TOMB OF ST. PAUL

         St. Paul's remains were removed from the original burial site in A.D. 258, according to documentary evidence, reburied in another part of Rome, and then moved back to the site of the basilica when it was built over the original church in the late fourth century.

         On Dec. 6, 2006 , it was announced that Vatican archaeologists had discovered a sarcophagus beneath the altar perhaps containing the remains of the Apostle. A press conference held on Dec. 11, 2006 gave more details of the work of excavation, which lasted from 2002 to 22 Sept, 2006 .

         The sarcophagus had long been believed buried beneath the church's main altar. But it took a multiyear excavation to verify that fact. "There has been no doubt for the past 20 centuries that the tomb is there. It was variously visible and not visible in times past and then it was covered up. We made an opening (in the basilica floor) (See Pic. # 0429) to make it visible at least in part," Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the basilica, told Reuters last year. No one knows for sure, however, whether the early Christian Apostle's remains are still in his coffin. "We tried to X-ray it to see what was inside but the stone was too thick," said Montezemolo.

            In June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval to plans by investigators to examine the interior of the ancient stone coffin with an optical probe, to see if it contains human remains. The sarcophagus has not yet been extracted from its position, so that only one of its two narrow sides is visible.

         Since the rediscovery of the tomb, measuring approximately eight feet long, four feet wide and 3 feet high, archaeologists have cleared away centuries of debris and plaster that surrounded the site.

 

In the lowered area below the altar the following sign is displayed in several languages,

“Behind the grille, you can see at the end the side of the sarcophagus of unpolished marble which contains the tomb of St. Paul”

 

         "The tomb that we discovered is the one that the popes and the Emperor Theodosius [A.D. 379-395] saved and presented to the whole world as being the tomb of the apostle," said Giorgio Filippi, a specialist with the Vatican Museums. Surprisingly, said Filippi, "nobody ever thought to look behind that plaque," where the Vatican team found the sarcophagus.

 

         Under the altar, a marble plaque is visible, dating to the 4th century, bearing the inscription "Apostle Paul, martyr."