2 Quotes & Sayings By John Marco Allegro
John Marco Allegro, O.M.I. (born 29 October 1932) is an English Roman Catholic priest and author of books on the Shroud of Turin. Allegro was educated at the University of Oxford and trained for the priesthood at St Edmunds College, Ware, Hertfordshire. He was ordained in 1962 and spent his first two years in education ministry at Bishop's Stortford College, Hertfordshire. Allegro became interested in the Shroud of Turin while working at the Vatican Archives in 1958 while studying medieval documents on Christ's life. His interest grew while consulting at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC; he was also Chaplain to the National Geographic Society between 1961 and 1963
Allegro was appointed Curator of the Exhibition Room of the National Museum of Natural History by Cardinal Cooke on 20 March 1964. In 1965 Allegro began publishing articles on the subject of the Shroud, including one published in "The New York Times". He also published two books on the subject: "The Resurrection of Jesus: A Historical Inquiry into the Resurrection" (1968), which he co-authored with Dr Ian Wilson; and "The Holy Shroud of Christ" (1969). His interest gained fresh impetus when he met a man who claimed that a blood group test indicated that Jesus had a match with a man found only on the Shroud, suggesting that Jesus had been crucified by a persecutor who could have been himself a blood relative.
Allegro's research indicated that this man could have been Rufus, a personal friend of Jesus as well as his cousin according to Josephus' Antiquities. He continued to research this area for over thirty years after his 1973 article "Blood Relations" was published in "The New York Times".