A mysterious linen cloth, approximately 14 feet by 3.5 feet, bearing the front-and-back image of a scourged and crucified man, has been an object of veneration and debate for centuries. The first documented appearance of the Shroud of Turin, as it would come to be known, took place in a small village in northern France in 1353. While many people came to embrace it as the burial shroud of Jesus, others, including some bishops, sought to debunk it as a clever forgery.
This debate became a global phenomenon after the shroud was photographed by Secondo Pia in 1898 at the Cathedral of Turin, Italy. What Pia saw on the reverse plate in the darkroom shocked him: a positive image of details of the man’s body and face that could not be seen by the naked eye. What the naked eye sees is actually a photographic negative. This astonishing discovery made headlines around the world and led to a series of scientific studies of the shroud in multiple disciplines, from chemistry and biology to medical forensics and image analysis — studies that continue today, making it the single-most studied artifact in history.
The Catholic Church has never taken an official stance on the shroud’s authenticity and refrains from calling it a relic. When visiting the Cathedral of Turin in 1998 on the 100th anniversary of Pia’s first photograph, St. John Paul II explained, “Since it is not a matter of faith, the Church has no specific competence to pronounce on these questions. She entrusts to scientists the task of continuing to investigate… [and] invites them to act with interior freedom and attentive respect for both scientific methodology and the sensibilities of believers.”
One such researcher is Dr. Gilbert Lavoie, a doctor of internal medicine who has pursued medical and forensic studies of the blood marks on the shroud for 40 years. Author of The Shroud of Jesus and the Sign John Ingeniously Concealed (Sophia Press, 2023), he is a member of St. James Council 12402 in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Lavoie shared with Columbia how he became interested in the shroud, where his scientific investigations led him, and what he believes his discoveries reveal to the objective observer and to the eyes of faith.
COLUMBIA: How did you first become interested in the Shroud of Turin, and what role did your Catholic upbringing background and medical career play in this?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: When I was 6 years old, my father, who was a surgeon, asked me, “Would you like to see the face of Jesus?” And I said, “Sure.” He reached into his wallet and showed me a picture. It didn’t look like any of the beautiful pictures of Jesus I had seen in Catholic grammar school, and it frightened me a little bit. Seeing I was concerned, my father smiled and said, “Well, it really is the face of Jesus.” He folded up the photograph and put it back in his wallet. I got my father’s wallet after he died when I was 10, and I just kept it. It was not until decades later that I came across that photograph and recognized it from the Shroud of Turin.
But first, at the end of my first year in pre-med at Boston College, I went down into an old bookstore in Boston and found a book called A Doctor at Calvary by Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon. I thought the book was a surgeon’s perspective on the crucifixion of Jesus. Instead, it was about the Shroud of Turin, which I had never heard of. I was fascinated with what Dr. Barbet had to say, but then just forgot about it.
Eighteen years later, in my first year of practice in Boston, I saw the picture of the shroud in the Sunday Boston Globe announcing there was going to be an exhibit in the early fall of 1978. Remembering the book, I decided to go with my wife and see what this was all about.
I came back with photographs and a lot of information, but I remained skeptical. Being a physician definitely played a part in my wanting to know more about the blood marks I had seen. Otherwise, I probably would not have pursued the study of the shroud. I didn’t need the shroud for my faith. I already had my Catholic faith. I began to study the shroud as a true skeptic because I never wanted to perpetrate a fraud.
COLUMBIA: What forensic and other evidence drew your attention and eventually changed your mind that the shroud was not a man-made artifact?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: There was an off-image blood mark at the left elbow area of the shroud. That blood mark fascinated me because I asked all the experts at the time, and no one knew how it had gotten there. I gave it some thought but never could understand how it occurred, if it was real, or why an artist would even paint it.
A good friend, whom I had met in Turin, lent me a copy of his full-size shroud cloth, which I kept in my front closet. One day, I decided I would place the cloth over me to see where that blood mark would land on my body. In doing so, I realized this blood mark, which ended in a round pool, was a real event indicating that the man of the shroud died in the position of crucifixion. This discovery convinced me that a crucified man had been placed in this cloth.
I also had the benefit of new information from the group of American scientists I met in Turin in 1978. It turned out their studies determined that what looks like blood is blood and that the body image was not a painting. No one could explain how the image occurred, and that remains true to this day.
COLUMBIA: What led you to conduct a variety of experiments of your own, and what did these experiments consist of?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: Observation is what a scientist does, and physicians especially depend on observation to diagnose and treat their patients. It was the repeated observations of the blood marks on a full-size shroud replica that led me to conduct a few experiments regarding the transfer of blood to cloth.
For example, I noticed that many of the blood marks were very likely the transfer of moist blood clots to cloth. I decided to see if I could reproduce the shroud’s blood marks by placing linen cloths over moist blood clots at different intervals of time. After trial and error, I reproduced the neat appearing blood transfers to cloth that we see on the shroud.
In sum, I found the neat transfers were related to the fact that the blood clotted while the man of the shroud died in an upright position and that the moist clots could transfer to cloth for over an hour but then began to dry. This time interval coincides closely with the Gospel timetable of the death and burial of Jesus.
COLUMBIA: How did you conclude that the image of the crucified man was not lying flat on his back but was rather in an upright position?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: Like everyone else, for years I was under the impression that the image of the man of the shroud was of a man lying on his back in burial. But, in fact, in contrast to the blood marks, which are consistent with that of a crucified dead man who had been taken down from his vertical position of crucifixion and placed on his back in burial, the shroud image is of a man who is upright, as if lifted up in midair.
The confirming evidence came from the front and back positive images. It is evident, for example, that the man’s hair flows down to his shoulders and down his back, which is consistent with being upright.
