The Shroud of Turin, believed by the faithful to be burial cloth of Jesus, will be displayed on television Saturday for the first time in four decades, coinciding with Easter and new claims that the shroud is not a medieval fake but actually may date back to the time of Christ.
Before he retired from the papacy, Benedict XVI authorized the showing of the shroud on Italian state broadcaster Rai, the Guardian reported.
The 90-minute presentation will originate from Turin Cathedral. Pope Francis, who is celebrating his first Easter as pontiff, will give a brief introduction. Cesare Nosiglia, archbishop of Turin, told the Guardian:
"It will be a message of intense spiritual scope, charged with positivity, which will help hope never to be lost."
The 14-foot-long cloth is said to bear the image of a crucified man. As described by ABC News:
The centuries-old linen cloth – one of the world’s most famous relics – contains a faint impression of the front and back of a human body, along with blood, dirt and water stains from age. Many Roman Catholics believe the impressions were left by the body of Jesus after his crucifixion.
Radiocarbon tests conducted on some of the shroud's fibers in 1988 dated the relic to between 1260 and 1390 A.D., more than 12 centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus, according to LiveScience.com.
But now, researchers at the University of Padua have found that the shroud may be old enough to be authentic, The Telegraph said.
Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurement at Padua, and Saverio Gaeta, a journalist, published the findings in a new book, "Il Mistero della Sindone," or "The Mystery of the Shroud," The Telegraph reported:
Scientists, including Professor Fanti, used infrared light and spectroscopy – the measurement of radiation intensity through wavelengths – to analyze fibers from the shroud, which is kept in a special climate-controlled case in Turin. The tests dated the age of the shroud to between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D.
Fanti and his colleagues tested fibers from the same sample of material taken from the shroud in 1988. The older tests gave false results because of laboratory contamination, Fanti told The Telegraph.
Scientists have been unable to explain the imprint on the cloth. Fanti, whom The Telegraph described as a "committed Catholic," said it "was caused by a blast of 'exceptional radiation,' although he stopped short of describing it as a miracle."
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