Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

The Veronicas

There are, in addition to these two icons, four more that have the similar cut-out frames that are claimed to be the true image made when Veronica wiped Jesus brow during his walk to Calgary:  1) The Veronica kept at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 2) The Holy Face at the The Hofburg Palace in Vienna. 3) The Holy Face at the Monastery of the Holy Face in Alicante, Spain. 4) The Holy Face at the cathedral of Jaén in southern Spain. Just to add to the confusion, there is another famous image that some claim is the authentic Veronica, a facial portrait of a man at a Capuchin monastery in Manoppello, Italy. Unlike the other claimants, it does not have a cut-out frame. Unlike the other images, it seems most like an early Renaissance painting.

Most significantly all of the vera icons, the Veronicas and the cut-out framed images of Edessa are small pieces of cloth just big enough to hold a facial portrait. Our concern is with the tetradiplon image of Edessa.

Early records and the legendary accounts speak only of facial image in Edessa. And the shroud is certainly a cloth large enough to a burial cloth and full body images. But the references to a tetradiplon suggest that the facial image could be the visible part of something more. And, as we will see, the evidence that an image bearing cloth from Edessa that was moved to Constantinople 400 years after the emergence in Edessa of the tetradiplon bearing a facial image is suggestive.