St Peters Tomb
Tradition states that after his execution in the Circus of Caligula, a Christian supporter who owned a burial plot along the Via Cornelia claimed Peter’s body. He laid the first pope’s corpse to rest in a sarcophagus, which he placed in an underground tomb. The tomb, which was reached by a staircase, was probably reasonably inconspicuous. However, not long afterward, the third Pope, Anacletus is said to have built a tomb with a small oratory where people could kneel and pray.
This tomb must have been relatively anonymous, for Christianity would maintain its outlaw status for over another 200 years. Emperor Julian, in his work Three Books against the Galileans written in 363AD notes that the site of the tomb of St Peter was not general knowledge. And although archaeologists have uncovered mausoleums that fit the vague descriptions of St Peter’s tomb, none can be identified for sure as the resting place of the first pope. The most likely candidate that matches Anacletus’s supposed structure lies at the west end of the row of tombs. Dated to around 130AD, the grave had space where pilgrims could poke their heads to view the tomb’s sarcophagus.
However, the tomb did not have any bones within it. However, close by this grave, a niche was found labeled with graffiti that read ” Petros Eni” or “Peter is here.” Margherita Guarducci, the scholar who deciphered the graffiti then discovered it had contained bones, which had been removed from the grave by a basilica worker and interred in a shoebox. The remains were examined and found to be those of a 60-70-year-old man from the first century AD, leading Guarducci and in 1968, Pope Paul VI to declare them the bones of St Peter.
However, there is no certainty that these indeed are the bones of the apostle. For there is at least one other contender for the last resting place of the bones. In 2017, it was reported that a worker had discovered a series of Roman-era clay pots in the 1000-year-old church of Santa Maria in the Trastevere district of Rome. Each urn was found to contain ancient bones, which were identified by inscriptions on their lids to hold the bones of three early Popes, four early Christian martyrs- and St Peter himself.
The bones are believed to have been moved to Santa Maria at a time of religious schism by Pope Urban II in attempt to hide them from the ‘anti-pope Clement III sometime in the eleventh century. But if they genuinely are the remains of St. Peter, then- unless the Santa Maria bones represent just part of his skeleton- the remains from the niche under the Vatican cannot be the remains of the first pope.
Where Did We Find this Stuff? Here are our Sources:
Eusebius of Caesaria, Ecclesiastical History
“Vatican Trumpets Restoration of Underground Roman Necropolis”, CultureKiosque.com, 2008.
Rome Environs, Catacombsociety.org.
“Vatican Scavi -Tomb Discovered in Necropolis”, Carole Bos, AwesomeStories.com, July 9, 2013.