Pontiffs ordered excavations to discover first Pope’s remains

Constantine and his son built St. Peter’s Basilica. Vatican City, and the Holy See are distinct entities, both recognized internationally as such and subject to universal law, but they are indissolubly united in the person of the Pope, who is at once ruler of the state and head of the Church.

Although his position as ruler is temporal in purpose, as head of the Church his duty is spiritual. This intimate union prevents Vatican City being restricted to purely politics.

The Holy See exercises sovereignty over Vatican City, not for the advantage of the state itself, but for the higher interest of the Church. The state was created with temporal absolute power primarily to assure independence of spiritual action.

The Vatican City State is thus a means to a higher end, and an instrument of another pre-existing juridical subject, from which it cannot separate. The close union with the Holy See imparts to this minuscule state its great importance, and also makes it juridically and politically unique in the world.

It was with the recognition of Christianity that the spiritual power of the Church started to have also a temporal and political status. Constantine the Great, born in 280, the son of an Illyrian soldier and St. Helena, became emperor on July 15, 306.

His conversion to Christianity in 312 is now acknowledged almost universally, although the quality of his adherence to the Christian faith is still disputed. He postponed baptism until his deathbed.

Before the great battle at the Milvian Bridge against his rival Maxentius, Constantine saw a flaming cross in the sky bearing the words In hoc signo vinces (Under this sign you shall conquer), and Constantine’s troops were victorious.

He accepted the Edict of Milan that gave freedom of worship to all, including Christians. This decree put an end to the bloody persecution by the Roman emperors and restored the possessions lost by the Church.
Wanting to exalt the power of the new religion, in 324 he started the building of a basilica which was completed by his son Constantius about 354. The central nave of the rectangular church was 230 feet wide and 40 feet long, with a V-shaped wooden roof 131 feet high at its apex.

Four rows of 22 columns each constituted the five aisles, and the two central columns were 29 feet high. The top register of the clerestory was pierced by 11 windows, four in each side and three in the nave.
There were representations of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles on the top storey, and on each side of the nave 46 scenes from the Old and New Testaments. A triumphal mosaic arch dominated the central nave of the church with a scene in which Constantine was presenting a model of the basilica to Christ.
In the centre of the transept was the tomb of St. Peter, a block-shaped building made of blue-veined marble, boxed in by four porphyry columns, surmounted by a ciborium.

Many centuries later, after the burial of Pope Pius XI in 1939, work commenced on the grottos below the new St. Peter’s Basilica. In 1940 workmen uncovered a random series of marble and stone sarcophagi.
A shrine was discovered under the high altar of St. Peter’s basilica and was difficult to excavate. Finally they discovered a crypt with human bones and a Greek inscription: Petros Eni (Peter is here).

Pope Pius XII was informed and he ordered testing. The bones (with no skull) were of a man between 65 and 70 years old placed in a wooden box. The speculation was that they might be the bones of St. Peter. The excavations ended in 1949.

In 1952, by order of the Pope, a new excavation stage began to study and decipher the logogram Petros Eni. The experts found the inscription: “Christian men buried near your body” and more.

Everyone in Rome was intensely curious, wanting to know the result of the inquiry. I was living in the Vatican accompanying Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, who also gave his report to Pius XII.

In 1958 Pope Pius XII died, and in 1968 Paul VI announced that the bones were of St. Peter, which drew much criticism; the papal declaration was not ex cathedra.

Most scholars accept that St. Peter was probably martyred within months of the fire of Rome in July 64, the anniversary of Nero’s accession.

Evidence supports the theory among historians that the bones of St. Peter were removed around 250 for security during the persecutions in the time of Emperor Valerian.

How splendid is our Church history!