The Tomb of Saint Peter

This past Thursday my Catholicism class had a site visit to the actual Tomb of Saint Peter located beneath the Basilica di Saint Peter in the Vatican. We were incredibly fortunate to be able to go on this tour, our professor made the appointment seven months ago. A maximum of two hundred people(including employees) per day are aloud in this area located beneath the Basilica. We were able to have a two hour tour given by a highly qualified tour guide obtaining her P.H.D. in Christian Dogmatics.

Before we reached the actual Tomb of Saint Peter, the tour went through an underground Pagan Cemetery located right beneath the Basilica di Saint Peter. This Pagan Cemetery was actually discovered very recently in 1939 and was excavated by hand in secret throughout a ten year span and just became available to the public within the past 60 years. The tombs date from the time of Augustus in the early first century to the time of Constantine in the early fourth century.
After we went through the Pagan Cemetery we made our way to the actual Tomb of Saint Peter.

The original necropolis consisted of a 9 foot white structure with two columns, paralleling a graffiti wall(which will be important in a little) with a red cement wall as a background. The space in the middle of the necropolis(where a coffin would be placed) had a 180 degree angle instead of a square 90 degree angle. It is a little hard to explain, but where the coffin was put there was almost a quadrilateral shape instead of a rectangle. The reason being, was that the tomb was constructed on the slope of the Vatican hill.

On top of this necropolis Emperor Constantine developed the first Basilica di Saint Peter in the fourth century. Although the Vatican Hill was a horrible place to construct a basilica, Emperor Constantine was determined to construct the basilica where Saint Peter was martyred. He leveled the landscape by filling in areas that were low with dirt and removing dirt from areas that were too high.

When the tomb in this necropolis was excavated, no remains were found inside. However, during the excavations of 1941, bones were found inside the niche of the graffiti wall. The bones were carefully examined for ten years by Professors Guarducci and Correnti. The bones made up a full skeleton of a human body. The only part of the body that was missing were the feet. This was even more evidence that these were the remains of Saint Peter because he was crucified upside down, and to remove the body it was normal to cut off the feet. (Just a small fact - Saint Peter chose to be crucified upside-down because he did not want to be compared or seen equal to Jesus Christ) In addition, the bones were tainted purple. Archaeologists determined this was even more evidence because purple represented the royal color of Emperor Constantine. It was deduced that Emperor constantine moved the remains of Saint Peter to inside the Graffiti wall so they would be protected and camouflaged. The remains had to have been decayed for at least a few hundred years for the purple die to stain the bones, which is exactly the amount of time between the crucification of Saint Peter and Emperor Constantine's rule.

After this information was revealed, in the 1950 Christmas message, Pope Pius XII announced "to the City and to the World" that the actual tomb of St. Peter had been located in the midst of a necropolis buried by Constantine's Basilica on the Vatican Hill.

Through a glass window I was able to see some of the actual remains of Saint Peter. Being able to see such sacred relics tied back to the beginning of Christianity was very moving. I'm extremely fortunate that I was able to go on this tour. Although I have had some pretty amazing experiences in Rome, this is one that I know I will never forget.