The Bones of the Fisherman

THE PAPACY

Pope Paul VI last week announced that some bones unearthed during excavations under St. Peter's Basilica were, in his judgment, those of Peter the Apostle, the Galilean fisherman whom Roman Catholics consider the founder of the Church of Rome. "The relics of St. Peter," declared Paul, "have been identified in a manner which we believe convincing." He based his conclusion on the fact that "very patient and accurate investigations were made with the result which we believe positive, encouraged by the judgment of worthy and competent persons."

The site of the investigations was beside an altar of the original basilica, built by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century and unearthed during excavations beneath St. Peter's begun in 1939. The results of the excavations led Pope Pius XII to announce in 1950 that the tomb of Peter had been discovered. Three years later, Professor Margherita Guarducci, who teaches Greek epigraphy and antiquities at the University of Rome, began studying the inscriptions on a red plaster wall inside which the skeletal remains had been found. "As soon as I saw the cloth remnants," says Dr. Guarducci, who is not a professional archaeologist, "I knew that these bones must have been important. The cloth was of rich purple material and was worked with pure gold. I went on studying the inscriptions on the wall and deciphered them. I found the name of Peter, sometimes in the form of the initials P.E. [for Petrus Episcopus, or Bishop Peter] and as a capital P with three horizontal sidestrokes at the base of the vertical stroke--probably the origin of the key of Peter."

From the Circus. In 1962, Italian Anthropologist Venerando Correnti identified the bones--which consist of approximately half a skeleton--as those of a robustly built man about 5 ft. 4 in. in height and between 65 and 72 years of age. An analysis of the dirt found with the bones, Dr. Guarducci claimed, showed that it had come from the area near the circus of Nero, where Peter was crucified in A.D. 64 or 67.

Dr. Guarducci first published her thesis that the bones were those of Peter in 1965--and was strongly attacked by other scholars. If Pope Paul had any fresh evidence to bolster her thesis, he did not cite it, and his announcement acknowledged that controversy over the claim is likely to continue. For one thing, the tomb itself dates from the 4th century. For another, many scientists would contend that it is impossible to establish the identity of the remains without some clue to Peter's physique, such as a bone deformation. Finally, while the bones unquestionably have a personal significance for the Pope, his announcement comes at a time when the church is gradually de-emphasizing the value of the physical relics of those it honors as defenders of the faith.

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