The Holy Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo, the Eucharistic Miracles and AB Blood Group

The Holy Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo, the Eucharistic Miracles and AB Blood Group. Pam Moon; Holy Week 2021 The Holy Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo and multiple Eucharistic miracles (Lanciano, Buenos Aires, Tixtla, Cúa, Sokółka and Legnica), have the same blood group: AB. This is an extraordinary co-incidence. In ancient Israel, archaeologists have discovered that AB was the most common blood-group, but across the worldwide population today it is rare. Based on modern-day frequency of AB in the population (5.5%), the probability of the same blood group being found in the Shroud of Turin, the Sudarium of Oviedo and the six Eucharistic miracles mentioned above is in the order of 22 billion to one. The obvious explanation is that the blood all relates to the same person, Jesus Christ. This paper follows on from the work of Kelly Kearse,1 adding more details about individual Eucharistic miracles. Shroud images ©1978 Barrie M. Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. Blood was not used as an artistic medium in any artefact before the 20th century. However, in 1980, John H. Heller and Alan D. Adler established that the Shroud wounds were created by blood with an AB blood group.2 Pierluigi Baima Bollone, Maria Jorio and Anna Lucia Massaro confirmed the blood group was AB in 1981.3 The blood on the Shroud remains carmine red, which is unusual. Red blood is usually associated with blood which is oxygenated, from a living body. The image (detail, right), taken by Mark Evans shows the red nature of the blood.4 Blood on the Shroud ©1978 Mark Evans1 Schwortz Collection, STERA, Inc. The Sudarium of Oviedo has a strong historical provenance as the cloth described by St John: ‘the napkin, which had been on his (Jesus’) head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself:’ John 20:7.5 Mark Guscin wrote in 1997 that the Sudarium of Oviedo also has an AB blood group.6 Equally, the blood flow matches the blood patterning on the Shroud of Turin. There is no image because the cloth was not on the body of Christ at the resurrection. The Sudarium of Oviedo Photo © Jorge Manuel Rodríguez & the Centro Español de Sindonología The fact that the two cloths share the same blood group and that the blood flows match suggests both cloths are associated with the same body. If this was Jesus, as multiple historical and biblical factors suggest, then it is not surprising that the blood group was AB: archaeological research reveals AB was common in the Jewish population of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, 2,000 years ago. In 1977, S Micle; E Kobilyansky; M Nathan and B Arensburg published a paper entitled ABO-typing of ancient skeletons from Israel.7 They discovered, ‘sixty-eight ancient skeletons, unearthed at Jerusalem and En Gedi’ and, ‘according to the archeological data belonging to Jewish residents of these places from about 1,600 to 2,000 years ago.’ The skeletons were ‘ABO-typed by means of the hemagglutination-inhibition test. The blood groups of 13 skeletons were undiagnosable and the remaining 55 showed the following distribution: 30.91% A-group, 14.54% B-group, 50.91% AB-group and 3.64% O-group.’ In this small sample, half of the population of ancient Israel had a blood group of AB. 2 There are multiple Eucharistic miracles which also have the same AB blood grouping. This is despite its rarity in the human population today (5.5%, see below).8 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Blood Type O+ A+ B+ AB+ OABAB- Percentage of the World's Population 42% 31% 15% 5% 3% 2.50% 1% 0.50% To understand the Eucharistic miracles, a brief history is necessary. Jesus instituted the service of the Eucharist on the night before his death: ‘While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’: Matthew 26: 26-28. The Catholic church teaches that in the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.’9 ‘This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.’10 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith in transubstantiation as follows: ‘Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation.’11 An early description of a Eucharistic miracle is known as the Mass of St Gregory the Great and it was described in The Golden Legend. In 595, ‘it happed that a widow, that was wont every Sunday to bring hosts to sing mass with, should on a time be houseled and communed; and when S. Gregory should give to her the holy sacrament in saying: * Corpus domini nostri, etc./ 3 that is to say: 'The body of our Lord Jesu Christ keep thee into everlasting life/ anon this woman began to smile wantonly tofore S. Gregory, and anon he withdrew his hand and remised the sacrament upon the altar. And he demanded her, tofore the people, why she smiled, and she said: ' Because that the bread that I have made with my proper hands thou namest it the body of our Lord Jesu Christ.' Anon S. Gregory put himself to prayer with the people, for