (he will
later sell copies to international media and others), he cuts a
sliver from one edge and divides this into two, then divides one of
these halves into three. In a separate room (the Sala Capitolare),
and now unrecorded by any camera, the Cardinal and Dr. Tite place
these three latter samples in sealed canisters, for the respective
laboratories to take away with them. At 1 p.m. the sample taking for
carbon-dating purposes is formally completed, and the laboratory
representatives depart.
During the afternoon, and in the presence of some twenty witnesses,
Riggi takes blood samples from the lower part of the crown-of-thorns
bloodstains on the Shroud's dorsal image. According to Riggi's own
subsequent account, he received the cardinal's permission to take
for himself both these 'blood' samples and the portion of the Shroud
he cut away but which was superfluous to the needs of the
carbon-dating laboratories. These samples he will deposit in a bank
vault. At 8.30 p.m. the Shroud is returned to its casket.
-
April 22, 1988:(Friday) The news of the taking of
the samples is released to the world's press.
-
April 24, 1988: (Sunday) Safely arrived back in
Tucson, Damon and Donahue of the Arizona laboratory informally open
the samples, immediately recognizing the characteristic weave of the
Shroud on opening sample A1. A photograph taken on this occasion
shows this sample to have been in two parts.
-
April 25, 1988: (Monday) Formal opening of the
Arizona samples, with Damon and Donahue now joined by Toolin and
Jull.
-
May 6, 1988: 9.50 am. In the presence of Professor
Harry Gove, who has been invited to be present, the Shroud sample is
run through the Arizona system. With the calibration applied, the
date arrived at is 1350 AD.
-
June 8, 1988: The Arizona laboratory completes its
work on the Shroud.
-
Week of July 4, 1988: Having delayed because of
technical adjustments to their radiocarbon dating unit, the Oxford
laboratory begins its pre-treatment of its Shroud sample and
controls.
-
July 15, 1988: At the Hotel Thalwiler Hof, Thalwil,
Switzerland, Dr. Max Frei's entire collection of twenty-eight
sticky-tape Shroud samples is formally handed over to the American
Shroud group ASSIST.
-
July 22, 1988: (Friday) Dr. Michael Tite of the
British Museum receives the Zurich laboratory's radiocarbon dating
findings.
-
July 23, 1988: Shroud Meeting at the Academy of
Natural Science, Philadelphia, in which Dr. Max Frei's sticky tape
samples, just brought over from Europe, are formally and
collectively studied by Dr. Walter McCrone, Dr. Alan Adler and
others, under the auspices of the U.S. Shroud group ASSIST. This
reveals that, in addition to pollens and fabric particles, the tapes
bear a surprising proportion of plant parts and floral debris,
suggesting that actual flowers were laid on the Shroud at some time
during its history.
-
July 27, 1988: (Wednesday) The Oxford laboratory
commences its first run of its Shroud sample and controls.
-
August 8, 1988: The Oxford laboratory completes
its Shroud work.
-
August 26, 1988: The London Evening Standard
carries banner headlines declaring the Shroud to be a fake made in
1350. The source, Cambridge librarian Dr. Stephen Luckett, has no
known previous connection with the Shroud, or with the carbon dating
work, but in this article declares scientific laboratories 'leaky
institutions'. The story is picked up around the world.
-
September 18, 1988: Without quoting its source,
The Sunday Times publishes a front-page story headlined: 'Official:
The Turin Shroud is a Fake'. Professor Hall and Dr. Tite firmly deny
any responsibility for this story.
-
October 13, 1988:(Thursday) At a press conference
held in Turin, Cardinal Ballestrero, Archbishop of Turin, makes an
official announcement that the results of the three laboratories
performing the Carbon dating of the Shroud have determined an
approximate 1325 date for the cloth. At a similar press conference
held at the British Museum, London, it is announced that the Shroud
dates between 1260 and 1390 AD. Newspaper headlines immediately
brand the Shroud a fake and declare that the Catholic Church has
accepted the results.
-
November 17, 1988: (Thursday) Dr. Michael Tite
gives lecture to the British Society for the Turin Shroud on his
radiocarbon-dating work.
-
February 15, 1989: (Wednesday) In a talk at the
Logan Hall, Institute of Education, London, Professor Hall lectures
to the British Museum Society on 'The Turin Shroud: A Lesson in
Self-Persuasion'. He very forcefully declares anyone continuing to
regard the Shroud as genuine a 'Flat Earther' and 'onto a loser'.
-
February 16, 1989: Publication, in the prestigious
scientific journal Nature, of the official results of the Shroud
radiocarbon dating. This has twenty-one signatories. It declares
that the results 'provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the
Shroud of Turin is medieval'.
