PROVIDENCE —It is the most studied cloth in history. But is the Shroud of Turin simply a worthless fabric or is it a compelling chronicle of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Paul F. Caranci announced the publication of his sixteenth book, History’s Greatest Mystery: The Improbable Convergence of Four Images of Christ. According to the author, the book offers powerful evidence that the Shroud is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus. It also makes a formidable case in support of His Resurrection from the dead. The book’s preface is written by Fr. Christpher Mahar, Pastor of St. Augustine Church in Providence and a former Vatican Official.
According to Caranci, the book is the result of many hours of investigation pouring over hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific research studies conducted in this century. Caranci noted that the book “also compares and contrasts the evidence left on the Shroud of Turin with the evidence contained on two additional pieces of fabric; the Veil of Veronica, housed in Manoppollo, Italy, and the Sudarium of Oviedo, secured in Oviedo, Spain.” The Veil of Manoppollo is the cloth that was used by a woman, identified in Catholic tradition as Veronica, to wipe the face of Jesus as he trod the Via Dolorosa or the road to Calvary. The Sudarium of Oviedo is the lesser-known cloth used to cover the face of Jesus after his death on the cross and during the time His body was carried to the tomb. The Gospel of St. John refers to the Sudarium as the “napkin” that was found in the tomb separated from the burial cloth. When these cloths are overlayed one on the other, there is about a 90% convergence of the features. The same pollen grains are found on the cloths, and the same blood stains of the same blood-type appear on two of the three cloths proving that they were all in contact with the same person.
Further, Caranci compares these passion cloths to an early twentieth century painting known as the Image of Divine Mercy. With direction only from a nun who claimed to have had a vision of Jesus, an artist was commissioned to paint the image that Sister Faustina described. “It took over ten revisions, and the artist threatened to quit, but the result, ultimately approved by Jesus in a subsequent locution to the nun, also shares those points of congruence with the three miraculous cloths of Jesus.”
Caranci’s book reviews in detail the intense suffering of Christ, evident on the Shroud. The author also provides significant detailed analysis of the cloths produced by the 1978 STURP Committee and supported by hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies in concluding that the three cloths are authentic and that they were in contact with the body of Jesus. Further, Caranci explains how the Shroud of Turin provides actual evidence of His Resurrection.
Caranci also examined a few of the many Eucharistic miracles of the past approximately thirteen hundred years noting how they provide further evidence of the authenticity of the cloths. Finally, the author provides theoretical evidence on how the photographically-perfect-negative image on the Shroud may have been formed over eighteen hundred-years before the advent of photography.
History’s Greatest Mystery is the sixteenth book published by Paul Caranci. It is available at www.paulcaranci.com and www.amazon.com.
