A Vatican researcher has uncovered evidence that the order, which was brutally suppressed in 1305 by King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V, guarded and venerated the Shroud.
In an article published by the Vatican daily, L'Osservatore Romano, a historian, Barbara Frale, said she had uncovered "missing clues" to both the mysterious fate of the Templars and the Shroud.
A similar relic is known to have been worshipped in Byzantium, now Istanbul and to have disappeared from there during the sack of the city by Crusaders, including Knights Templar, in 1204....