-
March 20, 1989: (Palm Sunday) Retirement of
Cardinal Ballestrero as Archbishop of Turin, to be succeeded by
Giovanni Saldarini, formerly of the Milan Archdiocese. Cardinal
Ballestrero temporarily remains official custodian of the Shroud.
-
March 24, 1989: (Good Friday) A press release to
the UK press announces that forty-five businessmen and 'rich
friends' have donated 1 million to create a chair of archaeological
sciences at Oxford to perpetuate the radiocarbon-dating laboratory
created by Professor Edward Hall. The first incumbent is to be the
British Museum's Dr. Michael Tite.
-
April 28, 1989: Interviewed by journalists during
a plane journey forming part of the papal visit to Africa, Pope John
Paul II guardedly speaks of the Shroud as an authentic relic, while
insisting that 'the Church has never pronounced on the matter'.
-
May 6-7, 1989: International Shroud Symposium 'La
Sindone e Le Icone' held in Bologna.
-
June 4, 1989: Death of University of Arizona
physicist Timothy W. Linick, one of the authors of the Nature report
on the Shroud radiocarbon dating.
-
September 7-8, 1989: Shroud Symposium organized by
the French Shroud group CIELT is held in Paris. The speakers include
Professor Michael Tite.
-
September 30, 1989: New Scientist reports findings
of the scientific workshop at East Kilbride that 'the margin of
error with radiocarbon-dating ... may be two or three times as great
as practitioners of the technique have claimed'.
-
March 9 to September 2, 1990: London's British
Museum holds exhibition entitled 'Fake. The Art of Deception'. This
includes a life-size transparency of the Turin Shroud.
-
May 4, 1990: During celebration of the Feast of
the Holy Shroud in the Royal Chapel, Turin (reputedly, shortly after
the words 'Ita missa est'), several chunks of stone crash to the
floor from the roof ninety-eight feet above. These are due to shifts
on the part of exterior sustaining arches. The Chapel is closed and
a temporary canopy erected over its altar.
-
September 18, 1990: Vatican press conference
announces the transfer 'of the position as Pontifical Custodian for
the conservation and cult of the Holy Shroud to His Excellency
Monsignor Giovanni Saldarini, Archbishop of Turin'.
-
June 22-23, 1991: Scholars from Italy, Spain,
France, Australia and the United States gather at St. Louis
University in St. Louis, Missouri, for a Symposium on the Shroud.
The meeting closes with the forming of a task force to ultimately
formulate an American position on conservation and further testing
of the Shroud. A second meeting for this purpose is held several
months later, but with little impact on sindonology.
-
September 7, 1992: (Monday) The Shroud is brought
out for examination in the sacristy of Turin Cathedral before five
textile experts: England's Sheila Landi; Switzerland's Mechtheld
Flury-Lemberg; the USA's Jeanette M. Cardamone; Italy's Silvio Diana
and Gian Luigi. Optical observation only is permitted and no samples
are taken. The Shroud is re-sealed in its casket.
-
February 24, 1993: (Ash Wednesday) Because of the
repairs to the Royal Chapel, the Shroud, without being taken out of
its casket, is removed from its normal shrine in the Royal Chapel
and transferred to a specially designed but temporary plate glass
display case behind the High Altar, in the main body of Turin
Cathedral. In poor health, Fr. Peter Rinaldi has flown from the
States to be present at this transfer, but collapses and is taken to
a Turin hospital.
-
February 28, 1993: Death of Fr. Peter Rinaldi, one
of the co-founders of the Holy Shroud Guild and, along with Frs.
Adam Otterbein and Francis Filas, among the main people responsible
for helping STURP obtain permission to perform their examination of
the Shroud in 1978.
-
April 15, 1993: American pediatrician Dr. Leoncio
Garza-Valdes, a respected amateur microbiologist, gives a paper on 'Lichenothelia
varnish' to the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting at
St. Louis, Missouri.
-
May 1993: Dr. Garza-Valds examines Riggi's Shroud
sample in Turin.
-
June 10-12, 1993: Shroud Symposium, organized by
CIELT, held at the Domus Mariae conference center, on the outskirts
of Rome. Among the speakers are Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valdes, who
suggests that 'Lichenothelia varnish, or bioplastic coating, on the
Shroud may have contaminated the Shroud radiocarbon dating'. Russian
Dr. Dmitri Kouznetsov is another of the speakers.
In this same year the official charter of STURP, the team that
examined the Shroud in 1978, is formally dissolved by the Secretary
of State for the State of Connecticut.
-
February 12, 1994: Conference on the Shroud held
at the University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, at which
pediatrician Dr. Leoncio Garza-Valds again conveys his findings
concerning a bioplastic coating on the Shroud's fibers contaminating
the radiocarbon dating.
