I’ve never watched the television series, The Borgias. Actually, I never heard of it until today. But it turns out the shroud, or at least a copy of the shroud, plays a role in one of the episodes, Tears of Blood
The series on the Showtime channel, now wrapping up season 3, is a drama series about the fictional Borgia dynasty in early 16th century in Italy (about the time of Machiavelli).
As Les Chappell writes in the AV Club blog:
In the course of these reviews, I’ve talked many times about the use of spectacle on The Borgias, as both the show and the world within the show rely on it to a considerable degree. From a production standpoint, some of the show’s finest moments have been its depictions of grand events, from Alexander’s coronation as pope to any number of weddings to the Bonfire of the Vanities to the burning of Friar Savonarola. . . .
You get the idea. But how about this:
Caterina, however, is greeted with a far different spectacle: the body of her son Benito. And for all her bold talk about bearing ten more sons in “The Siege Of Forli” she’s consumed with sorrow at this loss, and fear for what [Pope] Alexander [VI] will do to her with the funds the Jubilee is raising. She decides to deploy her own relic, a duplicate of the Shroud of Turin, displayed in the catacombs of Sforza-controlled territory and stemming the flow of pilgrims to Rome. The move works to keep the coffers of Rome light—particularly with the aid of a contraption to simulate bleeding tears on the Shroud in front of the first group—and then works to draw papal attention as Cesare and Micheletto investigate, only to be nearly blown to bits by a gunpowder trap.
It aired on June 2 and I missed it. Ah, shucks!
A few days a go I quoted from Bob Dylan, without attribution: “You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.” I might add a second Dylan quote now by way of Peter, Paul and Mary: “The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.” Barrie Schwortz noted in Shroud.com that his hits in March were 160,000, triple what is normal.
Burt Bacharach began a song I have always liked but which never became a hit, and except for its first line has no relevance but I think that first line is most appropriate for our time, and place: “Sail, when the wind start to blow.”
I believe the Shroud is a Revelation reserved for our scientific times. (note the capitalization) Perhaps, as a caution we should look to Yeats:
“The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
There was one glaring technical error with the “Tears of Blood” episode….and it concerns the Shroud.
Catherina Sforza decided to create a fake Shroud, complete with tears of blood, to distract the faithful from attending a Festival in Rome where the Spear of Longinus was on display.
One problem with this fake Shroud is that the producers of the show decided to model it after the modern Shroud we see today…complete with the 4 triangular patches the Poor Clare nuns sewed in to repair the burn holes from the 1532 fire that damaged the Shroud.
The problem is…this Festival scene in The Borgias episode took place in the year 1500! They even put the year up on the screen as the scene unfolded.
Someone didn’t do their homework.
They get an “F” for Shroud of Turin 101.