Folding Patterns on the Shroud of Turin and the Passion of Jesus Christ: Medical and Spiritual Reflections

This paper will look at the different injuries Jesus suffered on Good Friday and the medical and spiritual questions posed by the Holy Shroud of Turin. Among other things, it will argue that the wounds to the right cheek and the number 3 blood flow on the forehead of the Man of the Shroud have huge spiritual significance. It will present a hypothesis that Jesus may have been crucified on a tree with his arms vertical and his hands behind the crossbeam, as in a yoke. It will contend that there were multiple nails in the feet. It will use the Lier Shroud to argue that the Shroud was once longer than it is currently, corresponding with the ten-cubit length of the curtains around the Holy of Holies. It suggests that water flowing from the side of the Man of the Shroud has symbolism with the river of the water of life in the Revelation of St. John.

The paper begins by looking at folding patterns on the Holy Shroud. They are presented in conjunction with an associated talk on the history of the Shroud. Some of the inspiration for this work comes from the Shroud of Turin Exhibition which has been running since 2008¹. It was in St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark, London in 2025². The main exhibit, the life-sized Shroud, created by Barrie M. Schwortz³, is displayed, pinned to a backing cloth, which is regularly folded and unfolded. This has fuelled research into the folding patterns of the Shroud of Turin. It is surprising that the Shroud was folded. No-one would fold the Mona Lisa⁴ in half because the adhesive holding the paint / pigment would break and the colour would flake away down the folded edge, (see an experiment with a printed version of the Shroud below right). The Shroud is not missing data down the fold lines.