The forensic anthropologist Matteo Borrini and expert in organic chemistry Luigi Garlaschelli have published an a controversial study regarding the blood stains on the Holy Shroud. The scientists assure they don't match those of someone who has been crucified and may be painted.
Still, Shroud experts say this study is faulty beginning with the methods used. For example, they used anticoagulants for the tests, which affects the results. In addition, they failed to take into account the state of the skin following torture.
Emanuela Marinelli has been studying the Shroud for 41 years and assures this experiment is ambiguous in every way.
EMANUELA MARINELLI
Holy Shroud expert
“To do a credible experiment from a scientific standpoint, one cannot use liquid blood that flows like water. This is the first error. Later, they've done another questionable procedure with the wound on the wrist in which they obviously didn't crucify someone to demonstrate it, but rather used a bit of blood on a wrist and pressed down on it with a piece of wood for 10 seconds.”
The expert says it's absurd to perform these tests using a mannequin found in any store and without keeping in mind the weight of a human body and real wounds from nails.
EMANUELA MARINELLI
Holy Shroud expert
“It's not something serious. It's absolutely not comparable to the scientific investigations done by those who have truly studied the Shroud. These two men, the authors of this study, have never seen the Shroud up-close and surely not from afar. In addition, those who deny that the Shroud is real tend to trivialize the topic.”
It wouldn't be the first time this has happened. Marinelli says there was even an anthropologist that bragged about never having seen the Holy Shroud and was the author of a book claiming it was a hoax.
Investigations on the Shroud will continue given that it still has not been determined how the image was formed on it and how it shows the exact wounds of Jesus during the Passion.
