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

The Macedonian Dynasty

We should not try to explore Byzantine history too much here. That is not what this book is about. But it does help to look at some individuals who are important to a study of the shroud. The year we are most interested at this point is A.D. 944, in the middle of the Macedonian Dynasty, so named because its first emperor Basil I (c. 811 – 886) was a Macedonian by birth. Basil, as the story is told by some historians, was the adopted son of Michael III (840 – 867) even though Basil was almost thirty years older than Michael who is more commonly known as Michael the Drunkard, the last emperor of Phrygian Dynasty.

According to one telling of history, Michael divorced his wife, Maria, to marry his mistress Eudokia, who would eventually marry Basil. Another version of the story is that Michael did not marry Eudokia but that he asked Basil to marry her so that he could keep Eudokia in court and maintain his affair with her. To compensate Basil, he gave him his sister Thekla as a mistress and named Basil co-emperor. A short while later Basil had Michael murdered and claimed the throne for himself. A new dynasty was born.

Leo the Wise (VI) followed Basil. He was most probably the son of Michael the Drunkard. Leo was followed by Basil’s son, Alexander and Alexander was followed by Constantine VII who was almost certainly the illegitimate son of Leo the Wise and thus possibly the grandson of Michael the Drunkard. To confuse matters more, Constantine would become the step-son of a dynastic interloper named Romanus.