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Crusades & Shroud Section

THE CRUSADES
In 1071 at Manzikert, the shock that launched the Crusade, would have destroyed us-but for the Crusade. Constantinople would have fallen; all Europe would have been involved-but under that stimulus the West moved. Gual and the Rhine, Normandy, Flanders, Aquiaine, Lorraine armed, faced East, and went forward.

The issue was the life or death of Christendom.

-Hilaire Belloc

POPE URBAN II

The CRUSADES were wars between Christendom and Islam. To define it even more, they were a counter attack made by Christian civilization and Islam as adopted by the Turk, those barbarous Mongol Tribes from Asia.

In the year 1095 Pope Urban II promoted the First Crusade, preached by Peter the Hermit. The purpose of the Crusade was to take back the Holy City of Jerusalem, where Islam had desecrated the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord. After hearing the preachings of the Pontiff, the Faithful responded: "Dieux Le Volt!" Meaning, God Wills it!

The Crusades began in 1096, the First Crusade was called The Knight's Crusade. It was led by Robert, Duke of Normany, the Conquerer's son; at his side was his brother-in-law, Stephen of Blois; Godfrey of Bouion, Duke of Lorraine; his brother, Baldwin of Flanders; Bohemond; and the major financier of the Crusade, Count Raymond IV of Toulouse.

The first Battle took place in Dorylaeum; and marked the first time West met East in war. The Norman Knights, led by Duke Robert were the heroes against the Seljuk Turks.

The picture below is the Entrance to the Lord's Sepulcher.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
In 1214, St. Francis set out for Morrocco in his second attempt to convert the infidels.

KING ST. LOUIS IX OF FRANCE
In 1254, no longer aided by funds fromthe West,and rent by internal disorders, the Christian colonies owed their temporary salvation to the changes in Muessulman policy and the intervention of the Mongols. The Venetians drove the Genoese from Saint-Jean d' Acre and treated the city as conquered territiry; in a battle where Christians fought against Christians, and which Hospitaller Knights were pitted against the Knights Templars, 20,000 men perished. In revenge the Genoese allied themselves with Michael Palaeologus, Emperor of Nicea, whose general, Alexius Strategopulos, had now no trouble in entering Constantinople and overthrowing the Latin Emperor, Baldwin II, on July 25, 1261. The conquest of the Caliphate of Bagdad by the Mongols (1258) and their invasion of Syria, where they seized Aleppo and Damascus, terrified both Christians and Mohammedans; but the Mameluke Ameer, Bibars the Arbelester, defeated the Mongols and wrested Syria from them in September, 1260. Proclaimed Sultan in consequence of conspiracy, in 1260, Bibars began a merciless war on the remaining Christian states. In 1263 he destroyed the Church at Nazareth; in 1265 took Caesarea and Jaffa, and finally captured Antioch in May of 1268. The question of a Crusade was always being agitated in the West, but except among men of a religious turn of mind like St. Louis, there was no longer any earnestness in the matter among European Princes. They looked upon a Crusade as a political instrument, to be used only when it served their own investments. To Prevent the preaching of a Crusade against Constantinople, Michael Palaeologus promised the Pope to work for the union of the Churches; but Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis, whom the conquest of the Two Sicilies had rendered one of the most powerful Princes of Christendom, undertook to carry out for his own benefit the Eastern designs hitherto cherished by the Hohenstaufen. While Mary of Antioch, granddaughter of Amaury II, bequeathed him the rights she claimed to have to the Crown of Jerusalem, he signed the Treaty of Viterbo with Baldwin II on May 27, 1267, which assured him eventually the inheritance of Constantinople. In no wise troubled by these diplomatic combinations, St Louis thought only of the Crusade. In a parliament held at Paris on March 24, 1267, he and his three sons took the Cross, but, despite his example, many Knights resisited the exhortations of the preacher Humbert de Romans.

