The burial sheet or shroud which was on display in Turin until June 17th 1998 is a mystery. It carries frontal and dorsal imprints of a tall, naked, long-haired man who, although wounded by what may have I been whip lashes and a lance thrust into his side, wears a majestic, serene expression. It is a mystery how this image was imprinted on the linen sheet centuries ago like a photographic negative. And an even greater mystery surrounds the man's identity.

Rare blood type 
Does it enable us to see the body of Jesus as he lay in the sepulchre in Jerusalem in the year AD.30? Or is it someone else? In the latter case, it is someone crucified in accordance with the biblical description of the death of Jesus.

Analysis of the blood stains on the Shroud have shown they are  human and belong to the rarest AB blood group which is shared by about five per cent of people.

In one of three current film projects based on the Shroud, an English director, David Rolfe, plans a science fiction saga featuring a Jesus cloned from DNA taken from the Shroud.

Radiocarbon tests
Science has not yet provided the answers to the many queries raised by the rectangular, yellowish Shroud which is 4.36 metres long and 1.10 metres wide. Or, rather, science has provided contrasting answers. The commission of experts (from Oxford, Zurich and Arizona Universities) chosen by Church authorities in 1988 to make radiocarbon tests, found that the Shroud dated from about 1280-1390, the period of the first documentation about it. 

But other scholars have disputed these conclusions, questioning fhe method itself and also how it was applied to what they claim were contaminated samples of the Shroud. They conclude from the traces of pollen found on the Shroud, and from various other tests, that it comes from Palestine at the time Christ.

Some Catholics have reservations about the 1998 Exposition which is to be repeated in the Jubilee Year 2000. Vittorio Messori, the Catholic writer whose interview with John Paul II was published as a book, has called on Church authorities to end their ambiguity about the Shroud. But it is not within the Church's competence to date historical objects.

Millions have flocked to Turin in the past, finding the Shroud an aid to devotion, although it seems there are no miracles claimed in connection with it as there are with many places of pilgrimage. During the 1998 Exposition each visitor was allowed two minutes before the Shroud.

Edessa to Chambery
The undocumented story is that Christ's shroud travelled from Jerusalem to Edessa (now Ufur in Turkey) and that it later reached Constantinople. There is a sixth century mention of a shroud bearing Christ's image in Edessa and before the end of the first millennium a shroud was venerated in Constantinople; there, in 1147, King Louis VII of France visited it.

In 1204 the Crusaders robbed many relics from Constantinople. There was a huge demand for them throughout Europe. Some relics were authentic, others were fake, and it was difficult for Church authorities to distinguish between them even when they thought it necessary to do so.

In the mid-fourteenth century the Shroud's presence in the French town of Lirey is documented; pontifical permission was given for its exposition in a church there but some contested its authenticity.

When English forces invaded France some fifty years later, the Shroud's owner, Madame Chanry, received permission from the local bishop to hide it. After the English threat vanished the priests of the church where the Shroud had been displayed demanded it back. Instead, in 1453, Madame Chanry delivered it to the noble Savoy family which produced the anti-Pope, Amadeus VIII, as well as a number of saints.

Chambery to Turin
In the Savoy capitol, Chambery, a chapel was built expressly for the Shroud. In 1506 Pope Julius II authorized public veneration of it and approved for it a special liturgy. In 1532, the chapel was destroyed by a fire which melted part of the silver receptacle of the Shroud; the salvaged linen stilI bears the burn marks.

In 1578 Emanuele Filiberto, who wanted to transfer his capital over the Alps from Chambery to Turin, brought the Shroud there. It has remained in Turin ever since except when hidden in times of danger - for instance, it was kept in a nearby monastery during World War II.

The Savoy family led the struggle for Italian uni.fication and became kings of Italy from 1860. In 1946, following a referendum, Italy became a Republic and the royal family went into exile.

In 1983, King Umberto II left the Shroud to the Pope. In 1997, it had to be saved once again from a fire, this time in Turin cathedral.

Exactly a hundred years ago an amateur took the first photographs of the Shroud which revealed that it was a reverse image like a photographic negative; The image is not painted on the linen and it is indelible.

These elements strengthened the case of those who claim it is Christ's burial sheet but the result of the radiocarbon were a blow to them. Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero, who, as Archbishop of Turin, was custodian of the Shroud on behalf of the Pope, accepted the finding that it was medieval.

Change of mood
But in the 1990s the mood has changed. The present Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Giovanni Saldarini, has expressed a personal opinion that it is Christ's shroud while, in retirement, Cardinal Ballestrero has had second thoughts about the 1988 findings. The Vatican has said that tests other than that of radiocarbon dating, which confirm that the Shroud is 2000 years old, must be taken into account. Biological, medical and archaeological evidence point this way.

Some have claimed that the reading of the Shroud is determined by religious belief or lack of it. Obviously this can influence interpretations and certain so-called 'Shroudies' see it as their mission to prove that it is Christ's shroud. But atheists have been convinced it is Christ's shroud and believers have denied it. The Shroud is not essential to faith and does not add anything to Revelation but, if it is proved to be that of Christ, it would provide a dramatic zoom on him between crucifixion and resurrection.

Claims and counter-claims
Its fascination attracts cranks as well as serious scholars. It seems that no theory about it is too wild to receive a hearing: two English researchers claim it is a self-portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci but he was a one-year-old toddler when the Savoy family received the Shroud in 1453.

There are claims and counterclaims; the imprint of a coin, datable to the first years of the Christian era, on the left eye, has been claimed as one proof that it is Christ's shroud. But a Jewish expert has responded recently that it was not a Hebrew, but a pagan custom to put coins on a corpse's closed eyelids.

About twenty scientific disciplines are involved in research related to the Shroud, ranging from nuclear medicine to archaeology. Individual researchers have made important discoveries but there are also interdisciplinary teams at work. Obviously nothing can be concluded until there is agreement on its dating.