Pierre Barbet - A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as Described by a Surgeon

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Text originally published in 1953 under the same title.

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A DOCTOR AT CALVARY

THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

AS DESCRIBED BY A SURGEON

BY

PIERRE BARBET, M.D.

Translated by

THE EARL OF WICKLOW

Contents

INTRODUCTORYThe Laying in the Shroud

FIGURE IFrontal Image on the Shroud (Upper Part) Photographic print

FIGURE IIRear Image on the Shroud Photographic print

FIGURE III AND IVRadiograph of a Nailed Hand

FIGURE VRear Image on the Shroud (Lower Members)

FIGURE VIThe Nailing of the Feet

FIGURE VIIFrontal Image on the Shroud Photographic proof

FIGURE VIIIFrontal Image on the Shroud Reproduction of negative

FIGURE IXRear Image on the Shroud Reproduction of negative

FIGURE XThe Hands on the Shroud Photographic print

FIGURE XIVolckringerMarks Left by Plants in a Herbal Photographic print and negative

FIGURE XIIThe Villandre Crucifix

I have for a long time been asked, but of late with more eagerness, to collect together in one book the results of my anatomical experiments, of my archological and scriptural researches, finally of my reflections on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a subject which for more than fifteen years has in truth never been out of my thoughts, and at times has almost engrossed me. For has this world any more important subject for meditation than those sufferings, in which two mysterious truths have become materialised for mankind, the Incarnation and the Redemption? It is clearly both necessary and sufficient that mankind should adhere to these with the whole of their souls, and that they should loyally derive from them their rule of life. But, in this unique event, which is the culminating point of human history, the smallest detail seems to me to have an infinite value. One does not weary of examining the smallest particulars, even when the reticence of the Evangelists makes it necessary for us to build our structure on scientific bases, which, even though they may be neither scriptural nor inspired, are nevertheless reasonably solid hypotheses.

Theologians can imagine and describe to us the moral sufferings, which formed part of the Saviours Passion, beginning with those in the agony of Gethsemani, when He was overwhelmed with the weight of the sins of the world, and ending with His abandonment by the Father, which drew from Him the cry on the cross: Eli, Eli , lamma sabachthani! One may even venture to say that He continued to recite to Himself in a low voice the magnificent twenty-first psalm, of which these words are the first verse; a psalm which continues in notes of hope, and ends with a triumphal chant of victory.

But when the same theologians or exegetes wish to describe to us the physical sufferings of Jesus, one is struck with the difficulty which they find in helping us to take part in them, anyway in thought. The truth is that they scarcely understand them; there is little on this subject which seems more empty than the traditional sermons on the Passion.

Some years ago, my good friend Dr. Pasteau, the president of the Socit de Saint-Luc of Catholic Doctors in France, was visiting the Vatican with several high dignitaries of the Church. He was explaining to them, following on my researches, how much we now know about the death of Jesus, about His terrible sufferings, and how He had died, suffering from cramp in all His muscles and from asphyxia. One of them, who was still Cardinal Pacelli, and who, along with the others, had gone pale with grief and compassion, answered him: We did not know; nobody had ever told us that.

And it is indeed essential that we, who are doctors, anatomists and physiologists, that we who know, should proclaim abroad the terrible truth, that our poor science should no longer be used merely to alleviate the pains of our brothers, but should fulfil a greater office, that of enlightening them.

The primary reason for this ignorance is to be found, we must own, in the dreadful conciseness of the Evangelists: Pilatehaving scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucifiedand they crucified Him. Every Christian, no matter how little he may be liturgically-minded hears these two phrases throughout the years, four times during Holy Week, in slightly different versions. But how much does that mean to him in the long reading of the Passion? The solemn chanting continues: one can hear the howls of the Jewish mob and the grave words of the Saviour, and unless it has prepared itself beforehand, the mind lacks the time to dwell on the ghastly sufferings to which these simple words refer.

The Evangelists certainly had no need to be more explicit. For the Christians who had listened to the Apostolic teaching, and who later on read the four Gospels, these two words, scourging, crucifixion, were all too full of meaning; they had firsthand experience, and had seen scourgings and crucifixions; they knew what the words meant. But for ourselves, and for our priests, they mean scarcely anything; they tell, indeed, of a cruel punishment, but they paint no definite picture. And one watches the unfortunate preacher desperately trying to express his sincere grief: Jesus has suffered; He has greatly suffered; He has suffered for our sins.

To the man who knows what this means, who suffers in consequence, to the point of no longer being able to do the Stations of the Cross, there comes a terrible temptation to interrupt the orator, to tell him how much He suffered and in what way He suffered, to explain the quantity and quality of His sufferings, and finally how much He wished to die.

For several years I have had the supreme joy of hearing that in many churches my little Passion Corporelle has inspired, enlivened, and sometimes completely replaced the sermon on the Passion. During the war I even experienced the great happiness of being able to read it, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, to three hundred seminarists and their professors; it was in a paradoxical fashion, and by reversing the rles, a true example of the apostolate of the laity. I shall preach the Passion no more, but 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 crucified and may bring it out in their preaching.

That is why I have decided to collect all these ideas together in one book, which will enable me to develop them more easily. My anatomical experiments took place in the years 1932 and 1935. I described the first to my colleagues of the Socit de Saint-Luc, whose judgment I valued more than any other. They were generous in their enthusiastic support and gave me the hospitality of their bulletin: in this were published les mains du Crucifi, May, 1933; les pieds du Crucifi et le coup de lance , March, 1934; la descente du croix et le transport au tombeau, March, 1938; lensevelissement de Jsus, March, 1948. which appeared first of all in La Vie Spirituelle. The essay on the burial of Jesus appeared in March, 1948, as the result of a talk given to the Paris branch of the Socit de Saint-Luc.