The back of the image reveals something similar. When either a corpse or a living person is seen lying down, you find that the upper back, buttocks, and lower legs are flattened. Position and gravity determine the form of the body. The back of the image of the man of the shroud, however, is not flattened but has the rounded form consistent with an upright man.
He is upright but not standing, as seen in his crossed feet. The falling hair and the anatomy of the image of the rounded body are consistent with a scourged, crucified man raised up.
COLUMBIA: How did your journey of experimentation and discovery lead you on a search for evidence in the Gospels?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: When I realized the man of the shroud is upright, it was an epiphany that brought me to believe this image was the reflection of the moment of the resurrection. And as I looked at the image, I could not understand why he was lifted up in midair. It did not bring to mind anything I knew about my faith. And I knew further medical, forensic pursuit would not give me an answer.
So, I decided to go to the Gospels and see if I could find some information. I started with Mark and then went to Luke and then Matthew, but I had no success finding Jesus suspended in midair. Then, I began to read the Gospel of John. I was amazed because what I read described exactly what I saw on the shroud. And they were Jesus’ own words: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (Jn 12:32). That was the start.
I took two years of graduate studies in the Old and New Testament and studied the Gospel of John intently for many years. Gradually, I came to understand that the lifted man of the shroud had his own story to tell. And the story was coming alive through the writing of the onsite witness, John the beloved disciple.
COLUMBIA: What do you believe the Gospel of John reveals about the upright image of the man on the shroud? And what is the sign that John “ingenuously conceals,” as described in the subtitle of your book?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: I began to realize that the image of the upright man was the key that opened the door into new insights of John’s Gospel. One discovery led to another. This resulted in the conclusion that John did indeed see the uplifted image of Jesus on his shroud in the tomb.
However, John could not directly write about this in his Gospel because, as a Jew, he knew that human images were considered objects of idolatry and would be sought out and destroyed by his countrymen. Instead, he ingeniously connected the burial tomb, the death of Jesus, and the cleansing of the temple narratives, all of which reflect what he saw in the image of Jesus uplifted in the tomb. And John reveals much more about the upright image, which I detail in the last six chapters of my book. Without his witness, we would not fully understand the meaning of the image of the lifted man of the shroud.
What we call miracles or supernatural events John calls “signs”; Jesus calls them “works of the Father.” John makes it clear that signs are very important to him, to his generation, and to future generations. According to John’s witness, Jesus’ works are the visual testimony, the physical proof, that Jesus is the incarnate presence of God in the world. Several times in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that he did these works (signs) so that all would come to know he was sent by the Father and he is in the Father and the Father is in him — that he is the Son of God.
So, what is the sign that John ingeniously concealed? It is the image of the lifted Jesus of the shroud that John saw in the tomb. It is the sign that Jesus predicted 2,000 years ago in the temple of Jerusalem and left on his shroud. That visual sign, which we can see today, shows the world that Jesus is the Son of God.
COLUMBIA: How has 40 years of research and study about the shroud given you a deeper appreciation of your faith?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: The experience of studying the blood marks and image of the shroud became exhilarating once I realized that a crucified man had been buried in this cloth. And that interest in the shroud continued to escalate when I got involved in pursuing the details of Jewish burial customs, which are not very well known in the Christian world today.
During this study I came to realize that the last blood flows on Jesus’ body that we see on the shroud were considered to be “life blood” by the Jews in Jesus’ time. Life blood is defined by the Jews as what pours from the body at the time of death — which was then and still is considered the blood of atonement.
In this light, I began to understand the relationship between the blood we see in the shroud and the sacrifice of the Mass. That experience deepened my faith. Discovering the upright man of the shroud and connecting it with the Gospel of John deepened my faith even more. The raised man of the shroud, this miracle, this sign, this work of God has been left for our time so that those seeking the glory of God today may come to know how real God is and how much he loves us.
COLUMBIA: What has been your experience of the Knights of Columbus? Has this overlapped at all with your work?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: I joined the Knights later in life, in 2013, after retiring as a physician. At St. James Cathedral in Orlando, I got to know a wonderful group of people. I joined the Knights to help people, and it has been a marvelous experience. My wife and I both got involved in all kinds of programs — raising money, working in the kitchen, I just did everything everybody else did. My council has been very supportive of my work on the shroud and the talks I’ve given in the area.
In November, I moved to Ave Maria, Florida. We have an exhibit on the shroud at the university here, which has kept me very busy. My intent is to get involved with the Knights again here when everything calms down.
COLUMBIA: You have also consulted on the current exhibit at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. What can people expect to see there?
DR. GILBERT LAVOIE: From a spiritual perspective, the new exhibit at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine brings forth the words and understanding of a great leader and intellect, who reflected on the image and blood of the shroud on his visit to Turin in 1998. This makes the exhibit unique and beautiful. St. John Paul II called the shroud “a mirror of the Gospel” whose image has “a profound relationship with what the Gospels tell of Jesus’ passion and death.” He added: “The shroud is a truly unique sign that points to Jesus and invites us to pattern our lives on the life of the One who gave himself for us.”
At the exhibit, in addition to many photographs, visitors will see The Sign, a bronze representation of the raised man of the shroud created by the internationally known sculptor Pablo Eduardo. He’s an anatomist who also studied cadavers. He and I worked together on the sculpture for three and half years, on and off, and we learned a lot from each other. It was a great experience.
Looking at this sculpture from a scriptural perspective, we — humanity — lifted Jesus up on a cross, and it is God who lifted him up in resurrection and ascension to himself. The blood of atonement and the image of the lifted man of the shroud are the reflection of his hour of glory — the crucifixion and death of Jesus and his resurrection and ascension to his Father. Set before us on this cloth, in a captured moment in time, is the final dynamic event of the story of our salvation.