A Fitting End to the Year of Saint Paul

On Sunday, June 28, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome to mark the end of the Year of Saint Paul. The year-long celebration of the Apostle to the Gentiles had begun on June 29, 2008, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. June 29, A.D. 67, is the date traditionally ascribed to the apostles' martyrdom—Saint Peter, on the hill where Saint Peter's Basilica sits today, and Saint Paul near the location of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

In recent years, archeological evidence seems to have confirmed that Saint Peter is indeed buried beneath the high altar of Saint Peter's, and at the vesper service, the Holy Father announced that similar evidence now indicates that Saint Paul is indeed buried beneath the high altar of St. Paul's Outside the Walls. As the Catholic News Service reports:

Vatican officials announced in December 2006 that several feet below the basilica's main altar and behind a smaller altar, they had found a roughly cut marble sarcophagus beneath an inscription that reads: "Paul Apostle Martyr."

Because part of the sarcophagus is buried beneath building material, Vatican officials determined they could not dig it out to open and examine the contents. Initially they tried to X-ray it to see what was inside, but the marble was too thick.

A hole was drilled into the sarcophagus, and bone fragments (along with cloth) were removed:

The bone fragments "underwent a carbon-14 analysis carried out by experts who did not know their place of origin," the pope said, adding that the results "indicate they belong to a person who lived between the first and second century."

For Christians, of course, this should come as no surprise. Neither St. Peter's nor St. Paul's was built at random; the current churches on each spot were built where others had been, and those were built because the Christian community in Rome revered the spots as the places of martyrdom of the founders of the Church at Rome. The unbroken tradition is no less compelling than that which tells us where Christ walked and where He died.

Still, the announcement of the archeological findings is a fitting end to this year honoring Saint Paul.