St. Louis led the last two Crusades. In 1248, he led the Seventh Crusade, nick-named, St. Louis' Crusade. This Crusade was preached by Pope Innocent IV and the objective was capture Damietta and try to convert the Grand Kahn of the Mongols. St. Louis was successful in capuring Damietta. He and his brother, Charles of Anjou, who played a key role in the victory, and Prince Edward of England were later defeated in Cairo. St Louis spent four years in Palestine.

In 1267, St. Louis led the Eighth Crusade, nick-named St. Louis' Second Crusade. The pious King transported an army of 60,000 men to Tunis in Africa. Half of his army was destroyed by pestilence and lack of provisions. St Louis, himeslf died of a fever on August 25, 1270. After the death of our Saint, Charles then concluded a Treaty with the Mohammedans, and the Crusaders reimbarked. Prince Edward alone, determined to fulfill his vow, set out for Saint-Jean d' Arce; however, after a few razzias on Saracenic territory, he concluded a truce with Bibars.

Twenty years latter the Mohammedans retook Jerusalem. This was the last attempt at regaining the Holy Land.

Many of our brave Crusaders like the ones pictured below, were captured and tortured by the Muslim Sultins; and for many more they met their deaths. For all these souls they paid the price for our Freedom today, May perpetual light shine upon them.

THE HOLY SHROUD OF TURIN

Since the first reports of the Mandylion in 544, millions or words have been written about the Holy Shroud of Turin. The question still remains, who is the man on the Shroud? Tradition of course holds that the Shroud is in fact the burial cloth in which Jesus Christ was wrapped after His descent from the Cross. This of course is in correspondence with St John's Gospel.

In the ACTS of ST. JOHN, (cited in the so-called Cyprian Manuscripts of the 3-4th Centuries) in which Jesus says, "You will see Me as if reflected in water or in a mirror."

This is exactly how we contemplate the Crucified Christ in the Holy Shroud of Turin.

On December 4, 1532, a fire broke out in the Sacristy of Chambrey Chapel. The silver receptacle which contains the folded Shroud was heated to an extreme temperature and drops of melted silver from the cover penetrated the folded strata of the sacred cloth.

In 1534, from April 15 to May 2, the Nuns of the Poor Clare Order repaired the burnt parts of the Sacred Shroud, applying a number of triangualr patches which are still visable to this day.

While a majority of the world believes to the Holy Shroud to be the burial cloth of Christ, still, the fact remains, there could have been another man, that fits the physical description of our Blessed Lord, and who suffered in the exact same way. Because of this remote possability, Mother Church has been unable to make the Proclamation that the Shroud is in fact the burial cloth of Christ.

The Sindonologists continue to work on trying to prove Jesus is the man on the cloth. In 1988 Samples of the Shroud were taken for Carbon 14 tests. In contrast to all preceding studies, the results indicated a date for the cloth between the 13th ans 14th Centuries. This was a tremendous blow to all who love the Shroud. BUT! Since Our Blessed Lord has His way about things, in 1995, Russian scientist Dmitri Kouznetsov, Director of E.A. Sedov Biopolymer Research Laboratories in Moscow, obtained a piece of linen cloth from the En Gedi area of Israel which had been dated to around the time of Christ. A Carbon 14 test showed this lined to be dated back to the year 200 AD. THEN the lined was subjected to the conditions similar to those in the Chambrey fire of 1532, which engulfed the Church where the Shroud was kept: high temperatures in a closed area with the presence of silver. It was thus proven that SILVER acts as a catalyst for carboxylation of the cellulose, so that subsequently the cloth becomes enriched with carbon! After Kouznetsov's expirament, another Carbon 14 test was performed and the cloth that had been dated to the year 200 was now showing a date 14 Centuries later!

The rejuvenating of silver seems to be confirmed by certain archeological excavations in Pompei, where textiles and particularly linen, were found in the ruins of the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. These apparently suffered different rates of combustion according to the sites at which they were discovered: materials which burned in the close vicinity of silver objects appear, even to the naked eye, much "younger," that is, they seem to have had a slower process of decay.

So to this day the question still remains: That man on the Shroud, WHO IS HE?

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