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Who's buried in St. Peter's Basilica?

 

 

Protestants used to doubt that Peter was actually buried beneath the high altar in St. Peter's Basilica.

That was way before the advent of good interdisciplinary and interdenominational research, and of advances like carbon-14 dating, for which Willard F. Libby received a Nobel prize in chemistry.  Debates over such claims were more likely to reflect theological rather than archeological differences among Christians.

The story of the archeological investigation beneath St. Peter's basilica begins in 1939, when the newly elected Pope Pius XII wanted to reorganize the tombs of the popes.  Digging started in1941, and before long there were findings that make the imaginary plots of Dan Brown seem pedestrian. 

Archeologists discovered the basilica was built over an ancient cemetery, and they explored over 300 feet of tombs that were partially leveled when Constantine started building an edifice about AD 320.  Excavation was done in secret without power tools, since you couldn't shut down the major church in the Catholic world, and you didn't know what you'd find.  Finally a central location  was found under the present main altar.  A red brick wall  ("muro rosso"), and an inscription which may (or may not) have declared that "Peter is here."  A nearby graphitto states  "pray.. for the holy men buried near your body."  A public announcement of the find was made in 1950.

Back in the 1960's this site was briefly open to the public, and this reporter had the extraordinary experience of visiting the dig and seeing the cemetery.  There, many levels under the high altar of what later became a vast Renaissance shrine, was a first century red brick tomb surrounded by many others.  Carbon-14 dating was just coming into use, and there were reports it had been successfully  used on the bone fragments.

Incidentally, cosmic rays knock off fragments of air molecules starting a cascade, creating a trickle of carbon-14, a mildly radioactive form of carbon that decays over time into a form of nitrogen.  The rate at which cosmic rays create carbon-14 is roughly equivalent to the rate at which it decays.  The half-life of carbon-14 is precise, 5,730 years,  allowing the dating of all non-living cells, like bones and wood (inorganic materials cannot be dated this way).   Thus, as Charles Mann said, "it was as if every living creature had an invisible radioactive clock in its cells."

Moving from St. Peter at the Vatican to St. Paul in another Roman basilica, a recent report announces that bones from the sarcophagus of St. Paul have recently been carbon dated.    After an archeological excavation started under the main altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Ouside the Walls (Basilica San Paolo fuoli le Mura) in 2002, a sarcophagus was discovered in December 2006. 

Pope Benedict XVI anounced that carbon dating tests of bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus confirm they date from the first or second century of the common era.  With appropriate scientific caution, the pontiff said test results "seem to conclude" that the bones are Paul's.   There are statistical confidence levels even with a precise test, and belief that the bones are St. Paul's requires what a previous pope, Benedict XIV, called fides humana (human faith as opposed to catholic faith), meaning it may be accepted or rejected on the basis of empirical evidence and human judgment..

Fragments of the skulls of Peter and Paul have not been located with other bone fragments.  There is a popular tradition that their heads were removed to another of Rome's five major basilicas, St. John Lateran.  In fact, Pope Pius XII was not at all surprised that the skull of St. Peter was not found when the tomb was first opened in his presence.  This finding supported his belief that the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica was actually build over his tomb.

This seems a roundabout way of commemorating the Festival of Sts. Peter and Paul which occured last Monday.  This seems more like CSI than church history,  but it serves as yet another reminder that the sciences and religion should not be mutually exclusive areas of life.

Look to the second volume of Luke's Gospel, The Acts of the Apostles, to explore the conflicts between the apostle to the Gentiles and the leader of the Jewish-Christian community in Jerusalem.  These men expressed their common faith in remarkably differing ways as we do today.

 

For more info:   Report of the recent find is in the article, Pope says tests 'seem to conclude' bones are the Apostle Paul's.  New York Times, June 29, 2009,  p. A5.  Details on carbon-14 testing are found in Charles C. Mann, 1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus (2006), a fascinating book that shows major conflicts exist among archeologists in interpreting their data. You'll hear more about the 18th century pontiff, Pope Benedict XIV in the future.  He pointed out the difference between human and catholic faith in explaining why it was optional to accept or reject Marian visions.   For a good summary of  the exploration at the Vatican, see  theshepherdsvoice.org/catholic/the-bones-of-peter.html.  This article does not mention carbon-14 testing, although I recall reading elsewhere it had been performed.  I'd appreceiate any information on this.  I did not find a comparable summary of the excavation at St. Paul Outside the Walls.