The Funerary Mask of King Tutankhamun 💛

December 30, 2025 Mark Grago

One of the most mystical gifts of art from the ancient world is the funerary masks of the pharaohs. The masks’ main purpose of being placed over the head of mummies was to emphasize the ancient Egyptian belief in the fragile process of transition that the dead would have to endure successfully to relish in the gifts that awaited them in eternity. Hence, the mask itself is a physical symbol of transformation from a human state into a divine one. However, it is to be noted and discussed that these masks served more than one purpose. It also served as protection of the face in death; that is, serving as a permanent substitute for what the deceased looked like in life, in case of physical damage to his face upon his arrival to the otherworld in death. Though such masks were only made for the Egyptian royalty, people who had the financial means often employed skilled craftsmen to create masks for their loved ones as well. (Like funerals today, death masks were a big business.)

The dimensions of this burial mask are impressive. First it is made entirely out of solid gold! It is 21 inches tall and about 15 and a half inches wide and weighs about 24 pounds! The gold is inlaid with precious stones such as lapis, quartz, obsidian, carnelian, turquoise, amazonite, and faience. The eyes are composed of obsidian and quartz, and there is also an abundance of colored glass paste for definition and theatrics. Gold was not chosen just because of a sign of wealth, but primarily because of its association with the gods; gold was considered the ‘flesh of the gods.’ Gold does not tarnish or deteriorate; it was believed to be eternal like the sun.

Perhaps, the most striking feature of the mask is the names. This is a part of the fashion that a pharaoh would have worn on his head. It possessed lappets that fell on each shoulder (just like you see on the mask). The top displays the uraeus and the vulture on the brow. The uraeus was a symbol of the ‘eye’ of the sun thus spitting fire in the eyes of pharaoh’s enemies. This fashion piece was also a powerful symbol of royalty and blessings from the gods. The cobra and vulture respectively were symbols of the deities Wadjet and Nekhbet, who were goddess of Upper and Lower Egypt, which, consequently, were protectors of the kings and queens of Ancient Egypt. The mask is also equipped with a beard which, to the gods was a status symbol as the king was a living god himself.

Mysteriously, there is an inscription on the back of the facemask. It is written in ancient hieroglyphics. It is a protective spell from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Chapter 151. It reads as follows:

“Your right eye is the night bark [of the sun-god], your left eye is the day bark, your eyebrows are [those of] the Ennead of the Gods, your forehead is [that of] Anubis, the nape of your neck is [that of] Horus, your locks of hair are [those of] Ptah-Soker. [You are] in front of the Osiris [Tutankhamun], he sees thanks to you, you guide him to the goodly ways, you smite for him the confederates of Seth so that he may overthrow your enemies before the Ennead of the Gods in the great Castle of the Prince, which is in Heliopolis…the Osiris, the king of Upper Egypt Nebkheperura, deceased, given life like Ra.”

Osiris was the god of the afterlife.

SHROUD OF TURIN (PART 2) THE ORIGINS ☦☦☦

December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 Mark Grago

In this 2^nd installment, I will now present a portion of the origins of the shroud. Most are unaware as to the precise beginnings of the Shroud of Turin, which I think, in proper respect, should be accounted for. The first page of mention in this history commences in medieval France.

FRANCE 13^th century; “Sindonology” σινδών (Greek word for winding sheet.)

It is paramount to remember when reading this essay that from quite early on in its existence, the Shroud of Turin was not conceived as an historic relic, even when these were, indeed, the days that religious relics was quite a lucrative business for the church; it kept people coming back and giving money to parishes and churches all around the regions and towns in which they lived. As early as the 13^th century, the Shroud opens its Genesis appearance. In a village called Lirely, there was a church there endowed by a local knight who went by the name of Geoffroi de Charny; this knight garnished his reputation as a brave warrior who fought in the Hundred Years War. Sir Chanry’s friend, Robert de Caillac, in the year 1356, began displaying in the church a cloth that possessed a mangled image of a man, brutally beaten, and holes through hands which closely resembled the wounds of Jesus Christ; from that moment he claimed this was the authentic burial cloth of the Lors himself. Prior to the 14^th century, no historical records of divine claims of the shroud exist in written form. But by 1390, the archbishop of Troyes, Pierre d’Arces (who procured jurisdiction over this church in Lirely), composed a lengthy letter to Antipope Clement VII that this cloth that was growing in popularity was a complete hoax. The letter still survives and can be read for yourself. Nevertheless, Clement VII ¹issued a papal bull for the shroud to be displayed if it was recognized and conveyed to pilgrims that it was merely an “artistic” impression of the passion of Jesus and nothing further. Sometime during the year 1415, the shroud was moved from Lirely and taken to the castle Château de Monfort for safekeeping; from there, by the granddaughter of Sir Charny, took possession of the cloth and had it displayed in the church of Saint-Hippolyte, Doubs; however, she did this by illegal means and the shroud became a project of litigation. Despite this, she refused to give up the shroud and bequeathed it to Louis, the Duke of Savoy in 1453; the results of these actions led to her excommunication from the Catholic Church.

