A couple of weeks ago I was very fortunate to take a trip to Italy in order to see the Shroud of Turin Exhibition, and the then travel across Italy to the Adriatic sea in order to go to Manoppello near Pescara to see the Veil of Manoppello.
The tickets to the Shroud Exhibition were free. I only had to go online and schedule a date and a time. As a result, I was able to stand about 8 ft away from the Shroud. It was a literally awesome experience. Since I give talks on the Shroud, it was affirming to actually see the sacred cloth. The picture of me to the left pretending to have Pope Francis blessing me, was taken at the Exhibition. The image as most know is not made by any known process, has no paint or other pigments. It also has little contrast until viewed as a negative image in photography.
My wife, Vickie, and I then travelled to Manoppello to see the veil and to meet Sr. Blandina who has spent 30 or so years studying the veil. For those who don’t know the veil is an image of “non-human” origin contained on veil made of byssus—0.1 mm thick silk obtained from mollusks. Again, there are no paint pigments. The veil is so thin that you can see the image from the front or the back, and if there is sunlight in the background, you can see the image at all. The image on the left shows the Sudarium of Oviedo (believed to be the bloody cloth used to cover the face of Jesus after he died, the image in the middle is the negative of the Shroud’s face, and the image on the right is the image on the veil. What is remarkable is that the shroud, and the veil exactly overlay—implying that they both come from the same man at the same time. Presumably they were imaged at the Resurrection. Two different mediums, two diferent images. The sudarium can be overlaid also, but it has no image only the presence of blood which correspond to the nose and mouth areas. Dirt samples from the shroud match that of the shroud and is specific to the dirt composition in Palestine.
Interesting stuff. On September 27, 2015 I will be giving a talk on the Two Faces at 7PM at Ascension Parish in in Chesterfield, MO. I invite you to mark your calendars and to come if you are interested. If you would like for me to come to your event, please contact me at dkeys@davidkeysministries.com