ROBERT DE CLARI - THE MOST BIZARRE RELIC WITNESS OF ALL TIME?

Robert de Clari was involved in the Fourth Crusade and was no fan of Islam.  His Islamaphobia might have coloured his information about the burial cloth of Jesus.  Catholicism always tried to manipulate the Jesus story to make the Koran which said that an Issa was not crucified or raised yet look stupid and backward and ignorant.

According to what he penned in 1203, he saw the burial cloth of Jesus in Constantinople specifically in Blachernae where there was a Church.   

He went on, "And there was a shroud there in which our Lord had been wrapped.  Every Friday it raised itself upright so that one could clearly see Our Lord's form on it.  And there is no one, no Greek or French, who can tell you where the cloth went when the city was taken."

The Turin Shroud does NOT have a clear image of Jesus.  Now unless the Turin Shroud was clearer then, we might be talking about some kind of print purported to be Jesus' body print.  The details are too brief meaning that this sounds like one of the many tricks done in the religious world to make idols and images seem to behave miraculously.  In fact, it would be a mark against the Turin Shroud for if it is not able to replicate this miracle then is it the same cloth?

It would be a problem if there were more than one miracle cloth.

Anyway whatever this shroud was nobody knowing where it went, especially the military of which De Clari was a part, gives strong grounds for thinking it was destroyed or lost for good.  It admits that there was no traceability then and you need that to validate relics.  It is the thing you need most in fact!

Some historians notably Madden and Queller hold that he was confused here.  The Sudarium, the cloth that covered Jesus' face, according to legend also had the image of Jesus on it and they think that was what he meant. 

In fact Andrea Nicolotti has found another miracle that he mistook for the shroud.  A cloth, seemingly just a cloth, was said to rise on Fridays in that Church in front of a picture of Jesus's mother.

De Clari has too many relics to tell us about including Jesus' loincloth so its too suspect.  Considering that fake relics abounded then we have reason to doubt them all.