The Secret World Of History's First Pope | St Peter's Holy Relics: The Quest | Timeline

This channel is part of the successful Historical Network in the heart of Rome lies one of the most fascinating monuments in the

history

of Christianity since St. Peter's Basilica, it was supposedly built in the same place where the most famous apostle of Jesus was martyred and buried and in the depths. This huge church contains perhaps the greatest treasure of the Vatican, which is also an incredible mystery that has fascinated researchers for centuries since the

relics

of Peter, the bones that were found there were the authentic bones of Peter, we cannot know that Although the Dutch generated these In fact, the

relics

are key to the Vatican, since Peter is considered the

first

Pope, the

first

in an unbroken line until today, considered as a political foundation.

The professor used to enforce the Pope's authority, but is his tomb really located beneath St. Peter's Basilica, as the Vatican suggests? Did he even die in Rome for two millennia? The true

history

of Saint Peter has been the subject of controversy. We're not absolutely 100 sure that Peter ever came to Rome, which makes the existence of the bones a bit problematic, but beyond the relics, the Prince of the Apostles is also a very mysterious character capable of betrayal. to Jesus and yet become the new leader of Christianity in recent years. The

quest

to discover the real Saint Peter has seen unexpected developments.

Archaeological excavations in Israel have provided important clues to help solve. the enigma behind his birthplace the legendary city of Bethsaida this is a reliquary goes very well with the description that this is the town of the three apostles in Rome new bones have been found more than three kilometers from the Vatican a new twist in the adventure of the relics of Saint Peter, you see, it is written Petrus when I saw this I felt that we had found a great treasure from Israel to Rome and through Turkey we have to follow in Peter's footsteps to discover the historical and archaeological clues that he left in The hope of finally solving its many Mysteries thanks to foreign research begins in St.

Peter's Basilica in Rome. This is where the Tomb of the Prince of the Apostles is traditionally believed to be located. The Basilica was built during the 4th century and completely rebuilt during the Renaissance. This colossal building has been the center of the Catholic

world

for more than a thousand years. I believe that the Basilica sent by Peter to Rome is of utmost importance for the Christian Church. It remains truly a monument to the most important of Jesus' disciples if you love history. then you will love the story. Our extensive library of documentaries includes everything from the ancient origins of our earliest ancestors to the daring mission to sink the Bismuth.

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at checkout. Everything in the Basilica reminds us of Saint Peter's presence in the middle of the square is 130 meters high. Obelisk that supposedly witnessed the martyrdom of the apostles in 64 AD. at the end of the jack is Peter's pulpit according to tradition this is the chair in which the disciples of Jesus sat as the first

pope

this is a fascinating place location because it is theatrical it is the end of the Renaissance we want to show the power of church and especially the symbol of Peter, but the tomb of St.

Peter is the center of the entire theater three magnificent monuments in the Basilica have been honoring the very location of the Tomb for five centuries an immense dome Rising 150 meters above the ground the second tallest dome in the Christian world just below, at ground level, there is a huge canopy as tall as a 10-story building right in the center of the Basilica, below is the confession chapel decorated with marble and bronze, only the Pope can finally enter the depths of the basilica, seven meters underground, there is a mysterious funerary monument from the 2nd century, which for a long time was buried under the foundations of the basilica and was not discovered until 1940.

There was great expectation of that there might be some kind of bones or some kind of grave there, but it was far from clear. St. Peter's tomb had been lost for centuries, and yet it seemed to have been found precisely where it should have been in line with the basilica. architectural structures then, after more excavations full of twists and turns, bones were finally discovered inside the tomb. This is the perfect epilogue for the Vatican because of Peter's importance to papal authority. Finding Peter's bones or anything to do with Peter would have improved or reinforced the claims of the papal establishment in November 2013 Pope Francis shows the relics of St.

