SEEC Shroud of
Turin International Conference and Symposium
Scholars and
seekers explore new research
I recently had
the great good fortune to attend the SEEC Shroud of Turin International
Conference and Symposium in Florissant, roughly twenty miles northwest of St.
Louis, Missouri. This conference was held between July 30 and August 3, 2025 on
the 284 acres of the Augustine Institute, a Catholic graduate school. The
campus includes lush woods, prairie restoration, walking paths to the Missouri
River, and a two-story glass-walled dining room offering treetop views. Conference
papers were presented by forty-nine speakers from at least seven nations with
degrees from a variety of disciplines, including physics, chemistry, law,
history, theology, medicine, mathematical modeling, crime lab analysis, and
mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering.
The Shroud of Turin is an approximately fourteen-feet by three-feet piece of linen cloth that bears an image of a man crucified as Jesus was, as described in the Gospels. Image features include puncture wounds on the head, where a crown of thorns might have penetrated the scalp, a side wound consistent with the size and shape of a Roman lance, beard-plucking, facial injury, and scourge marks. Some believe that the Shroud of Turin served as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Others insist that the Shroud is a reprehensible hoax. Controversy surrounds the Shroud, often described as the single most studied artifact in history.
