street theologian

Friday, December 08, 2006

Relics of St. Paul Found....Possibly- AP





"ROME - Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul, buried beneath Rome's second-largest basilica.The sarcophagus, which dates at least as far back as A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project's head said this week ... Church tradition holds that Paul died a martyr's death by beheading in the first century A.D. — and that in ancient times two churches were successively built over the spot where the saint was buried. The second church, built by the Roman emperor Theodosius in the fourth century, left the tomb visible, first above ground and later in a crypt.

When a fire destroyed the church in 1823, the current basilica was built on the same spot, and the ancient crypt was filled with earth and covered by a new altar."
-Associated Press

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