FOOD FOR THOUGHT	  THE BONES OF ROME
			Fr Francis Marsden
	      		For 28 June 1987

“I can show you the mortal spoils of the Apostles, who founded this Church. You will find their remains in the Vatican, or along the road to Ostia.” Thus wrote Gaius, a priest, about 200 AD, in the earliest document we have on the burial of Saints Peter and Paul. No city other than Rome has ever claimed to be the site of their martyrdom. Their leadership and their martyrdom gave Rome the prestige it enjoyed amongst the early churches.

“One taught mankind its creed, one guards the heavenly gate,
Founders of Rome, they bind the world in loyalty.”

Although a few scholars with a vested interest in denying Roman claims have long tried to undermine this tradition, recent archaeological discoveries have strengthened the ancient claim. Nor have some Catholics helped by overstating the case for the Roman primacy in an unhistorical manner — depicting St Peter wearing the triple tiara surrounded by the Apostles in medieval Cardinal's robes. The role of Peter’s successors in the worldwide Church is founded upon Peter’s leadership in the New Testament. Over the centuries, the Holy Spirit made it clearer what it actually involves.

The earliest evidence for Christianity in Rome comes in the historian Suetonius’ “Life of Claudius,” the emperor. About AD 49, because of continuous turbulence within the Jewish community “impulsore Chresto” (at the instigation of Christus), the Emperor expelled Rome’s 40,000 Jews from the city. This must have been a very difficult decision, taken only for serious reasons. The Jews were heavily involved in Rome’s overseas, trade and commerce. It was a severe blow to the city’s economy.

Reading between the lines one can surmise that the Roman Jewish community had split apart: on one side were the orthodox Jews. On the other, the converted Jewish Christians who had accepted the Gospel, and the had added the Christian Eucharist to their regular synagogue worship. Families and friends divided over whether to accept Jesus as Messiah and Son of God. Hard feelings exploded into near riots. The Emperor was concerned only to keep the civil peace. Five years later the ban was lifted, and Jews and Christians returned to the city.

We do not know exactly when Peter came to Rome. Bishop Dionysius of Corinth (AD 170) writes “Peter and Paul ............ in Italy too they taught jointly in the same city and were martyred at the same time.”

Paul was brought to Rome in AD 61 under house arrest, but Acts 28 does not tell us the outcome of his trial. The historian Eusebius tells us that he was released again and preached in “East and West” (Greece and Spain) before returning to Rome. Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy in Rome as a prisoner awaiting death, quite probably in AD 67.

“My life is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. All there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that Day. .(2 Tim 4:6-8)

The martyrdom of Peter and Paul appears to be related to the great fire of Rome in AD64. Whether or not the Emperor Nero literally “fiddled while Rome burned,” he at least took advantage of the homes destroyed to build himself a vast new palace, the Domus Aurea. The mob grumbled and turned against him. He had to shift blame for the fire onto someone else. The Christian minority made a useful scapegoat, as Tacitus tells us:

“Nero made public those responsible and condemned them to the most refined execution, men hated for their crimes, whom the masses called Christians. The one from whom they took their name, a certain Christ, was executed under Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate. Repressed at first, this execrable superstition broke out again not only in Judaea, the cradle of this scourge, but in Rome, where everything which is most atrocious, shameful and evicted elsewhere, finally settles.” (Ann. XV. 44)

At the stadium in his private gardens on the Vatican Hill, Nero laid on great spectacles for the mob. Tacitus reports:

“Insult was added to the injury of the torture, such as wrapping men in the skins. of beasts so that they might be torn to pieces by the dogs. Others were nailed to crosses or condemned to be burnt alive, serving as torches to illuminate the darkness at the end of the day.” This was Nero’s sadistic idea of entertainment.

Peter shared the fate of these first Christian martyrs of Rome. He crucified upside down in the Vatican Circus. Paul however, as a Roman citizen, was led out to the woods south of the city to be beheaded, at the place called Tre Fontane. A Trappist monastery occupies the site today, peaceful amidst the scent of tall eucalyptus trees.

Paul’s body was. buried, as Gaius says, beside the Via Ostiense, where now stands the great basilica of St Paul-outside-the-Walls. Beneath the High Altar, the marble slabs above his tomb carry the dedication PAVLO APOSTOLO MART. 

Tradition holds that Peter was buried on the Vatican Hill, near the site of his martydom. During the  persecutions of the Emperor Valerian in AD 258, the bones of both martyrs were probably removed for safekeeping to the Catacombs of St Callixtus on the Via Appia. Later they were returned to their original graves, in part or whole.

When the Emperor Constantine built the first St Peter’s Basilica (c. 320 AD) he had to cut away half a hillside, and build up the rest of the land with spoil to make a level foundation. From an engineering point of view, it was a most impractical site to build a basilica. The only explanation for this awkward site was that he attached great importance to the exact position of the High Altar, under which lay the grave of the Apostle Peter.

Today’s basilica (completed about 1630) has kept the High Altar at precisely the same point above the traditional tomb of Peter. In 1939, workmen digging a tomb for Pope Pius XI in the crypt discovered a very early pagan-Christian cemetery, deep down beneath the foundations, whose existence had been forgotten for centuries. Constantine had buried it in 320 AD. It was excavated secretly, on the orders of Pope Pius XII. 

The burial ground contained the rich and decorated tombs of pagan families, along with some poorer Christian burial plots. Exactly beneath the High Altar the archaeologists found an unusual grave dated to 160 AD, sheltered by a specially constructed wall and marked by niches and funerary monuments above.

On a nearby tomb a workman of 330 AD had scribbled in coal “O Peter, pray for those chosen of the faithful buried near you!” In a marble-faced niche carved in the wall were found a few fragments of bone, a bit. of soil, a small piece of lead, two or three coins and some scraps of precious. cloth. Peter’s mortal remains? We cannot be certain. Yet we can be sure that this was Peter’s tomb, hallowed by nineteen centuries of pilgims’ prayers.

“Rejoice O Rome this day, thy walls they once did sign
With princely blood, who now their glory share with thee.
What city’s vesture glows with crimson deep as thine?
What beauty else has earth that may compare with thee?”