John 20:19–20
has a dark past. The radiocarbon verdict killed serious scholarship on the Shroud’s history before 1300 AD, but now, as that past comes to light, I think a small minority of our audience may find the truth harder to accept than the old idea that the Shroud
Luke 23:46–47
is a fake. Studying the Diatessaron has taught me what a gross misreading we’ve been guilty of. The same gross misreading, in fact, that reveals the truth about the Shroud.
My discovery is outlined in the proof enclosed here. Please read it carefully, as this is what I’ll be telling your friends at the Casina. In the meantime, I send my best to Michael, who I know has become your close follower.
John 19:34
In friendship,
Ugo
The echo of Ugo’s voice leaves a dull throb at the bottom of my throat. He’s alive in this letter. Excitable; eager; full of anticipation. The final e-mail he sent me was full of urgency and worry, but almost none of that is present here. Simon seems to have removed the proof Ugo mentioned, but what he left behind is enough.
So it’s true: Ugo made a dramatic discovery. Oddly, this letter credits it to a combination of my lessons with him and the work Ugo did on the Diatessaron, even though I never knew of any discovery arising from either. Surely what he found was our theft of the Shroud in 1204—though I can’t imagine how he ever stumbled across that by comparing gospel verses on sheets of homily paper. Nor does Ugo seem to realize how devastating 1204 would be to his audience, how his enthusiasm for proving the Shroud to be older than the carbon-dating range was coming at the cost of resurrecting a poisonous ancient hatred. I don’t have to guess how my brother would’ve reacted to the news. No wonder Ugo’s proof isn’t in this envelope anymore. In Simon’s shoes I might’ve been tempted to dispose of it, too. Maybe this is why Ugo sounded so upset in his final e-mail to me, sent only four days later: Simon had just explained to him what a bombshell 1204 was and what a storm it would create if he mounted his discovery. Maybe Ugo wanted a second opinion from an Eastern priest like me.