| THE VATICAN celebrated last week’s Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul with news of two significant archaeological discoveries.
At vespers in the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, the Pope announced that a tomb found beneath the church contained the bones of St Paul himself.
Three years ago, archaeologists unearthed a marble sarcophagus beneath a slab that is inscribed with the words “Paulo Apostolo Mart” (Paul, apostle and martyr). The discovery lent support to the theory that Paul’s body was removed from the catacombs on the Via Appia, and placed beneath a church built in his honour. New carbon analysis of the grave’s contents confirmed the presence of bone fragments dating from the first or second century. “All this”, Pope Benedict said, “fills our soul with profound emotion.”
This scientific approach would seem to distance this find from an older tradition of identifying relics for veneration. At its most outlandish, it has been suggested, up to 18 putative examples of the Holy Prepuce, the foreskin of Jesus, were preserved in various locations around Europe.
The announcement at the basilica followed the news that Vatican archaeologists believe that they have also found the oldest known image of St Paul. A fourth-century fresco, in the catacombs of St Thecla, seems to fit a description of Paul in an apocryphal text as “bald-headed . . . with meeting eyebrows [and] a large red and somewhat hooked nose”. Experts used lasers to remove centuries of grime, and, on recognising how the image matched traditional iconography, described it as a “sensational discovery”.
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said that the image was of “theological and spiritual significance”, as well as historically important. A spokeswoman at the Catholic Communications Network in the UK said: “The veneration of relics is rooted in the natural human instinct to treat with reverence anything connected with those we love who have died. Our faith is thoroughly incarnational and sacramental. Relics help us feel close to a holy person, thus making the communion of saints more real and fostering in us a desire for holiness.”
The catacombs of St Thecla are closed to the public, but officials hope to be able to put the newly discovered image on display some time later this year. They are also considering opening the tomb that holds his remains.
The finds marked the end of the Pauline Year, during which Roman Catholics have been celebrating the bimillennial anniversary of the birth of St Paul. It had been “a true period of grace in which the figure of Saint Paul was offered again to the entire Church”, the Pope said.
St Paul offered a “splendid model to follow”, as Catholics moved into their new liturgical year, the “Year for Priests”. |
back to News
previous story
|
next story 
%231%23.jpg)
