"

The leadership of the Church with Peter as the head began in Jerusalem. Here we see Peter on the day of Pentecost proclaiming the gospel to the people in Jerusalem both Jews and Gentiles saying, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit." (Ac 2:38)

Likewise, when the dispute over the need to circumcise the Gentiles arose, Paul and Barnabas brought the question before the Apostles in Jerusalem. At this meeting after much debate, Peter got up and told them that had seen the Spirit come also upon the Gentiles which showed that God showed no distinction between Jews and Gentiles because God purified their hearts by faith. He continued, "Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they. The whole assembly fell silent, and they listened while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them." (Ac 15:9-12)

While there is no mention in the New Testament that Peter moved to Rome, tradition tells us that Peter guided Christians of Rome from 42-67 AD. He was crucified, head down, at his own request, on June 29th 67AD during the persecution of Nero who blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome. He was buried on Vatican hill where now the basilica of St. Peter stands. Why did Peter choose Rome as the from which to spread the faith? "Like Paul, Peter also came to Rome, the city that was the place of convergence of all peoples and which precisely because of this could become the first of all expressions of the universality of the Gospel. Undertaking the journey from Jerusalem to Rome, Peter surely felt himself guided by the voices of the prophets, by the faith and by the prayer of Israel." (Homily of Pope Benedict XVI on the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul)

Basilica photo: Courtesy of Q.T. Luong, a gifted photographer at TERRAGALLERIA

Pope Zephyrinus (199-217 AD) wrote, "I can show the mortal spoils of the Apostles. You will find their remains in the Vatican [Peter], or along the road to Ostia [Paul]."

But if this is true, where is his burial place now?

St. Peter Basilica was constructed in the 16th Century to replace the one built by Constantine over the tomb of St. Peter. In front of the Altar there are two stairways leading down to a subterranean shrine area which has always been venerated as St. Peter's resting place.

In 1942 Pius XII gave permissions to archeologists to begin digging in this area, or beneath altar of the Basilica. What they discovered was amazing. They found a number of papal altars stacked on top of each other. Beneath the 6th century altar of Pope Gregory the Great they discovered a huge marble and porphyry cube which they identified as Constantine original monument which had been described in ancient Vatican Records. Next to the monument and extending out from it, "they" found a wall with many scratch-on graffiti inside whose cavity was found bones and a piece of red plaster with the words Petros eni (Peter is here).

Historians believe that after Peter crucifixion he was hurriedly buried, probably at night, in an unmarked grave in a cemetery right outside the circus. For decades Christians came to pay their respects but they took care to make it look like any other grave. Eventually a formal monument was built according to Roman customs with a small whole in the door where pilgrims could toss in coins and other personal items. In 324 Constantine built a Basilica over Peter's grave but since it was on a hillside he built massive retaining walls to level the ground and in the process covered the cemetery. In front of the Church he built a marble nine feet tall cube directly over Peter's tomb. On a solid gold cross in front of the cube he inscribed the words, CONSTANTINE AUGUSTUS AND HELENA AUGUSTA (GIVEN TO PETER) THIS REGAL ABODE, SURROUNDED BY A HALL OF EQUAL SPLENDOR." As it turned out the persecuted Christians before Constantine had moved Peter's bones from its grave, wrapped them in expensive royal purple and gold cloak and hid them in a cavity of the graffiti wall. This wall became encased in the honorary marble cube of Contantine where St. Peter's bones were found. At the end of the investigation, on June 27, 1968 Pope Paul VI announced that the bones of St. Peter had been found. There is still a lingering doubt about whose bones they are but there is no doubt at all that St. Peter had been buried 2,000 years earlier on the Vatican hill in the area beneath the Cathedral. (Robert J. Hutchinson, When in Rome, Doubleday, NY, 1998, Chap. X)

Papal Succession