-- ROME -- Carbon dating has cast doubt on the authenticity of one of four robes kept by Italian churches as relics of the medieval Saint Francis of Assisi, though another tunic, a belt and a cushion were found to be the right vintage.Of course, it could have been worse.
Carbon dating of St. Francis's robes has none of the controversy surrounding tests in 1988 on the Shroud of Turin, which bears an imprint many Roman Catholics believe to be Jesus and has been venerated for centuries as Christ's burial cloth.
Findings dating it from at least AD1260 were bitterly contested by some in the church.
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