-
September 2-3, 1994: Round table at the University
of Texas San Antonio Health Science Center, attended by Professor
Harry Gove, during which Gove views Shroud threads under the
microscope and acknowledges that these certainly seem to have a
substantial bioplastic coating.
-
February 14-23, 1995: John and Rebecca Jackson
lecture on the Shroud in Russia.
-
September 5, 1995: In a broadcast on Italian
television, Cardinal Saldarini announces that expositions of the
Shroud will be held in 1998 and 2000.
-
September 1995: Cardinal Saldarini issues
statement declaring any Shroud samples in circulation other than
those taken with official permission for the tests of 1978 as
unauthorized. He remarks that 'if such material exists…the Holy See
has not given its permission to anybody to keep it and do what they
want with it' and he requests those concerned to give the piece back
to the Holy See. This statement seems clearly to be directed at the
samples taken by Professor Giovanni Riggi in April 1988, portions
from which were procured in all good faith by Dr. Garza-Valdes.
-
January 21, 1996: The Shroud of Turin Website
(http://www.shroud.com) goes online. The website is produced by
Barrie Schwortz, STURP's Official Documenting Photographer during
the 1978 examination. It quickly becomes the largest Shroud resource
on the Internet.
-
August 23-25, 1996: Father Adam Otterbein, C.Ss.R.,
founder and President of the Holy Shroud Guild, is the honored guest
at a gathering of his friends and Shroud of Turin colleagues at the
First International Holy Shroud Guild Seminar-Retreat in Esopus, New
York. In attendance are a number of important sindonologists
including several former STURP team members.
-
April 11 & 12, 1997: Shortly after 11 p.m. fire
breaks out in Turin's Guarini Chapel, quickly threatening the
Shroud's bulletproof display case. Fireman Mario Trematore uses a
sledgehammer to break open this case and the Shroud, in its
traditional casket, is taken temporarily to Cardinal Saldarini's
residence. Signs of arson are found in the Royal Chapel, the walls
of which are very badly damaged. Also damaged are the whole High
Altar end of the cathedral and the part of the Royal Palace directly
adjoining the Chapel.
-
April 14, 1997: In the presence of the Cardinal
and several invited specialists, including Mme. Flury-Lemberg,
Professor Baima-Bollone and Dr. Rosalia Piazza of Rome's Istituto
Centrale del Restauro, the Shroud is brought out from its casket and
its condition carefully examined. It is found to be completely
unaffected by the fire. It is taken to an undisclosed place of
safety.
-
May 11-14, 1997: International Symposium on the
Shroud held in Nice, France. The event is sponsored by CIELT, the
French sindonology organization.
-
September 13-14, 1997: A group of independent
sindonologists meets in Kaufman, Texas to discuss the collection and
archiving of the important and diverse Shroud materials residing in
private collections in the United States. Curators of the Wuenschel
and Boston collections, two of the largest collections in the world,
attend.
-
April 18 to June 14, 1998: Public Exposition of
the Shroud is held to commemorate the centenary of Secondo Pia's
first photograph of the cloth, the discovery of its hidden negative
image and the beginning of the scientific era of its study. Over two
million pilgrims visit the Shroud during the eight week exhibition.
-
May 24, 1998: Pope John Paul II visits the Shroud
as it is displayed in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, in
Turin. The visit occurs on the exact day that Secondo Pia made the
first photograph of the Shroud 100 years earlier, on May 24, 1898.
This is the first time the pope has seen the cloth since a private
viewing in 1980.
-
June 5-7, 1998: The Third International Congress
for the Study of the Shroud is held in Turin. Nearly 100 researchers
come to present their work at the well attended but poorly organized
event, officially opened by the Honorable Oscar Luigi Scalfaro,
President of the Republic of Italy, and Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini,
Archbishop of Turin.
-
June 15, 1998: Death of Father Adam J. Otterbein,
C.Ss.R., founder of the Holy Shroud Guild.
-
June 21, 1998: Death of Cardinal Anastasio Alberto
Ballestrero, Archbishop of Turin from 1978 to 1989. Responsible for
giving STURP permission to perform their scientific examination in
October 1978, he was still Archbishop in 1988 when Shroud samples
were taken and the controversial radiocarbon 14 dating was performed
that concluded the Shroud was of medieval origin.
-
November 6-8, 1998: An invitation only meeting of
American sindonologists meets in Dallas, Texas, to discuss the
future of Shroud research in the United States.
-
January 21, 1999: The Shroud of Turin Website
celebrates its third anniversary. With more than a quarter million
viewers in 128 countries, it has become the largest Shroud resource
on the Internet.
-
January 22, 1999: An article in the Franfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), a major newspaper in Frankfurt, Germany,
announces the discovery of a previously unknown, precise copy of the
Shroud of Turin in the West Bohemian Benedictine Monastery at
Broumov, Czechloslovakia. The copy is accompanied by a letter of
authenticity signed by the Archbishop of Turin, dated 4 May 1651.