to pray to God that hereupon he would show his grace for to confirm our belief; and when they were risen from prayer S. Gregory saw the holy sacrament in figure of a piece of flesh as great as the little finger of an hand, and anon after, by the prayers of S. Gregory, the flesh of the sacrament turned into semblance of bread as it had been tofore and therewith he communed and house- led the woman, which after was more religious, and the people more firm in the faith.’12 The same doubts about transubstantiation were seen in the first surviving Eucharist Miracle: the miracle at Lanciano, Italy, in the 8th century. ‘One day, a certain monk was offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. … Apparently, he had been plagued by doubts about transubstantiation: he agonized over whether the bread and wine changed substantially into the Body and Blood of our Lord at the words of consecration, and whether our Lord was truly present in the Holy Eucharist. This time, when the monk pronounced the words of consecration, the host was miraculously changed into flesh and the wine into five globules of blood. The monk was awestruck.’13 In 1971 Professor Odoardo Linoli established that the host contained cardiac tissue of an AB blood group.14 Lanciano miracle Photo taken by Junior There are multiple modern Eucharistic miracles and three occurred when Pope Frances was auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires: in 1992, 1994, and 1996. The 1996 sample was analysed. Dr Ricardo Castañón did preliminary research and said ‘that the blood on the Host in Buenos Aires is type AB.’15 In 2004, Dr Castañón had a sample sent to Dr Frederic Zugibe, cardiologist and forensic pathologist. Buenos Aires miracle http://thecatholiccommentator.org/pages/?p=28294 4 Dr Zugibe wrote: ‘The analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle, close to the valves. This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. The left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all parts of the body. The heart muscle is in an inflamed state and contains a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. I affirm that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living organism; they require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken. What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which further indicated that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the owner had been beaten severely about the chest.’16 Dr Jeff Minas picks up the story: ‘The tests were witnessed, but Dr Zugibe did not know the origin of the sample. After he submitted his findings, he was told that the sample was taken from tissue found in 1996. Zugibe responded: ‘You have to explain one thing to me: If this sample came from a dead person, how could it be that while I was examining it, the cells of the sample were moving and pulsating? If the heart came from someone who died in 1996, how could it still be alive?’ It was only at this point that Zugibe learned that the sample came from a consecrated host. He exclaimed: “This will remain an inexplicable mystery to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”’17 Dr Mirus continues: ‘Since then, several experts have compared the lab reports relating to the samples from both Buenos Aires and Lanciano and have determined that the two samples came from the same person. We also know that the blood type in both cases is the same as that of the blood which soaked into the Shroud of Turin.’18 There was a Eucharistic miracle in Mexico on October 21 in 2006 during a retreat at the parish church of St Martin of Tours in Tixtla, Mexico. Its discovery is recounted by Fr John Flader19: ‘The parish priest, Fr Leopoldo Roque, was distributing Communion during Mass assisted by Fr Raymundo Reyna Esteban, who was leading the retreat, and a religious sister. The sister approached Fr Raymundo with tears in her eyes and showed him a host which had begun to give off a reddish substance.’ Tixtla miracle http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/Tixtla1.pdf 5 An analysis of the host was conducted by Dr Ricardo Castañón and a team of scientists in October 2009. The scientists discovered human blood with a blood group of AB. The blood came from within the host, not from outside as an external application. ‘The immunehistochemical studies reveal that the tissue corresponds to the muscle of the heart (myocardium).’20 There are other Eucharistic miracles with a certified AB blood group: the miracle at the Marian Shrine of Finca Betania in Cúa, Venezuela, on 8 December 1991; the parish church of Saint Anthony of Sokółka in Poland on 12 October 2008 and the parish church of St. Hyacinth in Legnica, Poland on Christmas day 2013.21 They have all been subject to medical examination establishing the blood group. Today, AB is a very rare blood group found in only 5.5% of the world population. Given that ratio in the population, the probability that the Shroud and the Sudarium and the Eucharistic miracles (of Lanciano, Buenos Aires, Tixtla, Cúa, Sokółka and Legnica) would