The Oviedo Cloth

Mark Guscin is a classical scholar and translator based in Spain, and this Lutterworth Press book is the first English language study of the Sudarium of Oviedo, the cloth traditionally venerated as having covered Jesus's face at burial, examining its documented history, the EDICES research team's forensic studies of the bloodstains, and the radiocarbon dating result along with the objections raised against that result. Its strength is direct engagement with the actual scientific and historical evidence rather than devotional retelling alone, including presenting the radiocarbon caveats rather than omitting them. Its limit is that Guscin argues toward authenticity as his conclusion, reading the scientific evidence as confirming rather than contradicting the relic's traditional claim, so a reader wanting a fully independent, outcome neutral assessment should weigh this alongside sources with no stake in the relic's authenticity.