Not only is the Turin Shroud probably a medieval fake but it is just one of an astonishing 40 so-known as burial cloths of Jesus, according to an eminent church historian.

Antonio Lombatti mentioned the false shrouds circulated in the Middle Ages, but most of them were later destroyed.

He stated the Turin Shroud itself – displaying an image of a bearded man and venerated for centuries as Christ’s burial cloth – appears to have originated in Turkey some 1,300 years after the Crucifixion.

The Turin Shroud was believed to have covered Jesus, but a leading Church historian says it is one of a lot of produced over a thousand years after his death

Lombatti, of the Università Popolare in Parma, Italy, cited work by a 19th century French historian who had studied surviving medieval documents. ‘The Turin Shroud is only one of the numerous burial cloths which had been circulating in the Christian world during the Middle Ages. There had been at least 40,’ stated Lombatti.

‘Most of them were destroyed during the French Revolution. Some had images, others had blood-like stains, and others were completely white.’

The Turin Shroud is a linen cloth, about 14ft by 4ft, bearing a front and back view of the image of a bearded, naked man who appears to have been stabbed or tortured. Ever since the detail on the cloth was revealed by negative photography in the late 19th century it has attracted thousands of pilgrims to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin.

In a research paper to be published this month in the scholarly journal Studi Medievali, Lombatti says the shroud was most likely given to French knight Geoffroy de Charny as a memento from a crusade to Smyrna, Turkey, in 1346. The de Charny family are the first recorded owners of the shroud.

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Sources and more information:

• The Turin Shroud is a fake: Eminent historian claims it was one of 40 similar cloths which originated 1,300 years AFTER the crucifixion

In a new study, Antonio Lombatti, a Church historian at the Universita Popolare in Parma, Italy, says the shroud appears to have originated in Turkey some 1,300 years after the crucifixion of Jesus in the Holy Land. The shroud is a linen cloth about 14ft by 4ft bearing a front and back view of the negative image of a bearded, naked man who appears…

• Antonio Lombatti: The Shroud Debunked

Matthew Kalman has a brilliant report in the Daily Mail which features the complete debunking of the Shroud of Turin lunacy. I hope this is the final nail in the Shroud-ers coffin. It most decidedly should be. It has been venerated for centuries as the burial shroud of Jesus and has attracted thousands to the chapel where it lies.