**The square of the Cathedral during the 1898 Exhibition. (Photo is courtesy of Shroud of Turin website.)**

The shroud grew immensely popular in the House of Savoy and by 1506, Pope Julius 2^nd authorized its veneration. How this process was conducted is not entirely known but it became instantly accepted. The 1^st famous year of the Shroud is 1532 when it caught on fire in the church of Chambéry. The Poor Clare nuns in this church sewed patches over the burning holes that are preserved to this day. By 1578, the next famous year of the shroud, it is sent to the city of Turin in Italy by the actions of Emanuel Philbert, Duke of Savoy. Over the next several hundred years, many restoration projects were placed on the shroud, and it even survived a few more fires, miraculously!

Since the 17^th century, the Shroud has been preserved in the chapel at the Royal Palace of Turin; the architect, Guarino Guarini, drafted a special cathedral that currently houses the relic. In 1694, repairs were, again, made to the shroud by Father Sebastian Valfre, a catholic priest, more commonly known by his town name of the ‘Apostle of Turin.” In 1868, even more repairs were made to the cloth by Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy; finally, the first photographs were taken of the shroud in 1898 by Italian photographer Secondo Pia where his famous negative of the image of a man’s face is world renown.

**Picture for the “Artistic and Religious Centenaries of Piemont in 1898 – The Holy Shroud of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (Sandro Pia.) (Photo is courtesy of Shroud of Turin website.)**

**The full image of the Shroud. (Photo is courtesy of the Archdiocese of Turin, Italy.)**

Giuseppe Sanmartino “Christ lying under the Shroud” ☦

December 1, 2025 Mark Grago

**Close-up of the face. The mystical and melting detail is extraordinary to behold!**

What do alchemy and marble have in common? The subject of this sculpture piece has a lot to say about them both. For many centuries, it was thought that alchemy imposed magical elements into the marble so that the sculptor working on a subject could forge the marble in any way he desired. According to an enthralling legend, the famous alchemist Raimondo di Sangro taught a clandestine method of transfiguring cloth into sculpted marble; this ‘marbilfication’ process is what made many sculptures are famous for their work. Over the centuries, the legend died out, and the result was honest and genuine work of a skilled craftsman. Perhaps the most famous extraction from this legendary process was the ‘Veiled Christ’ by Giuseppe Sanmartino.

Here, we have Christ lying in state. His features have been melted by death, but his emotions are preserved. Sanmartino has carefully braised the Christ with conviction and integrity; even lying in death, Christ is divine and appears to be ready to be awakened, despite intense suffering and punishment that is fervently embroidered on the veil itself. The lifeless body is encapsulated by intense detail and honor; every fold and crease that the veil provides is an illustrious recital of purpose and conviction; something profound is occurring, even while the body sleeps under the pall of death. There is also a tapestry of preciosity in the face; the bulging vein on the forehead gives rise to the thesis of resurrection and eternity. The bloated wounds on the hands and feet are a divine evocation to the viewer. This preservation of affliction is the martyrdom of humanity itself, with a bright and refulgent promise of salvation and ageless joy.

The collected relics of the Passion are enshrined near his feet. This is also a splendid reminder of the regulated ordeal of death into eternal life of the believer, and the inescapable doom and vanquishment of the unbeliever. Humanity is in full triumph. The veil itself is a journey and an extraordinary story of something both catastrophic and promising. Miracles and blessings entice each wave and fold of the veil. The whole of the garment is enshrined with the secrets of life and death, only to be revealed at the time of the end. There is also the undented pyre on which the Christ sleeps. There is no indication of a struggle; the body has not sunk into it, nor has it been flattened from its sides. Sanmartino has not sculpted a coincidence here; this is symbolic of the might of Christ and his Kingdom. This is an earthly bed that is borrowed for the miraculous occasion. Even the tassels of the ‘softened’ pillow on which the head is resting do not suggest a disturbance; instead, they have been fed with a paradisiacal exhortation of a temporary moment of hermetical rumination. The drama is far from exaggeration; on the contrary, everything is amalgamated to color the drama of the subject. The skill of the crafted marble can be seen with the impeccable ferocity because of the hammer and chisel; these are the tools of the passion for Sanmartino to create the majestic and immobilized Christ. While sleep and death are recurrent, they are not equal. There is a gallant awakening for the viewer when it is glared at long enough. The interpretation of this level of the spectrum is the reward of the witnesses.

