St. Peter

Today I went on an extremely rare and coveted tour with my theology class to Vatican city. We went underneath the basilica to St. Peter’s tomb and then underneath that to what used to be ancient Rome before the time of Constantine.

The only individuals that are allowed to give this tour are priests and scholars of the Vatican, so you know that the facts a legit. The priest we had was really cool, and I kid you not he was an exact replica of Jimmy’s sister Patty’s boyfriend Matt. I could barley focus for a bit because they looked so much alike… Anyways he started out by reading a passage from John and then began the tour.

St. Peter died 30 years after Christ’s death. Nero crucified him but because he did not think he was worthy to die the way Christ did he asked to be crucified upside down. So they cut his feet off and crucified him upside down. He was buried in on the hill in a necropolis (city of the dead) next to what is now the Vatican in a poor man’s grave. Over time a Trophy monument was built.

The necropolis is was an area where the Romans built little mini houses in which they would bury their deceased family members. Some of them had artwork in them and family members would bring food and gifts to the house and leave it for the dead.

Skip ahead to the 300’s when there was a war going on in Rome. The winner of the war would determine who would become emperor. Constantine was losing BADLY; in fact his last hope was to pray. So he prayed as hard as he could for days. Finally his prayers were answered and in a dream he was told to paint the Cairo (which is the P with the X through it) and if he used this symbol he would win. So Constantine painted the Cairo on all of his warrior’s shields and went into the battle. He destroyed everyone and became emperor. Because of his religious experience with God Constantine not only legalized Christianity but he also made it the main religion of Rome. Since he did this he wanted to build a huge Church and he wanted to do it where St. Peter was buried. However, there was a problem, he couldn’t build on a hill. So he told the Romans to get all of their family members out of the necropolis and he chopped off all of the rooftops, and filled the hill with dirt. Then he began to build.

Skip ahead even further to 1939. Pope Pius XI is on his deathbed and if you are pope you have the privilege of getting to choose where you want to be buried so Pope Pius XI decided he wanted to be buried as close to St. Peter as he could (so next to the trophy monument). In order to do this they needed a tad bit more room to burry Pope Pius XI where he wanted they had to lower the floor. Upon attempting to lower the floor they hit something… the necropolis. They were in between changing popes so they had to wait until Pope Pius XII was elected until they began to start the excavation process. Now this was during WWII and Hitler loved art. Therefore the Vatican had to secretly undertake this project. They hired four archeologists that could only work at night, without any power tools. The used the dirt that they are collecting to create the Vatican gardens to avoid questions. The whole process took ten years to complete. While there were excavating … the Monsignor at the time was interested in all of the bones that were being dug up, whereas the excavators could care less. So he got permission from the pope to keep all of the bones and but him in a “bone room” ( a chapel next to the trophy monument). He would but the bones in boxes and pile them on the benches in the chapel. He died towards the end of excavation, leaving his bones to his assistants. When they finally got to St. Peter’s grave (a hard task because they had to do deep down under the trophy monument and all the way up into it) they found three piles of bones. They sent them to be tested and two were women’s bones and one was a man in his thirty’s. St. Peter died in this 60’s so it could not have been him.

At this point they hired a woman who have a master of languages to interpret the trophy monument to try and see if they could locate the bone of St. Peter. Long story short she found a little inscription in the wall that said here lies Peter. They then inspected it further and found a secret compartment, but it was empty. Low and behold this woman happens to run into one of the Monsignor’s assistants and he says he knows exactly the cubby she’s talking about and that Monsignor found bones there. So they find the box and send the bones inside to get tested.

The results came back and they were told that the man was in his mid 60’s. In addition to this there was a bone from every part of the man’s body (this was rare because all of the other skeletons were missing a lot of parts). All of the parts except for his feet, because they were cut off in order for him to be crucified upside-down!! And the body was wrapped in special purple and gold threaded cloth. Basically it had to have been his bones, right?! So exciting, and this was only just discovered in the 40’s!

Anyways hearing this story while literally walking through the original necropolis (the real floor and walls are still completely intact), underneath the Vatican, while listening to this Priest tell us the story was incredible. I had chills the entire time. The necropolis houses were awesome, some were simple but some were full of tombs and art (a lot of children died). He told the story of Mr. Catalini who saw that his neighbor was building a bigger house than his and he added a second floor. Because of this we found the necropolis! All of the others are a lot smaller but this guy wanted to do it up for his dead family members and built a two-story house. You can see tombstones, one said that the Guy who died was a beloved brother and always had a joke for everyone (so cool that we can translate that!). You can see that the tops of the houses have no roofs because Constantine cut them off. Finally you can see the trophy monument and the bones of St. Peter. I said a little prayer while I was in the room and tried to keep it together (I was in such shock, I have been hearing about this guy for my whole life and now I get proof that he’s real!). 

If you ever have the chance to go on this tour do it. Even if you are not religious. You get to go back in time and experience a different era and its really unique. You have to book the tour four months in advance so I suggest you plan well.

Sorry for writing this novel but I wanted to share the story because I loved it so much. I am attaching a picture and you will see two candels. One is centered and one is a little to the top right. The one on the top right is the spot where St. Peters bones are now. Really cool! Ps- sorry if there are typos I am typing really quickly because I have class at 12!