The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-07-17
A MYSTERY OF ST. PETERS
Is the Tomb of the Apostle in Rome
Still Intact?


tomb could be reached from the under
ground crypts of the basilica, the great
er part of which preserves the origina
floor of the old church intact
There is a small chapel in the OLE
crypts named for San Salvatorino
through which archaeologists are con
WINGED the original steps leading dow
into the tomb could be reached. Suci
an exploration could be easily under
taken secretly if the pope consented tt
| have removed the doubt as to whether
the body of st. Peter has escaped desc
Grafton.
The doubt has now existed for cen
turtles. The fact that Plus x keeps the
plan of st. Peters tomb on his desk i:
considered evidence that he has at leas
given consideration to the proposal t.
allow thorough exploration of it to be
undertaken
Every year on the eve of the feast OF
St Peter and st. Paul. June 90, wher
| the vatican basilica is closed for the
night and everything is dark and quiet
the pope, accompanied by his secretary
and four noble guards with drawn
swords, leaves his private apartment
and, crossing many halls and corridors
OF the great palace descends by pri-
vate staircase to the silent and empty
| church, where he kneels in prayer before
the tomb of him whose successor he is
For nearly 1000 years every pope has
knelt and prayed before the shrine of
St Peter, the most sacred spot in Rome
and even in the whole Catholic world
outside of Palestine. A great many
doubts have arisen concerning the his
tory of his tomb. One is that relating
to the exact locality where st. Peter
suffered martyrdom.
Ancient authorities are in complete
agreement that the place of crucifixion
was in the vatican and close to the tomb
where the apostle is buried, but owing
to mistake of antiquarians of the
fourteenth century the scene of the mar
tyrdom has been transferred to the
Church of San Pietro in Montorio on the
Janlculum. AS result for some time
the true tradition became obscured and
no clear knowledge remained in Rome
as to the locality in which the martyr
dom actually took place. In recent years
the doubt on this point has been great
ly diminished and it is now generally
admitted that the martyrdom was on
the vatican hill
The records of the story of the burial
OF the saint and the history of his relics
are scant and sometimes even contra
alctCry. Historians and antiquarians
have discussed them at great length
for many centuries, but with imperfect
results. The undisputed facts are the
following: After the martyrdom the
body of the apostle, together with that
of st. Paul, who was beheaded on the
same day, June %, in eother A D. &c or
81, under the persecution of Nero, was
taken down by some holy people, who
having washed it, carefully embalmed
it, wrapped it in fine linen, placed it in
a marble urn and buried 1t, on the Via
Cornella, close to the Circus of Nero.
The place was marked by an inscrip-
ton.
st. Anacletus, who had been ordained
by St Peter and who succeeded ST.
Linus on the papal throne, built me-
mortal chapel, memoria or oratory on
the apostles tomb.
The bodies of the two saints were not
left long undisturbed in their original
tamb. In 258 they were removed to the
catacombs of st. Sebastian, on the Ap-
plan Way, under the Valerian persecu-
tons. After a short time the body of
st. Peter was taken back and again
laid in the old tomb at the Vatican,
while THAT of st. Paul was buried close
to the place where he was beheaded and
where his church, San Palo fuori lie
Mura now stands.
There is evidence of a second or a
previous translation of ST. Peters re-
mains. 1t seems certain that the tomb
was on the point of being destroyed or
desecrated on several occasions nota-
bly, during the third century under the
Emperor Heliogabalus, who enlarged
the Circus of Nero. Evidence that it
was spared is found in the fact that for
two centuries the successors of st. Pc
ter in the papacy were buried near his
tomb, which from very early times was
known as st. Peters Confession and
was regarded as the very heart of the
church.
1t is stated in the "Liber Pontifi-
calls" (Chronicle of the Popes) that the
Emperor Constantine after his CONVEX
sion caused, about the year 1923, the
body of the apostle to be exhumed in
the presence of Popped Sylvester an
placed in a case of silver enclosed with
in sarcophagus of brass. Over this
be placed large cross of pure gold
weighing $50 pounds, and an inscription
recording his name and that of his
mother, Helena Augusta.
The body was then restored to the
original tomb, over which he erected an
altar and yaulted chamber faced in
side with plates of gold. He further
decorated the tomb with candellabra, |
silver lamps and plates of gold and sill
YER studded with jewels. The erection
IF the great basilica, commonly known
low as Old st. Peters, was begun by
he emperor and two years later it was
by st. Sylvester.
The great crisis in the history of ST |
Peters tomb was during the invasion |
oy the Saracens in the year S47. They |!
all the ornaments and treas |
Tres, together with the actual altar
-aised above the tomb, but the body of |
he apostle does not seem to have been |
nterfered with.
In 1927 the imperial troops under the |
Constable of Bourbon sacked Rome and |
oillaged the basilica of st. Peter A
etter written by Teodoricus Wafer June
Il, 1921, says: 1.-THE urn or tomb, in
which the bones of the holy Peter and
Paul were laid, they (the imperial |
roops) broke and profaned the very
.elics." The testimony of this letter is
hence the old historians
IND archaeologists refused to accept it.
It is known on the evidence of a GER
ain priest, named Torrigo, that in 1894,
when the old basilica was being demol-
shed and the present one built, the
lrchitect Della Porta opened a hole in
he pavement of the confession, through
which the tomb Of st. Peter became Wis
BILE. Pope Clement VIII is said to have
cen, by torchlight. the urn in which