Shroud of Turin Claims Heat Up as Experts Confirm Cloth Dates Back to First Century

Pope Benedict XVI will give his final gift as he steps down from the Catholic Church Saturday: a viewing of The Shroud of Turin, thought to be Jesus Christ's burial cloth.

The linen cloth has recently been the subject of extended research, as historians try to parse out whether or not Jesus Christ, indeed, donned the fabric. Recently, experts have concluded that the cloth dates back to the first century A.D., rendering it old enough to potentially have been worn by Jesus.

One of the world's most famed relics, the piece of material holds a very light impression of the front and back of a body, in addition to blood, dirt and water stains, according to ABC News.

Many Roman Catholics believe the imprints were left upon the crucifixion of Jesus. Skeptics claim the material was faked in the middle ages. Some carbon dating tests have supported this notion, but recent research provides new evidence that the 14-foot cloth may not be something to sneeze at.

Professor of mechanical and thermal measurement, Giulio Fanti, coupled up with a research team at the University of Padua to test the theory that the cloth is Jesus' shroud.

The team conducted three tests on extremely small fibers taken from the shroud in carbon-14 dating tests from 1988, reports Vatican Insider. Using infrared light, Raman spectroscopy, and a test that analyzed variant voltage parameters, the group concluded that the cloth is from between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D.

Fanti said the researchers also found slight soil traces "compatible with the soil of Jerusalem."

"For me the [Shroud] comes from God because there are hundreds of clues in favor to the authenticity," he wrote in an e-mail to the Huffington Post, also claiming there are "no sure proofs."

Fanti will release the results in his new book, "Il Mistero della Sindone" ("The Mystery of the Shroud"), co-authored by journalist Saverio Gaeta.

The former Pope will take the shroud from its temperature-controlled case in a Turin cathedral, in a unique television appearance, Saturday before Easter.