The Power Of The Shroud

Here is something to think about.

There is a lot of controversy over the Shroud of Turin, some believing it to be the burial cloth of Christ with the image of His face and body permanently impressed on it, others believe it to be a medieval forgery. But I see something in it that cannot be dismissed.

The Shroud came into the possession of the House of Savoy in 1453. At the same time, a momentous event in world history was taking place. Constantinople was being conquered by the Ottomans. Much of the knowledge that the Greeks and Romans had in ancient times had been lost to western Europe. It hadn't really been lost as it was preserved in the east, and added to by Moslems. Upon the conquest, many scholars carried texts on pack animals and headed westward. This would bring about the great "rebirth" in knowledge in western Europe that is known as the Renaissance.

The Renaissance would make Italy very important to Europe in a way that it hadn't been since the end of the Roman Empire. The new style of architecture that would emerge from the Renaissance, displacing Gothic, was known as Baroque. Turin today is known for it's Baroque architecture, even though it is an ancient city, because it didn't become an important city until this time. The process of Turin becoming an important city began at the same time as the Shroud was acquired by the House of Savoy.

Piedmont was a remote corner of Italy, well away from traditional centers of power like Rome, Genoa and, Venice. But the Shroud was brought to Turin in 1578, after it had been made the capital of the Duchy of Savoy. The Shroud was placed in a chapel in the Royal Palace.

Amazingly, it would be this duchy in the remote region and based in the previously-unimportant city of Turin, that would put Italy together as a united country in the Nineteenth Century. The previous great centers of power, particularly Rome, would have nothing to do with it. The House of Savoy, with the Shroud installed in it's Royal Palace, would become the kings of the new nation.

Could this unlikely sequence of events have come from this Shroud having more power than it is given credit for? The Shroud is to Piedmont what the bones of St. Mark are to Venice.