Peter to the crowd gathered for the first time 60 years after their discovery below of the Basilica this is a historical moment this is a very surprising moment because for the first time you can see the relics of the Apostles and Peter we knew they existed but no one except the archaeologists and the different

pope

s may have seen them inside this bronze box On display are several bone fragments that supposedly belong to the relics of St. Peter that have been incredibly important to believers. Over the centuries, faith is not enough, we like souvenirs and, of course, the relics of saints are the best souvenir.

They seem to have even been seen as inhabited by some kind of divine power, but do these bones really belong to Saint Peter? Is he truly the prince of the Apostles? buried in such a theatrical tomb right where Traditions speculated that doubts would continually arise since they were discovered whether they were Peter's bones whether they were someone else's bones again we cannot be sure we cannot be sure especially since the bones have Not yet dated In 2014, three kilometers away, the search for the relic of Saint Peter begins again after the unexpected discovery of remains that could also have belonged to him.

Massimiliano Floridi belongs to a very old family of Roman nobility and witnessed this discovery in an unexpected way. place away from the luxury of St. Peter's Basilica the latest turn in the search for the relics of St. Peter took place in a modest church in Rome in 2014 the millennia-old church of St. Mary in Capella is being restored, that is when the workers discovered something peculiar near the altar of the congratulators and we were quite surprised when we discovered that the altar was hollow and inside the hull we found two terracotta vessels that seemed very old, in fact one of the two parts immediately catches the eye on the lid and there is a engraved with names. of the first popes in history, Anastasius Cornelius and the most famous of all, Peter.

The most surprising thing is that we can see Pedro's name here. You see, it's written Petrus. When I saw this, I was very excited. I felt that we had found a great treasure inside the urns massimiliano faridi discovered many bone fragments that are now sealed there were many bone fragments I don't know what part of the body they belonged to but they were clearly human the discovery was like a shock wave if these bones They are In fact, Saint Peter, so who is the man who rests under the Vatican to understand how these mysterious urns were hidden here?

The church owner called an archaeologist to study the building closely. The church of Saint Mary in Capella has quite peculiar tombs and bones. The Middle Ages were found there and many paintings and statues depicting Saint Peter can be found everywhere, however, what archaeologist Cristiano Mengarelli finds most fascinating is his mysterious writing at the entrance to the church, the history of the church was not really known and was the same. because written research knew it but they never studied it closely, the carved marble dates back to the founding of the church in 1090. It refers to relics along with several popes and martyrs, we can also see the letters p-e-t, which is sometimes an abbreviation . used for Petrus in Latin or Peter in English Queen that the name of each saint mentioned in the scripture was found in the relics or rather on the cover of the Earth, all the names matched and that is why we deduced that the scripture and the reliquary They were reliable.

The relics of Saint Mary and the cappella were considered authentic by believers during the Middle Ages, but is that correct? How could the bones of the first pope in history, the Apostle of Jesus, end up in this small church in Rome? By studying the writing closely we can see a date of 1090. and there is also a name Pope Urban II, so the Pope himself put the relics there and Urban II is not just any Pope, he is very charismatic and will call the first crusade in 1095. However, these are difficult times for the papacy as another Pope. is

quest

ioning his power over the Christian world Urban II found a solution to enforce his legitimacy in Rome The relics of Saint Peter the one who used the image of Saint Peter to tell the world that he was the only true Pope the one who possesses the relics of Peter is Obviously the person in charge of leading the Church of Rome, if anyone was ever able to access the bones of Saint Peter, it was probably the Pope, but was he really able to steal the bones from the Vatican Tomb or are these relics fake? and used by Urban II in his quest for power to be sure that Massimiliano Faridi wanted the bones of Santa Maria in capella analyzed in a laboratory, but his request was quickly blocked by the Vatican veto, so guys, since We are in Rome, we have to wait. the decision of the Pope and his priests and chose to prevent an analysis from being carried out, such an analysis could be embarrassing for the Vatican because if these are really the true relics of Saint Peter, then the authenticity of the bones that the Pope presented very It could well be questioned, but why are the relics of Saint Peter such an important bet for the papacy and how does this modest fisherman from Galilee, the one who denied Jesus, become so important in the history of Christianity?

