Who's buried in Peter's Tomb?

There are a variety of strings I am anxious to pick up—especially the one on the American Nuns’ investigation—which isn’t about the American nuns at all but about the religious sisters in the States. But give me a day or two and I will come back to that. Right now, I am going to do a little more on the Vatican, specifically the Vatican Basilica.
Everybody knows that St. Peter was buried in Peter’s tomb, but he wasn’t—at least not for long. Granted, when the tomb—or more properly, grave—was excavated in the 1940’s, skeletal remains had been found in it, but it turns out they were an odd assortment of various bones from several individuals, including an older woman and a young man, as well as several animals. Obviously they were not Peter’s bones. Hmmm. What is that all about?
Of course the first problem is there is no definite evidence that Peter had ever been to Rome, alive or dead. There is an ancient tradition (note the small “t”) to that effect, but no contemporary text relates the information. (The Acts of the Apostles tells us that Paul was at Rome, though it doesn’t mention his death there.) There were counter-claims about Peter. A first-century ossuary (a box used to hold the bones of a person who had died, had been entombed, and then when the only the bones were left, whose bones had been put in this “ossuary” so that the tomb could be used again) that had the name “Simon bar Jonah” engraved on it had been found in the 1950’s in the Kidron valley, the great burial field between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives to the east. On the other hand the name Simon bar Jonah would be no more rare in first century Palestine than say “Mike Johnson” might be in twenty-first century ‘merica today. The tradition of Peter dying at Rome—going back to the end of the first century, and the lack of any significant counter-claims, gives plausible weight to the argument that Peter went to Rome and was put to death there under the emperor Nero circa the year 64.
As for the bones in the grave not matching Peter’s age or sex, it turns out, the archeologists excavating the site had overlooked a second set of bones. These bones were not in the grave but had been concealed in a niche in the buttressing wall that supported the monument of “trophy” that had been built over Peter’s grave in the mid second century. This monument is called the “trophy of Gaius” because a Roman presbyter named Gaius left a description of this monument in the final decade of the second century. The bones in this niche had originally been thought to be insignificant as they were not where Peter’s bones were supposed to be—in the grave beneath the monument. The curious thing about this second set of bones is that they are all from one person, they are from a man between sixty and seventy years of age (Peter’s probable age if he died in 64 AD), and they had been disinterred from a previous grave and located in this niche after the flesh had decayed. Moreover, the soil samples clinging to these bones matched the soil in the grave beneath the monument—in other words, the soil of Peter’s grave. Hmmm. So these bones had once been buried in Peter’s grave.
But wait—there is more. Bits of purple thread and golden thread indicated that the bones, at the time of their being immured in the niche, had been wrapped in a very precious fabric, indeed (because of the purple) a fabric which would have been reserved to the use of the Imperial family, or at least the very highest of the Emperor’s household. The story grows more curious.
If you have ever been to the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, you have seen in the “confessio”—the open well immediately in front of the papal altar that leads down to the crypt—the “niche of the pallia.” The pallia are woolen scarves that the pope gives to newly named residential archbishops each year as a sign of their communion with him in the unity of the universal Church. This niche holds a silver coffer (they say it is silver but they had better get some polish and a little elbow grease, it looks to me like bronze) in which the pallia are stored until the day they are bestowed on the prelates—the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, June 29—each year. The niche is decorated with an ancient mosaic of Christ. The only problem is that the niche is slightly off center. One would expect it to be directly under the center of the altar which itself stands directly over the presumed site of the tomb of the apostle? Why is the niche off center? Again, hmmm.
The niche is not new. It is original to the basilica which Constantine constructed in 325. It is also directly over—not Peter’s grave, but the recess in that buttressing wall which held the bones of the sixty-something year old man that had been wrapped in the imperial cloth after they had been taken from Peter’s grave. In other words, the architects of the basilica seem to have known the true location of the bones presumed to be Peter’s when Constantine built his basilica. So what is the story?
The most probable story is this. Peter was martyred in the circus of Nero, a large amphitheater built by Caligula and Nero across the Tiber from Rome. The tradition is that he was crucified upside down—probably one of dozens or even hundreds crucified that night for a variety of reason ranging from being persecuted Christians to rebellious slaves to common criminals. There are stories that they were not only crucified but covered in pitch and set alight as sort of living (or actually dying) torches to illumine the stadium. It is possible; I don’t think there is historical data one way or the other. After the crowds emptied out of the spectacle, disciples probably came and claimed the body or perhaps just rushed off with it in the confusion. (There are some indications of the body just being carried off—namely the absences of any bones from the feet—the Christians having just quickly cut the body down and abducted it.) Peter's body was then taken to a necropolis (a pagan cemetery) across the via Cornelia from the amphitheater and buried in a simple earthen grave less than 500 feet from where he died. Once the body was buried it was left undisturbed in its grave, but the grave itself underwent a series of improvements to protect it against erosion. Then almost a century after Peter’s martyrdom, the Christian community in Rome built a monument over the grave. It was a simple monument—a brick wall faced in red plaster with a white marble pillared canopy over it, the canopy itself surmounted by a marble framed recess. The pillared canopy is about four feet tall, too high to have been meant as an “altar” as some suppose. This monument is the “trophy” mentioned by Gaius. In 258, during the persecution of Valerian, the bones were exhumed and brought for safe-keeping to the catacomb of Saint Sebastian on the Via Appia. Meanwhile “decoy” bones were placed in the traditional grave to mislead any who wished to violate the grave. At a later date, the authentic bones were returned but placed in a concealed aedicule (recess) in the wall supporting the monument so they could be venerated in the traditional spot but not exposed to being stolen or desecrated. When Constantine was building his basilica in 325, he had the bones wrapped in precious cloth, and returned to their aedicule. In building the basilica he constructed a window-like opening over the aedicule through which pilgrims could lower bits of cloth or other souvenirs to touch the tomb (the aedicule which held the bones) and then take home again as relics of their visit. This opening is what became the niche of the pallia and explains why it is off center.
More on the building of the basilicas in a future posting.

