Sacred Blood Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo: New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin

Bennett's book is a must have for anyone interested in the Shroud. It is the final word on this subject which has been so divisive to Christians and seekers. I also own her book, St Laurence and the Holy Grail. They are among my most cherished possessions. Pure scientific magic for me.

Bennett traces the history of the survival and veneration of a presumed relic of the death and burial of Jesus of Nazareth, a relic about which relatively little has been known outside Spain, where it has been kept since the eighth century. The relic is a square of linen about the size of a handtowel, and was presumably used to cover the face of Jesus'corpse before he was removed from the cross, and remained over his face until his corpse was placed into the tomb, where a clean shroud replaced it (the Shroud of Turin?) A separate face cloth which was rolled up and placed to the side of the entombed corpse is explicitly mentioned in the discovery of the empty tomb account in John's gospel. The markings (bloodstains, etc) on the Sudarium match quite strikingly the stains on and about the head of the figure on the Shroud of Turin. Since the Sudarium has been in Spain without question since the eighth century, Bennett feels this underscores the currently admitted inaccuracy of the carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, which originally estimated the Shroud to have dated only from the Middle Ages. Bennett's writing is impassioned, and she makes an effort to separate legend (pious and otherwise)from historically supportable evidence, while clearly respecting the authenticity of any uninterrupted or unchallenged tradition in the history of the Western Church.

I had never heard of the Sudarium of Oviedo until I came across this book. Janice Bennett does a nice job explaining what a sudarium was, why the Israelites used it in cases where the dead person had been disfigured and why this particular sudarium is so important. The best part of the book is on ancient Jewish burial customs because it helps explain so much about the burial of Jesus and what came after. Bennett also explains how the Sudariam got to Spain. If you've read about the Shroud of Turin this is a must have companion book.