It seems that we will have to decipher the unique relationship between Jesus and a little Peter as told by the Bible miles away from Rome Peter grew up in Galilee, in the north of Israel, near Lake Tiberias, to be precise, the Bible tells us It says that Peter was a fisherman along with his brother Andrew, he was basically a Galilean guy. companion until he met Jesus like the other Apostles Peter leaves his job and home to follow Jesus Peter is completely involved in this because the Jews at that time were waiting for the Messiah a messiah who was the son of God but also a political leader. the land of Israel was under Roman occupation they wanted to be free and hoped that the Messiah would liberate them Peter as other Jews expect is a kind of messiah figure someone anointed by God to fulfill his purpose during the three years before the death of Jesus Peter quickly becomes the leader of the Apostles.

He is cited more frequently in the Bible than all the other Apostles combined and his charisma makes him the ideal spokesperson. There is clearly a very close personal relationship between Jesus and he will do anything for him that the gospel says. tells us that Jesus in return gives Peter a very important power that will truly make him the prince of the Apostles. That power is symbolized by the keys that Peter is often depicted holding in his hand. These are the keys to heaven. He will become kind of popular. tradition Peter as the doormat of Heaven someone who opens and closes the door to Paradise but that is not what the text is about the Bible gives a much more mysterious explanation of this power everything you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven through This enigmatic formulation Jesus gives Peter an enormous responsibility to judge souls to forgive sins or condemn them to hell for all eternity, if you forgive someone's sins, heaven will forgive them and if you don't, heaven will not forgive them. , that is why it says that Jesus gave Peter a very dominant and important role among the disciples to mark this key event in Peter's destiny Jesus will give the prince of the Apostles a new name the name we know today Peter is not called Peter, we have to say it at some point Peter is not called Peter, his name is Simon and Jesus is the one who gives Simon the name Peter.

Jesus is depicted giving a nickname. I guess today we would say rocky or something like that. Jesus came up with this name because he sees the leader of the Apostles as a rock on which he can rest and also the founding stone of the new religion Christianity, the famous saying in Petrosia Iraq and On this rock I will build my church Etc. has been one of the most controversial texts in the entire Bible Protestants and Catholics will tear each other apart for centuries withregarding the interpretation of this ambiguous phrase. Catholics believe that this phrase reinforces the idea of ​​a hierarchy of a church with a leader a leader appointed by Jesus himself the church that owns the relics of Saint Peter, which is the The Church of Rome will see itself as the heir of Peter himself and the Pope is Peter's successor and that is why representations of Saint Peter, the first Pope, can be found everywhere in the Vatican and also why the relics of the apostles have been key during the last two thousand years.

In justifying Rome's place at the center of Christianity, the city of Rome sees Peter's bid for power in his bid for political power. The symbol of the prince of the Apostles has often been used by the church over the centuries, but what exactly do we know? About the real Saint Peter and where he grew up in his hometown of Bethsaida is another enigma that has fascinated researchers. In fact, archaeologists have been searching for the location of this lost city for two centuries without success; However, since 2016, new discoveries have potentially uncovered the location. alien to the Bible Saint Peter was born in Bethsider, in the north of Israel, a city very close to Lake Tiberius, this is also the birthplace of two other apostles Andrew and Philip;

However, for more than a thousand years the city has been abandoned and its ruins buried underground. The Estelleville nerve continued the archaeological search for the various

holy

places of the Bible and Beth. Cider is indeed one of the last enigmas when we look for Jerusalem, we know where it is, that's for sure, but other places, like the best cider, have completely disappeared. There is no longer a town called Bethsider, so where was the Bible placing Bethsider in the north of Lake Tiberias? in Israel but archaeologists never managed to agree on the exact location however everything changes when during the 80s a team of archaeologists identifies a promising site east of the Jordan River and a massive excavation is organized and after 10 years of work they unearthed successfully the ruins of a town that we found remains from the Roman era including houses in which we found fishing equipment so we can conclude that there were fishermen living Intel so there was indeed a town where the fishermen lived and that was all it took to officially identify the place as Beth Sidra because Is this really the birthplace of Saint Peter?

