Vatican bones 'remains of St Paul'

The first scientific test on what is believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul appears to confirm that they are genuine, the pope said.

The first scientific test on what is believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul appears to confirm that they are genuine, the pope said.

It was the second major discovery concerning St Paul announced by the Vatican in as many days.

On Saturday, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced the discovery of a fresco inside another tomb depicting St Paul, which Vatican officials said represented the oldest known icon of the apostle.

The pope said archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, which for some 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St Paul.

He said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

“This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul,” he said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican’s Paoline year, in honour of the apostle.

According to tradition, St Paul, also known as the apostle of the Gentiles, was beheaded in Rome in the 1st century during the persecution of early Christians by Roman emperors. Popular belief holds that bone fragments from his head are in another Rome basilica, St John Lateran, with his other remains inside the sarcophagus.

The pope said that when archaeologists opened the sarcophagus, they discovered alongside the bone fragments some grains of incense, a “precious” piece of purple linen with gold sequins and a blue fabric with linen filaments.

Today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, a major feast day for the Roman Catholic Church, during which the pope will bestow a woollen pallium, or scarf, on all the new archbishops he has recently named.

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