-
March 4, 1999: Rodger J. Apple, founder of the
Albany Chapter Turin Shroud (ACTUS), dies at his home in Albany, New
York, after a long illness.
-
May 6-9, 1999: A conference with the theme, "From
the Passion to the Resurrection - 2000 Years of Silent Testimony,"
is held in Rome, Italy. Co-sponsored by the Center of Sindonology "Giulio
Ricci" in Italy and the Basilica of S. Croce in Jerusalem, the
conference is primarily a local event with few international experts
invited to attend.
-
June 18-20, 1999: The Shroud of Turin Center of
Richmond, Virginia, hosts the Richmond Conference, an international
Shroud meeting with the theme "Multidisciplinary Investigation of an
Enigma." The focus of the meeting is new research and sindonologists
from around the world attend.
-
June 19, 1999: The Vatican officially announces
the impending retirement of Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, Archbishop
of Turin and Custodian of the Shroud, because of poor health.
-
August 1999: A controversial article titled,
"Flora of the Shroud of Turin" by Avinoam Danin, Uri Baruch and Alan
and Mary Whanger is published by the Missouri Botanical Garden
Press, a highly respected international botanical scientific press.
Not only does the article document the pollen evidence they
discovered on the Shroud in detail, but it also presents their
somewhat more controversial claim of observing actual flower images
on the cloth.
-
September 5, 1999: Archbishop Saverino Poletto,
former bishop of the Diocese of Asti, the birthplace of Secondo Pia,
becomes the new Archbishop of Turin and Pontifical Custodian of the
Shroud.
-
November 10, 1999: Roger A. Morris, original
member of the STURP team that examined the Shroud in 1978, dies at
his home in White Rock, New Mexico, after a short illness.
-
March 2-5, 2000: An invitation-only International
Symposium on the Shroud called "The Turin Shroud: Past, Present and
Future," is held at the Villa Gualino in Turin, Italy. The attendees
include noted sindonologists from around the world like Dr. Alan
Adler, Dr. John Jackson, Dr. Alan Whanger and Ian Wilson, along with
other experts who have only been peripherally involved with the
Shroud in the past. Ian Wilson calls it "probably the best-ever
Shroud Symposium."
-
May 6, 2000: A one day Shroud Imaging Symposium
called "La Sindone, dalla fotografia alla tridimensionalita" (The
Shroud, photography and three-dimensionality) is held at the
Sanctuary of the Holy Shroud in San Felice Circeo, Italy. Hosted by
Don Augusto Bonelli, participants include Emanuela Marinelli, Aldo
Guerreschi, Nello Balosino, Jose Umberto Cardoso Resende and Barrie
Schwortz.
-
June 10, 2000: Dr. Alan Adler, world renowned
chemist, original STURP team member and one of the most important
scientists in international sindonology, dies unexpectedly in his
sleep. His death rocks the world of Shroud research to its
foundation. Adler was the only American scientist on Archbishop of
Turin Saldarini's Scientific Advisory Commission. His loss is
mourned worldwide and is considered by many a serious blow to
American Shroud research.
-
August 12 to October 22, 2000: A ten week public
exhibition of the Shroud is held in Turin to commemorate the Jubilee
anniversary of the birth of Jesus. It marks the fifth such
exposition of the Shroud since it was first photographed in 1898 and
modern science took an interest in the cloth. It also has the
distinction of being the longest ever public exhibition in recorded
Shroud history.
-
August 27-29, 2000: A major International Shroud
Symposium, called "Sindone 2000," is held in Orvieto, Italy.
Organized by Emanuela Marinelli and other members of the
Collegamento pro Sindone, researchers attend from around the world.
Just a few of those presenting papers at the conference included
Paul Maloney, Prof. Giulio Fanti, Dr. Alan and Mary Whanger, Rev.
Albert "Kim" Dreisbach, Maurizio Marinelli, Aldo Guerreschi, Joseph
Marino and Sue Benson, Isabel Piczek, Fr. Frederick Brinkmann, Kevin
Moran, Prof. Daniel Scavone, Jack Markwardt, Barrie Schwortz and
many more.
-
October 14, 2000: Don Lynn, imaging expert from
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and original STURP team member, dies
unexpectedly in his sleep. Again the world of sindonology mourns the
loss of one of its most well respected researchers.
-
October 22, 2000: Archbishop of Turin Saverino
Poletto officially closes the longest Shroud Exhibition in history
and announces the next planned public exhibition will occur during
the next Holy Year, in 2025.
-
January 21, 2001: The Shroud of Turin Website
celebrates its 5th Anniversary. With well over 750,000 visitors from
160 countries, the site continues to be the definitive Internet
resource for Shroud information.