For years an archaeologist had his doubts because Etel is two kilometers from the coast the name Bethsaida means the fishermen's house it is much more logical to assume that a town called The Fisherman's House will be on the shore of lake Mordecai avian is convinced of that the remains of bethsider are found elsewhere since 2016 he has been investigating at another site called elaraj and located two kilometers from etel much closer to the coast and the discoveries have been accumulating and this is a musical from the roman era, probably from a Roman bathhouse, something very typical of urban centers and towns.

These remains of a Roman bathhouse were found exactly here, four meters underground. The archaeologist sees it as a key clue, the ancient texts say. that Bethsaida was elevated to the rank of a Roman city during the first century, which was unusual in the region, but to be sure that these are the remains of the city of Saint Peter, Mordecai Avian is looking for another important clue of the size of a church mentioned in an 8th century text in the early 8th century a traveler named willybold won the ring to the

holy

places of Galilee following Jesus and on the way he says that he crosses by the bed and there is a church for the apostles For almost a thousand years we had lost track of this church built in honor of the three Apostles, it almost seemed like a legend, but Mordecai Avianus discovered a fragment of marble that was buried.

It may not seem like much, but it could turn out to be the long-awaited proof. We have a piece here. marble from a chancellor's screen from the Byzantine period and it was a large table that was like this. There is no doubt that we have here the remains of a church. The ruins of the walls supposedly belong to a monastery next to the church, it will take several more years of careful excavations to fully uncover the building, but more surprises await archaeologists during the summer of 2018 discovered a piece of carved rock that they believe is a reliquary more than 1,300 years old, its design makes it very clear to me that What we have here is a reliquary, it is divided into three boxes and goes very well with the description that this is the town of the three apostles Peter Philip and Andrew at the time where, in fact, the consultations were often carved in stones . and so, each of the three cavities was perhaps used to display a relic of each of the three apostles of Peter Philip and Andrew, but what relic of Saint Peter could the faithful worship here more than three thousand kilometers away?

The Vatican and people in the Holy Land cannot go to Rome to see St. Peter's tomb, so anything to do with the person themselves may be in the reliquary, not necessarily both. This meeting query was used to save an important object that belonged to some Pedro that we will have. We will have to wait for more excavations to be carried out in the coming years if we want to know more about the subject; However, the clues found so far already seem to indicate that this is indeed the original, in addition to the discovery of a Roman bathhouse, the remains of a church and the reliquary coincides perfectly with what we know about the city of San Pedro a through historical sources.

Three years have passed since Peter met Jesus. Now we are in Jerusalem the day before the crucifixion, standing over the city. The church of San Pedro in Galicantu commemorates the darkest moment of life. of Saint Peter just after Christ was arrested this church is here to commemorate the Trial of Jesus by the high priest who will sentence him to death and also the place where Peter who followed Jesus will deny him three times the current church was built in At the beginning of the 20th century, on the land where Jesus was judged lightly and Saint Peter denied him the house of the high priest Caiaphas, from the 5th century onwards, four sanctuaries have been built here one after the other, which shows how much that event has left in the Bible a mark on the faithful in the depths of the church a holy place has been preserved throughout the centuries this is the prison where Jesus was supposedly locked up the last night before his death the only axis at that time was through of this hole and was probably lowered from there around the hole we can see three crosses carved in the stone probably indicating that the person who was carried through that hole was Christ.

