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

The Image of Edessa in Constantinople

On August 15, 944, the prized relic arrived in Constantinople where it was received with great fanfare. A lengthy document, the Narratio de imagine Edessena, tells us that Constantine VII described the image as “extremely faint, more like a moist secre­tion without pigment or the painter’s art.” That is a poignant clue for us that the Image of Edessa was in this way like the Shroud of Turin. Another document, Symeon Magister’s Chronographia tells us that Constantine could see some image features but his two brothers-in-law, Romanus’ two sons, could barely see anything. Thus we have more evidence that the cloth with its image might be the Shroud of Turin. But there was more to come. On the very next day, Gregory Referendarius, the archdeacon of Constantinople’s great cathedral, Hagia Sophia, gave a sermon in which he described the cloth as having an image formed through sweat and blood. This was the first indication, from known records, that the cloth contained blood. He also mentioned the likeness of a man and a side wound, which implies that the image was a full body image.