A Doctor at Calvary

Pope Pius XII listened to the medical explanation of Christ’s sufferings on the Cross and went pale with grief: “We did not know; no one ever told us that.” What so moved the Pope were the results of a renowned surgeon’s unprecedented research into the physical sufferings of Our Lord, about which the Gospels reveal only the barest essentials. Collecting his findings in this mind-opening book, Dr. Pierre Barbet relied heavily on his close analysis of the Holy Shroud of Turin to re-create every stage of the Passion with heart-rending precision and detail. The result: a minor classic of spirituality by a layman. For Lenten meditation, this volume is unsurpassed.

For example:

Dr. Barbet was a devout Catholic who knew the spiritual value of his findings – and he encouraged priests to use them in homilies: “It is largely with a view to these clerics that I have wished to divulge my ideas, so that they may nourish their devotion to Jesus.”

“Then therefore Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.” (John 19:1)

What the Gospels merely mention, Barbet describes in detail, based on hard evidence.

There are two executioners, one on each side of Him, of unequal height (all this may be deduced from the direction of the marks on the shroud). They alternate their strokes, with great zest. At first, the strokes leave long livid marks, long blue bruises beneath the skin. Remember that the skin has already been affected; that it is sore owing to the millions of little intra-dermic hemorrhages brought about by the sweat of blood. Further marks are made by the balls of lead. Then the skin, into which the blood has crept, becomes tender and breaks under fresh blows. The blood pours out; shreds of skin become detached and hang down. The whole of the back is now no more than a red surface, on which great furrows stand out like marble; and, here and there, everywhere, there are deeper wounds caused by the balls of lead. These wounds, shaped like a halter (the two balls and the thong between them), will make their marks on the shroud.

At each stroke, the body gives a painful shudder. But He has not opened His mouth, and His silence redoubles the Satanic rage of His executioners. It is no longer a cold-blooded, judicial execution; it is the unchaining of demons. The blood flows from His shoulders down to the earth (the large paving-stones are covered with it), and is scattered like rain by the lifted whips as far as the red cloaks of the onlookers. But the strength of the Victim soon begins to fail; sweat breaks out on His forehead; His head whirls with giddiness and nausea; shivers run down His spine; His legs give way under Him, and if He was not tied up by His wrists, He would slip down into the pool of blood. They have completed the count, even though they have not counted. After all, they have not received the order that He should die under the lash. Let Him recover a bit; there will be further chances for amusement.

Softcover, 5″ x 7 1/2″, 194 pp.