These crosses date from the construction of the church in the year 450 AD. and just as Jesus was being locked up here right outside the house in this courtyard Peter's betrayal occurred and there were some women and they heard him talking to other people and they said oh your accent sounds like you're like one of them that was with Jesus and then Peter said, "Not me." I don't know this man and he said it three times. He actually seems to pronounce a curse on you. Jesus will be cursed in some sense. So it's a pretty deep denial and that's why Peter abandons his teacher just before his death on the cross.

This event clearly shows the contradictions. within the Apostle and a personality that is not as strong as one might imagine he is quite impetuous he rushes but sometimes loses his courage and is not as good as he thinks he is he is not a perfect person Jesus is perfect but Peter is not denial could have been an abrupt end to the destiny of some Peter but on the contrary this will show him as a human character with weaknesses that many Christians will be able to identify with throughout the centuries perhaps in a way that is the point. that he is not someone who is perfect, he is someone who has failed but still got up and tried again so Peter in a way is like all of us after the death of Jesus Saint Peter will have to face his weaknesses in order to carry out the mission that was given to create Christianity and it is really Peter who initiates all the missionary activity and therefore plays a crucial role in the earliest spread of Christianity within 30 years, which was nothing more than a small and trivial local movement It will spread to the East and throughout the world.

The Christianization of the Mediterranean Sea has begun and will profoundly change the face of the world. Look how many tons of All Star the Trove set this little Jewish sect to fulfill their Destiny, as the new leader of the Christian tradition tells us that Saint Peter went to Rome to spread. Religion is the city to conquer once you are in Rome, you are in the heart of the Roman Empire. I think at some point everyone would have thought we had to go to Rome. Throughout the centuries, the Vatican based all its power on the visit and death of Saint Peter.

In Rome, a giant basilica was built over the tomb of the first Pope of the history and yet the Bible never mentions any trip of Saint Peter to Rome in reality it is a huge silence that we have the Christian tradition has said that he went to Rome and that he was martyred there, but in reality there is no evidence in the Bible that the death of the prince of the Apostles has been an incredible enigma for two thousand years, a mystery that the Vatican will try to solve in the middle of the 20th century, by beginning colossal excavations in the depths of St.

Peter's Basilica in Rome, in search of the tomb and relics of Saint Peter, the discovery of the bones was considered absolutely essential to ensure Peter's existence in the city and confirm that Saint Peter had come. Even Rome tradition uses the tragic story of his last days, his arrest during a deadly fire and his death on the upside down cross, but what is really true in this Legend and what can we learn from the latest historical research on the places since the ones that Pedro visited? the place where he was martyred until his last resting place his tomb thanks foreigner a couple of meters from the old forum the mamatime prison is one of the oldest places of worship in San Pedro according to tradition there he spent his last days he was almost 70 years old , we have to go down into the depths of the prison to discover the desolate cells and Peter was supposedly held as a descent into hell, thank you, the conditions were terrible, here we can see holes in the walls and that's because there were chains and the prisoners They were tied to them.

This prison dug into the earth is almost 2,700 years old. This is the most famous and most terrible prison in the entire Roman Empire. The prisoners locked here in this damp and dirty cell could remain there for years before dying of hunger or disease. , such a dire fate awaited the worst traitors of the Roman Empire. This was the prison of the Roman State. The high security prison for political prisoners versus King Gallup was locked up here for over six years before being executed by Caesar. But what could a certain Peter have done to deserve to be locked up in such a dark prison reserved for Rome's worst enemies?

Catholic tradition shows Peter's death as something exceptional. In fact, the Prince of the Apostles was supposedly found guilty of the worst fire Rome has ever had. The best-known traditional story about Peter's end is that he was taken by the great fire of Rome. The story told by Latin historians of that time along with archaeological excavations demonstrated that this great fire did indeed occur during the peak of AD 64, three-quarters of the 19th century. The city went up in smoke, thousands of Romans died in the flames in the midst of total panic, so this fire in Rome has been a trauma, we must not forget it, it almost shook, no, it shook the authority of Emperor Nero.

