VATICAN CORNER
continued … In 1950 it was determined that the bones found in a tomb many feet beneath high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica were not those of St. Peter as originally thought. But the archeologists did conclude that it was indeed St. Peter’s grave based on the inscription found. No pope before Pope Pius XII had ever permitted an exhaustive study of St. Peter’s grave site partly because a 1,000-year-old curse attested by secret and apocalyptic documents, threatened anyone who disturbed the peace of Peter’s tomb with the worst possible misfortune. Margherita Guarducci an inscription specialist studying the excavations continued to investigate and she stumbled into evidence that in 1942 a second tomb had been discovered but its existence kept secret by the Vatican supervisor. That supervisor had become disenchanted with the Jesuit archeologists and he independently discovered and opened the second tomb a marble repository. He hid the bones found in that tomb and swore his assistants to secrecy. Guarducci said nothing until the supervisor had died and there was a new pope, Paul VI, a family friend of hers. Guarducci felt obligated to tell him, so she took Pope Paul VI to the hiding place kept by a basilica workers, a shoe box in a cupboard. There were nine bones wrapped in a purple fabric having gold threads. The bones were fragments, being 6 inches or less in size. They included pieces of the cranium, jaw, tooth, vertebrae, pelvis, legs, arms and hands. The anthropologists studying the bones concluded that they belonged to a man between 60 and 70 years old, about 5 feet – 7 inches tall and robust. The bones were discolored from burial in the earth. The purple and gold threaded cloth dated to the ancient Roman weaving techniques and it was very expensive, reserved for someone of high honor. In 1968 Pope Paul VI proclaimed there was a convincing argument that the bones belonged to St. Peter. Leading Vatican Jesuits and other archaeologists strongly denied the claim and it remains controversial. Many feel the dig was so compromised, that there is great doubt as to whether these remains are indeed those of St. Peter. However few dispute the evidence that St. Peter’s tomb under St. Peter’s Basilica has truly been found. The relics are kept inside a private papal chapel and exhibited for the pope’s private veneration every June 29th, for the feast of Saint Peter and Paul. On November 24, 2013 to commemorate the end of the Vatican’s year-long celebration of the Christian faith, St. Peter’s bones were displayed in public for the first time. Pope Francis prayed before the fragments at the start of Sunday Mass at St Peter’s Square in front of tens of thousands of people. He kissed and clutched the bronze case in his arms for several minutes after his homily. A Vatican official has said that it almost doesn’t matter if archaeologists one day determine that the bones aren’t Peter’s, saying Christians have prayed at Peter’s tomb for two millennia and will continue to do so.
Sources: theguardian.com, lifeadahuman.com, independent/co/uk, catholicstraightanswers.com