First and foremost are the facts:
- The small face cloth in Spain, known as the Sudarium of Oviedo, covered the same face on the Shroud of Turin.
- The blood and sweat stains, along with the patterns and shapes match with pin-point computer accuracy on both the Sudarium and Shroud. Even the blood flow is the same.
- The Sudarium has proof of existence dating back to the 4th century Jerusalem.
- The use for a Sudarium was to cover the face, thus is in line with 1st century Jewish traditions.
- The blood on the Sudarium and the Shroud is of the same male AB blood type. The rarest blood type of them all in the 1st century.
Now in 2016 we have a new discovery of pollen on the Sudarium and dried within the blood! The meaning to this is powerful.
The research group at the Catholic University of Murcia / Universidad Católica de Murcia (UCAM), was studying the Sudarium cloth of Oviedo. The research used an innovative scanning electron microscope. UCAM's president, José Luis Mendoza, said the university acquired the microscope to investigate further the relic known as the Sudarium of Oviedo.
As the study progressed, they discovered a grain of pollen from one plant that is also identified on the Holy Shroud of Turin. Las Provincias, a Valencia newspaper covering this story, restated already known facts such as the pollen is from the plant called Helicrysum that grew in 1st century Jerusalem. This plant was used in Jewish and early Christian burials.
However, the significances is that the grain of pollen is not just within the cloth fibers, but secured within dried blood. This proves that the pollen on the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium was not a later-in-time addition or contamination. Since the pollen is adhered to the blood; that means the pollen was on the cloth at the same time the blood was flowing and before the blood dried.
- LJ
Author of UPPER ROOM, THE WAY: 33AD to 57AD
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