Historians today more or less agree that the fire was probably an accident, but at the time a rumor was spreading in the city that the emperor himself set fire to Rome to rebuild his ideal urban neuropolis, with the in order to divert public discontent and save his power. Nero finds a scapegoat to try. and divert the blame from himself Nero said that it was the Christians who had started the fire. he made scapegoats of these Christians, who, we are told, were already objects of contempt and hatred by the end of the summer of 64 AD. Nero begins one of the first persecutions in history. against Christians, dozens of men and women are persecuted and arrested.

Tradition tells us that Saint Peter died during this historic roundup and that is how he ended up in Mamatime prison before being executed in such a gruesome manner along with the other Christians to calm the angry crowd. Nero turns this massacre into a spectacle in which Thousands of Romans come to see the emperor even open his huge private arena in the Vatican to the foreign public. There are stories about Christians who are executed on crosses that are then burned so that they are burned alive so many people lost their lives and it was really very horrible according to tradition Saint Peter received a crucifixion of special punishment but not asJesús Pedro asked to be tied upside down so as not to die like his master.

The fact that he is upside down shows that he does not feel worthy of exactly the same type of death. This story about the martyrdom of the apostles is essential to Catholic tradition. St. Peter's Basilica was built on the ruins of Nero's Arena, but only the enormous 160 meters. A tall obelisk remains from that monument at the time when the Obelisk was located in the center of Nero's Arena and Peter was supposedly crucified at the foot of this giant monolith, but what is really true in this tale: the death of Saint Peter seems very mysterious, in fact, crucifixion is a spectacular test where one dies from asphyxiation being crucified face down has no interest since you die much faster and the spectacular effect is not the same so many historians do not really believe in this upside-down crucifixion business and so the legend behind Saint Peter's death was perhaps exaggerated, but exactly how many died in the year of the circus?

He was even arrested during the historic rodeo. Some facts are confusing. The persecution of 64 AD It is told by Latin historians of that time, but Peter, the leader of the community, is never mentioned is not mentioned is not highlighted in pagan accounts since among those executed the mystery deepens when reading the acts of Peter in this Christian text. of the second century tells us a completely different version of the Apostle's death. It is surprising that the Acts of Peter do not mention the burning of Rome, they simply execute Peter for completely different reasons. What is this completely different version of the death of Saint Peter?

To find out, our investigation takes us to the Appian Way, the 500 kilometer long ancient road that connects Rome with southern Italy. This is where the final part of Peter's acts took place. The text says that Saint Peter took the Appian Way. to escape from Rome it seems that he felt threatened in the capital but the causes have no relation to the Great Fire of 64. Peter is persecuted according to the minutes for the way in which he had managed to convert several upper-class Roman citizens to Christianity and it was preaching against Roman customs and particularly preaching chastity, which of course the upper class Romans did not like at all when on the Via Appiah the apostles seemed to suddenly change their minds based on Peter's actions.

Jesus approached him and convinced him to accept his martyrdom and that is why he returned to Rome to turn himself in. The actions of Peter are interesting for the things they do not say more than for what they say if we stick to the strict version of the events of Peter. Peter the apostle did not die with the other Christians during the persecution of 64. His execution had been set aside, so he could really have died in the Circus of Nero. Peter's acts give no clues about the place of martyrdom during the Middle Ages. The mystery about this place is so great.

It is intense that a new theory emerges. 1,500 meters from the Vatican there is another church that claims to have been built on the site where Saint Peter was crucified. San Pietro in Monterio, the king of Spain himself had this magnificent building built at the beginning of the 19th century. 15th century is convinced that Saint Peter was executed here and not in Nero's circus and it all began from a mysterious Latin word the traditional story that about the crucifixion of Peter says that he was crucified face down in Terre duas metas for a long time We translated meta as a boundary marker used to mark the end of the track in an arena that coincides with the official version, but at the end of the 14th century researchers highlighted that the word meta has a very different meaning and began to reexamine the idea of ​​meta They discovered that the word meant pyramid and decided that perhaps Peter was not crucified in a circus, but halfway between two pyramids during the time of Saint Peter there were indeed two pyramids in Rome about three kilometers apart approximately halfway among them the researchers found a site on the hill of the geniculum this is where the church of San Pietro in Monterio was built this other place for the martyrdom of Saint Peter may seem strange but at that time it was a serious candidate in 1445 the Pope ordered carving a representation of the martyrdom of the Apostles on the bronze doors.

