Crosses on the Shroud

The Red Cross

Why does this image show the bottom cloth covered with red crosses? 

Crosses accurately depict the back appearance of the weave (compared to the front) From an extensive article on the weaving techniques, sizes of cloths produced and types of fibres used in 1st century in the book 

"The Mysteries of The Shroud" by Caspar von Uffhofen -

 http://editionsassailly.com/books/The%20Shroud%20htm.htm

My first thought was that the artist only saw the shroud briefly and/or did not have it in front of him and so drew from memory and impressions. The apparent lash wounds on the body did in fact leave many bloody marks on the shroud. (how the dried blood left marks and how it stayed red are all covered very well on other web sites if you care to do the research. I am not trying to cover every angle in this blog)

Red Cross Waskatenau Quilt 1917 (Royal Alberta Museum, 

Military and Political History Collection

Slash wounds all over the back (legs also, not shown here) could have
appeared 'cross-like' in the memory of the artist and were likely more red
initially, but still had more red in them than the browner body image. 

The banner of the Christian soldiers in the First Crusade was a red cross on a white field, the St. George's Cross. According to Christian tradition, Saint George was a Roman soldier who was a member of the guards of the Emperor Diocletian, who refused to renounce his Christian faith and was martyred. The Saint George's Cross became the Flag of England in the 16th century, and now is part of the Union Flag of the United Kingdom, as well as the Flag of the Republic of Georgia

Soldiers of the Cross

So, with Cuthbert seen as the patron saint of the of early Saxon kingdoms, how and why did the English come to pick as their patron saint an Armenian who gives his name and his flag to Georgia, and is also the patron saint of Portugal? The little that we know about him comes from a Byzantine named Metaphrates who tells us that George was born in Cappadocia, sometime in the third century, of noble parents who gave him a strict training in the Christian faith, that he rose to high military rank in the Roman Army in the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. He organised a Christian community at Urmi in Persian Armenia and one report suggests that he visited Britain on an imperial expedition. 

The Emperor turned against the Christians, instituting a persecution of them. George sought an audience with him on their behalf, but was arrested, tortured and executed on 23rd April in A.D. 303. This was also a difficult period in the history of Christianity in Roman Britain.

George was canonised by the Church and became St George, but was not known in England until at least the time of the Crusades when his story became more widely known. 

In 1098, when English and Norman soldiers were under the walls of Antioch, there was a story that when Richard 1st was leading his troops into battle with the Saracens, George is said to have appeared to lead them to victory. These stories were brought back to England, but George was not adopted as England’s patron saint until 1222 when it was declared a public holiday. It was about this time that the upright red cross on the white background, which had  first became the flag of the Italian city-state of Genoa, became the flag of England. It also became the flag of Georgia (see below).

 

However, the ‘Lamb and flag’ is also a very old Christian symbol, appearing as it does in Medieval stained glass and on many old public houses and inns throughout Britain. This suggests an even earlier origin, which I refer to below. So, the upright red cross on a white background, became ‘the cross of St George‘ and was adopted as the national flag of England, later to be integrated with the crosses of St Andrew and St Patrick into the flag of the United Kingdom. The chivalric stories of George inspired the founding of the Order of the Garter by Edward III  in 1348 and St George’s Chapel at Windsor. This is the noblest of the knightly orders in Europe. 
Whether Yeshua (Jesus) was actually crucified on a 'Cross', 'T', or single stake is unclear. All were used at that time, though the Romans tended to use the single stake, hands nailed above the head with a single nail through the wrists.

If it was a cross, then this could be another reason to symbolically depict the whole torture procedure by painting the scourge-marks as blood red crosses.

from: https://chandlerozconsultants.wordpress.com/tag/roman/


In my next chapter I will address what I see as a neck-band and a cape with one or two clasps on the image on the shroud.....