Kain Kafan Turin
ISNET Homepage | MEDIA Homepage | Program Kerja | Koleksi | Anggota
Shroud of Turin rescued by Firefighters *************************************** April 12, 1997 TURIN, Italy (AP) April 12, 1997 -- A fire heavily damaged the cathedral housing the Shroud of Turin early Saturday, but firefighters managed to rescue the fabric that some Christians consider to be Jesus Christ's burial cloth. "The linen is intact. It's a miracle," said Turin Archbishop Giovanni Saldarini, who keeps the shroud on behalf of the pope and the Vatican. Firefighter Mario Trematore used a hammer to break through four layers of bulletproof glass protecting the urn that contains the 14-foot-long linen shroud, while other firefighters poured water on the vessel to keep it cool. He collapsed as he rushed outside the San Giovanni cathedral. "God gave me the strength to break the glass," he said. Dozens of Turin residents clapped for firefighters as they carried the silver-and-glass urn from the downtown Turin cathedral, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Others wept at the sight of the badly damaged cathedral dome. It took about 200 firefighters more than four hours to extinguish the blaze, which began Friday night. Police said there were no injuries and the cause was not known. The interior of the cathedral and the neighboring historic Royal Palace, which contains 18th- and 19th-century furniture and valuable paintings, sustained extensive damage. The cathedral's altar was badly damaged, and the glass wall separating the cathedral from the chapel broke. A tower in the Royal Palace collapsed. The Italian television network RAI reported that the fire apparently started in the cathedral's 314-year-old wooden dome, which was scaffolded for restoration work. The blaze reached the upper floor of the Royal Palace shortly after the end of a party there attended by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Italian VIPs. "We smelled smoke, and then we saw the flames raging from the dome," said Giuseppe Ivano, a palace custodian. The shroud has been enshrined in the Royal Chapel of the cathedral since 1578. Because of the restoration project, however, it had been moved into the cathedral. Firefighters said that if it had been in its traditional place in the chapel, it would not have survived. The linen bears the faint yellowish negative image of the front and back of a man with thorn marks on the head, lacerations on the back and bruises on the shoulders. Though radiocarbon tests in 1988 suggested the shroud was no more than 700 years old, researchers have reached no consensus on how the image was created. The Roman Catholic Church never has claimed the cloth as a holy relic. Some believers say it is the result of a sacred mystery. In 1353, the linen was taken to France by a crusader and stored in a chapel. It was transferred to Turin after it was slightly damaged by fire in Chambery, France. Former Italian King Umberto di Savoia gave the cloth to the Vatican in 1983. A controversial study by Russian professor Dmitri Kouznetsov in 1995 claimed that the Chambery fire modified radiocarbon levels, leading U.S. experts to misdate the shroud. Copyright 1997© The Associated Press. All rights reserved. (Copyright of AP acknowledged with special thanks)
ISNET Homepage | MEDIA Homepage | Program Kerja | Koleksi | Anggota