Shroud devotees will appreciate the recent research of numismatist Agostino Sferrazza, who believes he has found further … possible “evidence” of the “relic’s” authenticity. The Roman coins, leptons, the Empire’s least valuable (the “widow’s mite” of the Gospels, equivalent of the old British farthing), placed on the eyes of the corpse, were minted in 29 A.D under Pontius Pilate ! (dixit “Le Monde des Religions”, July-August 2017).
In a lighter vein, most people would not have noticed at the beginning of the highly entertaining movie “The Blues Brothers”, the name of the orphanage in which its stars (of the film if not the orphanage), Elwood and Jake Blues, had been raised under the ruler-wielding iron rule of Mother Mary Stigmata : The Orphanage of the Blessed Shroud. The Men in Black believed they had a “divine mission” to save the orphanage of their childhood from the tax-man. Jake, skeptical at first, attends a boisterous, no, hysterical, church service, and during the sermon of the preacher (James Brown) “sees the light”, dances up a storm under the influence of his new faith, and with his brother Elwood sets off on their riotous mission – which involves reuniting their band to make the money needed for the Orphanage of the Blessed Shroud (of Turin).
The iconic movie takes gentle jabs at religion. Readers of this Blog, discovering or re-seeing this 1980 cinematic masterpiece and pulsating to its rhythm and blues, will appreciate its mild, tongue-in-cheek send-up of religion and in particular the name of the orphanage. No comment is made on the Shroud of Turin, but at least we cognoscenti recognize the reference as an early warning that the movie will be one enormous joke from beginning to end.
RIDENDA RELIGIO