From St. Peter's Basilica we can see that there are two pyramids depicted, we can see Nero condemning Peter for the crucifixion and we can see Cortés meandering up the geniculum hill. This theory dating back to the end of the Middle Ages cannot be confirmed, of course, but it gives rise to doubts for two millennia: the place of Saint Peter's martyrdom has been debated, as it is closely related to the fate of his relics. In fact, a thousand years before Emperor Constantine used the story of Nero's Arena to claim that he had found Peter's tomb and during the 4th century AD. ordered the construction of the first St.

Peter's Basilica Constantine, the emperor appears to have been built over Peter's tomb or at least it was believed to be Peter's tomb Why is Constantine convinced that St. Peter was buried on On the Hill of the Vatican actually found the original tomb. To understand how Constantine was able to locate the Tomb of the Apostle, we have to imagine what the Vatican looked like in the time of Saint Peter. It was a swampy hill outside the city walls, there was only Nero's Arena. There is a giant building about 590 meters long where Peter was supposedly executed during the 4th century.

The arena is already in ruins, but Emperor Constantine decides to build a giant 8,000 meter square church right next to it, the first St. Peter's Basilica. The construction is incredible. A feat of engineering as the land is incredibly hostile, but Constantine insists on building the church here and nowhere else was it a sloping view, it was marshy if you had free reign. As for where to build your basilica, you would naturally find a nice flat part of the country. To put it this way, the only plausible explanation is that he truly believed that this was where Peter had been buried.

In fact, the emperor is convinced that Saint Peter has been buried exactly here, one hundred meters from the supposed site of his execution in the center of Nero. Arena believes that Simpy's body was recovered by the early Christians after his martyrdom just like Jesus, but no Source ever corroborates this, but Constantine believes in it because at that time there was a cemetery next to the arena a large necropolis that will have to be buried under the foundations of the basilica Constantine supposedly preserved a single tomb, that of Saint Peter, but over the centuries access to this tomb became impossible, the initial tomb completely disappeared under the later constructions , we haven't seen what's underneath.

Since the 4th century, we can easily imagine that there is nothing there during the Renaissance, the tomb of Saint Peter itself becomes a myth. Some Protestants like Luther declare that there are no tombs or relics under the Vatican because Peter never came to Rome. There has been much debate about whether Peter himself died here, which makes the existence of the bones a bit problematic. In the 20th century, archaeologists will finally try to solve this 2,000-year-old enigma, so they will have to dig just below the basilica in search of something of Peter. tomb and in doing so perhaps discovering the precious relics of the prince of the Apostles, of course no one really knew what would be under the Basilica, so really this was opening up to who knows what is really under the Basilica in the Vatican And what can we learn from the analysis carried out on the relics found there?

Do these bones really belong to Saint Peter? The story of these extraordinary excavations begins in February 1939, just before World War II. Well, this is not 1939. Pope Pius XI dies and in his will. He asked to be buried as close as possible to the tomb of Saint Peter the new Pope Pius square meters that could collapse under its own weight at any moment digging under St. Peter's Basilica was probably quite a difficult adventure because it could destabilize the building the excavations are very

secret

, very discreet, people should not know too much and could not disturb cult at all, seven meters underground, archaeologists unearthed a vast necropolis with many mausoleums, the huge City of the Dead was buried, so in fact there was a cemetery next to the Arena of Nero where the corpses of the Christians executed in the sand could have been buried but the most important archaeological discovery was yet to come if they found a peculiar arrangement some kind of small dedicated space inside the mausoleums and against a red painted wall they found a kind of Small Monument the building is in Ruins but today we are I was able to reconstruct an image of the original monument.