have the same blood group is in the order of a 22 billion to one chance. Although not added to the calculations of this paper, there are multiple Eucharistic miracles, for example, the Mass at Bolsena, Italy (1263), Santarém, Portugal in 1346, and Saint Mary in Chirattakonam, India 2001, where the host appears to reveal the image of a man. One further artefact deserves attention. The Holy Blood of Bruges has a strong historical connection to Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea. It is believed that Joseph wiped the body of Jesus and the cloth containing his blood was preserved. It is also possible that the Holy Blood is a rolled bandage which was used to tie the hands or the feet of Jesus to hold them into position at burial as in the raising of Lazarus: ‘When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.’ John 11: 43-44. The blood on the Holy Blood of Bruges soaks into the cloth and remains red, like the Shroud of Turin and the Eucharistic miracles of Buenos Aires and Tixtla. We do not know the blood group: the vial in which it is contained has not been opened for 800 years, and no scientific examination has been conducted. The Holy Blood of Bruges https://www.seasonsforcake.com/2015/03/eating-and-seeing-in-bruges/ 6 To conclude, it is too much of a co-incidence that AB blood group should be found on the Holy Shroud, the Sudarium of Oviedo, the Eucharistic miracles of Lanciano, Buenos Aires, Tixtla, Cúa, Sokółka, Legnica, and in elevated rates in the population of ancient Israel. All these pieces of evidence point to the conclusion that the Shroud, the Sudarium and the Eucharistic miracles relate directly to Jesus Christ. They illuminate his death and resurrection and his presence in the Eucharist. The prayers in the Order of the Mass reveal the blessings bestowed in the Eucharist: ‘grant that we, who are nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son and filled with his Holy Spirit, may become one body, one spirit in Christ’; ‘may this mingling of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ bring eternal life to us who receive it’ and ‘by the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.’ 22 Jesus said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51 1 Kelly Kearse: The Shroud of Turin, the Relics of Jesus, and Eucharistic Miracles: The Significance of Type AB blood Available online: https://www.academia.edu/39142967/The_Shroud_of_Turin_the_Relics_of_Jesus_and_Eucharistic_Miracles_The_Significa nce_of_Type_AB_blood 2 John H. Heller and Alan Adler; A chemical investigation of the Shroud of Turin. Available online at: https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi43part3.pdf 3 Pierluigi Baima Bolone, Maria Jorio and Anna Lucia Massaro Identification of the Group and the traces of Human Blood on the Shroud; Available online at: https://www.shroud.com/pdfs/ssi06part3.pdf 4 Mark Evans photography (STuRP, 1978) Available at www.shroud.com 5 Biblical texts New International Version (NIV) 6 Mark Guscin, B.A. M.Phil. The Sudarium of Oviedo: Its History and Relationship to the Shroud of Turin; 1997 Available online: https://www.shroud.com/guscin.htm 6 S Micle; E Kobilyansky; M Nathan and B Arensburg ABO-typing of ancient skeletons from Israel; 1977; Available online: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/888938/ 7 https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-different-blood-types.html 8 Catechism of the Catholic Church Available online: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c1a3.htm 9 ibid 11 ibid 12 Jacobus de Voragine; The Golden Legend; CU Press version 1914, p 137: Available online: https://brittlebooks.library.illinois.edu/brittlebooks_open/Books2008-04/voraja0001golleg/voraja0001golleg.pdf 13 Fr William Saunders The Miracle of Lanciano Available online: https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholiccontributions/the-miracle-of-lanciano.html 14 Linoli, O. (September 1971) Histological, Immunological and Biochemical Research in the Flesh and Blood of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano (8th Century) Quad Sclavo Diagn 1971 Sep;7(3):661-74. Available online: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4950729/ 15 See: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/matter-faith-matter-fact 16 Dr Jeff Mirus; A Eucharistic miracle when Bergoglio was an auxiliary bishop https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/eucharistic-miracle-when-bergoglio-was-auxiliary-bishop/ 17 ibid 18 ibid 19 Q&A with Fr John Flader: Mexican miracle declared August 24, 2019 https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/qa-with-fr-john-flader-mexican-miracle-declared/ 7 20 ibid Jeanette Williams; The Amazing Science of Recent Eucharistic Miracles: A Message from Heaven? April 3rd, 2020 Available online: https://media.ascensionpress.com/2020/04/13/the-amazing-science-of-recent-eucharistic-miracles-amessage-from-heaven-%EF%BB%BF/ 22 The Order of the Mass; https://www.catholicbishops.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Order-of-Mass.pdf 21 8