Artist	Giuseppe Sanmartino
Year	1753
Type	Sculpture, tomb effigy
Medium	Marble
Dimensions	50 cm × 80 cm × 180 cm (20 in × 31 in × 71 in)
Location	Cappella Sansevero, Naples, Italy

SHROUD OF TURIN: FORGERY OR DIVINE, ESSAY 1 ☦☦☦

July 12, 2025 Mark Grago

The Shroud of Turin, like most folks my age, came to prominence in the late 1970’s. At that time, National Geographic magazine published some of the first articles ever brough onto the world stage; even more important, they provided the 1^st photographs ever taken of this mysterious burial cloth. It was, indeed, a spectacular topic making headlines everywhere. The most famous of these photographs was the mystical, yet serene face of a man who had obviously been mutilated and tortured. It became the most famous “face” of a deadman ever seen. The year was 1978 and the world was introduced to this burial cloth that many believed to be that of Jesus Christ. Over the years, hundreds of books, documentaries, TV programs and lectures have all had their rightful place; yet most of the information is in fragments, or just downright misleading. In the next series of articles, I’m going to lay out the facts and myths we know about the shroud. Even in our moment, social media has run along with more of the myths and conjectures rather than the truth and logic and science behind the cloth as well as the history of the time period in which, allegedly, the shroud belongs. MUCH OF THE INFORMATION ON YOUTUBE AND GOOGLE IS SERIOUSLY MISLEADING AND INACCURATE. Let me illustrate this with the following example.

THE BACKGROUND: DIVINE CLOTH IMAGES

Prior to the 14^th century, there are NO historical records pertaining to the shroud that is currently in the Turin Cathedral in Turin, Italy; however, there was a cloth in existence that historians believe was owned by the Byzantine emperors and somehow disappeared during the Sack of Constantinople in 1204. To attest to this claim, there are “written” reports that a shroud or cloth of Jesus Christ, or even an image of his head, is reported in numerous areas over Europe before the 13^th century; it is also noted that these claims have no historical relation to the Turin shroud.

An even more striking familiarity with this cloth is the Image of Edessa. In this legend, which is actually recorded by the Church Historian, Eusebius of Caesarea. In this version he tells us about the King Abgar of Edessa who wrote to Jesus asking him to come to his palace and cure him of a terrible sickness that was plaguing him; for reasons not given, Jesus declined the invitation but sent an “image” of his face to the king (The Eastern/Oriental Orthodox Christians consider this to be the 1^st icon created by Christ himself.) on a cloth; upon gazing at the face of Jesus, the king was cured. Where does Eusebius extract this information, right from the chancery writings of King Abgar himself; from there, the claim was spread by Thaddeus of Edessa, one of the “Seventy Disciples” of Jesus; it is therefore not surprising that Eusebius would be convinced of its authenticity.

The next alleged example of evidence comes to us from a 6^th century Syrian scholar by the name of Evagrius Scholasticus; an excerpt written in 593 tells us about a portrait of Christ by “divine origin” (The Greek word to describe is θεότευκτος. It simply means “fashioned by God.) In any event, he claims this image assisted in the miraculous defeat against Persia in 544 A.D. From there, this cloth image was placed in Constantinople; it has also been claimed that the cloth vanished by the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 as already mentioned above. What exactly happened is not known, but from other historical narratives, it was claimed that the cloth somehow shows up as a sacred relic in the court of King Louis the 14^th of France; from there, when the French Revolution commences, it vanishes once again, this time, for good. It is obvious, even from the historical record, this cloth has stories attached to it through the centuries. Ideas and concepts of sacred images of Jesus become quite popular, especially in Eastern Christianity, but the Roman Catholic Church itself would claim the grand prize, the true and authentic “cloth” of Christ.

But what is the Shroud of Turin’s actual history? What significance, if at all, did it convey to Christians living in the 12-13^th centuries? Well, the historical evidence we have of 13^th century Christian worship is astonishing diverse than how Christian’s worship today, irrespective of denomination. In my next essay, I will breakdown the historicity of the Shroud of Turin and how it gained notability as it currently has on the stage of the Christian world in progress.