It was a fairly simple mausoleum about two or three meters high with small columns on the sides. This is the tomb of Saint Peter. That's what Emperor Constantine believed during the 4th century. In any case, because this building was found correctly. in the center of the first St. Peter's Basilica was treated as a place of pilgrimage in honor of Peter and that becomes a kind of archaeological seed from which the later Basilica grows; However, the date the monument was built is problematic, it appears to date back to the year 160 A.D., which is a century after Peter's death, could this building actually be a tomb or is it more of a symbolic funerary monument? built for Peter's cults to show that it is indeed his tomb?

Archaeologists searched for bones within the monuments, but found none. So where did the Relic displayed by Pope Francis in 2013 come from, three years after the excavations ended in 1953? The search for the relics of Saint Peter takes a new unexpected turn thanks to the perseverance of researcher Margarita Guaducci, who believes that the tomb is authentic and convinces the Pope that they need to undertake new excavations that she will be in charge of. Margarita Guaducci studies the walls around the monument are covered in strange writings at first glance they look like simple lines but in reality they are codes used by the first Christians the graffiti is very eroded, it is incomplete, but the remains we have mentioned his name and oh Peter, pray for me or something Thus, she can identify the sign of Saint Peter that the first Christians carved, this is a P with a cross, both of them.

The lines below represent the keys associated with it, but no relics are mentioned. However, everything will change. Analyzing a fragment of the wall that lies on the ground near the tomb, the writings are not complete, but what she deciphers will give her the solution to the mystery of the relics and she read to Petros any which means that Peter is inside and That is why she is convinced that his bones are indeed here Margarita Guarducci is convinced that the bones are inside the wall that she has been studying for months and where the sign of Peter is, it has been carved several times, then she investigates the archaeological work carried out during the 1940s and discovers something surprising.

Ten years ago bones were found in a hole inside the wall but the team of archaeologists did not pay much attention to them as they were outside the tomb they pointed to. No one really knows if the bones were stored, so do some more research and he ends up finding the box in a closet. Margarita Guaducci discovers several bone fragments along with soil and what remains of Golden Threads during Antiquity, important people were buried like this. wrapped in clothing with gold threads, they are delivered to an independent laboratory to be analyzed and the conclusion seems promising.

Anthropological studies confirmed that they are all bones of the same man, a robust person, everything seems to fit into place. Peter was a fisherman, so he was probably robust and it is estimated that the man was around 70 years old when he died, which is about Peter's age. This is the perfect epilogue to the Vatican in 1964, Pope Paul VI, who took power after Pius XII officially announced that the tomb and relics of St. Peter. They have been found again but Margarita Guaducci's investigation is soon questioned The story of a box kept for years sounds suspicious How the bones ended up inside the wall and what happened between Peter's death and the construction of the funerary monument during the 2nd century and what we can say is that this Monument was probably built to house Peter's bones, yes, but to conclude that the bones found there are his would mean that nothing has changed, but the bones have not moved, we know that the hole where The bones were found has been It was opened before medieval coins were discovered there and the skeleton is incomplete.

Some bones may have been taken and taken to another location. This would coincide with the story of the relics in Santa Maria in cappella, the churchfrom Rome where some peculiar urns were unearthed in 2014. The analysis carried out here tells us that Pope Urban II brought the bones here during the 11th century, since Urban II still had access to the original tomb of Saint Peter, so it is It is very possible that he took part of the bones and transferred them here in a church that he owned. The story of a pope who desecrated the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles seems incredible, however, during the Middle Ages the relics were so important that this theory It makes sense, it's not so surprising that he would go ahead and dismember the body of a saint.

The church has recently banned this during the Middle Ages, it was a common and normal practice.