There is a variety of images today. The first is a sketch of the "Trophy of Gaius" that was constructed over Peter's grave c. 160 AD. The second is a map of the relationship between the circus of Nero (see third image), the ancient necropolis in which Peter was buried (depicted in blue) and the Constantinian basilica--depicted in yellow--built over the necropolis in 325.

The origins of the Vatican

We Catholics think of St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican as if Jesus had given the architectural plans to Peter when he said: “Upon this rock I will build my Church—ok, Peter, this is what it is to look like—don’t forget to give Michelangelo a call, he's expecting to hear from you. Ane remember, marble, I like marble--it's hard and thick, like your head.” Of course, that basilica we see today wasn’t the “Church” Jesus was talking about (if he was even talking about a “Church” at all—a very complex question). If Peter ever came back and saw today what stands over the place he died and was buried, he would scratch his head and then have to ask for a docent to show him around and explain a lot of things to him. I hope Jesus would be as patient were he to decide to pay a visit. One of the jokes in the Vatican concerns precisely that. Vatican automobiles bear their own license plates—the Vatican is a sovereign state and issues its own passports, stamps, and license plates. The Vatican plates are marked SCV—Stato Cittá Vaticana—Vatican City State, but the local wags remark that SCV stands for Si Christus videsset—the Latin for “If Christ ever saw this.”
In any event while the Vatican today is just at the edge of the “heart of Rome” the so called “centro storico” (“historic center”)—in the days of Peter and for long after it was mostly open fields, orchards, gardens, and cemeteries. (The dead could not, by law, be buried within the city.) The emperors Caligula and Nero (not two of history’s nicest guys) built a large amphitheater or “circus” there and it was in this theater where Peter was martyred and then buried in a cemetery just across the road. A monument was built over his grave about a century after his death and at the end of the second century a Roman presbyter, Gaius, mentions Peter’s grave beneath this monument or, as it is called, a “trophy.” I will do some future postings on the grave of Peter as it is a very interesting—though not undisputed—topic. In any event, when Constantine was building his positive relationship with the Christian population of his empire, he built a church over the tomb of the apostle, using the basilica (royal hall) floor plan that he and the clergy were finding adapted itself so well to Christian public worship. He built a similar shrine over the tomb of the Apostle Paul on the Via Ostia, marking the site of Paul’s tomb and not far from the traditional site of his martyrdom, also outside the ancient city.
Today you can walk from the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the site of the ancient palace given to the Church by Constantine for the pope, to the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican in just under an hour. In the late imperial period and the Middle Ages, it was not nearly so convenient. Streets were narrow and windy for a cavalcade to pass, there was no very direct itinerary, and the bridge crossing the Tiber (the ancient ponte Sant’Angelo still leading to the Castle of the name required somewhat of a detoured route. With the relative amount of pomp that accompanied a pope it would have taken the better part of morning, at least, to make the journey. Thus Constantine, or perhaps the popes themselves, built a somewhat more modest (more modest than the Lateran Palace) residence for the pope near the Vatican Basilica for the occasions when they were officiating at services there. They could come over from the city to the basilica the day before and spend the night on site—most religious services beginning early in the morning or even involving a vigil through the previous night. In the seventh and eighth centuries a small village called the “borgo” (related to our word borough, meaning a “village”) grew up near the basilica. In 849 Pope Leo IV fortified the area with the famous Leonine Wall that connects the Vatican to the Castle Sant’Angelo (remember it from Angels and Demons? If not, not to worry, most of that book should be forgotten, Dan Brown never respected his readers enough to do any research on Roman geography, history, costuming, etc. ). Of course Leo fortified the basilica and ancient borgo after Saracen pirates sacked the Vatican Basilica in 846. This “Leonine city” inside the wall (which needs to be distinguished from the modern Borgo which is outside the wall) is interesting in itself and perhaps I will get around to doing an article on it someday. )
Well we can wrap this up pretty simply. The ancient basilica stood there from 325 when Constantine built it until the very end of the fifteenth century when it was decided to tear it down and build the “new St. Peter’s” the one you see now. Actually Constantine’s basilica stood there well into the sixteenth century as it was gradually dismantled as the new one rose above it and around it (the new is considerably larger than the old). When the popes came back from Avignon in 1377, they found that the Lateran was in hopeless disrepair and so established themselves in the papal residence adjoining the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, though they did not stay there very long. Various popes live in various Roman palaces throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries until Gregory XIII build the Quirinale in 1583. We have already done one posting on the Quirinale concerning conclaves there and we will do more in the near future.

Today's image is the Constantinian Basilica which stood in the Vatican from Constantine's construction in 325 until the sixteenth century when it was replaced by "New" Saint Peter's.