The Venerable Bede of Jarrow
In
his History of the English Church and People, the
Venerable Bede of Jarrow, England (673-735 CE) wrote of King
Lucius, and English king asking Pope Eleutherus (175-189 CE) to
make him a Christian. However this may have been a mistake by
the Bede. It
may well be that an early copyist mistakenly assumed Britio to
refer to Britain. The mistake was then picked up by Bede.
Dan Scavone, Professor of History at the University of Southern Indiana has discovered a reference to Britio in the writings of Clement of Alexandria in the second century which he has determined referred to Britio Edessenorum, the castle of the people of Edessa. Professor Scavone also discovered that the name Lucius pertained, not to any king of Britain, but to king Abgar VIII of Edessa (177-212 CE) whose name and title on his coinage read: Lucius Aelius Septimius Megas Abgar.
This is not the same Abgar V of legend. But it is evidence that Edessa had been evangelized as early as the late second century or early third century. We do know that Lucius/Abgar did display the Christian cross on his tiara (royal headgear or crown).
There is a tantalizing connection to the story of the Holy Grail. As Professor Scavone reports in a paper entitled "Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and the Turin Shroud, the Grail" (online) may have referred, not to a cup or saucer as in later legend, but to a cloth used by Joseph of Arimathea to gather the lifeblood of Jesus (in accordance with Jewish custom) in a cloth or large sheet. The Grail may have been the Shroud. A fifth century Georgian manuscript carries references to Joseph of Arimathea collecting Jesus' blood as it dripped from his crucified body in the burial shroud itself.
Home Page & Introduction:
The Shroud of Turin Story - A Guide to
the Facts 2005
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
