St. Paul's Body Found?

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." But could St. Paul's bones still be present with us?

Over the weekend Pope Benedict announced that fragments of bone dating to the first or second century have been discovered in a tomb in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome. The tradition of the Roman Church is that Paul was martyred in Rome around A.D. 65 and that his remains are located in the Basilica. This tradition was given more attention with the discovery of a sarcophagus in 2006.

Archaeologists drilled a tiny hole in the stone coffin and found traces of purple linen cloth and fragments of bone, which have been dated to the time of Paul's life. Pope Benedict announced that the bone fragments from the first or second century had been found in a tomb in the Basilica of St Paul, and reaffirmed the belief that it housed the apostle's remains.

"This seems to confirm the unanimous and undisputed tradition that these are the mortal remains on the Apostle Paul," the pontiff said on the eve of the Feasts of St Peter and St Paul.

Writing for Reuters, Stephen Brown explains how Christian tradition states that St. Paul was buried together with St. Peter in a catacomb on the Via Appia, before being moved to the basilica erected in his honor. For centuries it was believed that his remains were buried beneath the altar.

When the stone sarcophagus was discovered there in 2006, Vatican archeologists could apply scientific research to the religious tradition.

Brown writes that the first results come during the "Pauline Year," when the Roman Catholic Church has been celebrating the second millennium of the birth of the "Apostle of the Gentiles."

Pope Benedict gave details of the discovery, saying a tiny hole had been drilled in the sarcophagus to permit inspection of the interior, revealing "traces of a precious linen cloth, purple in color, laminated with pure gold, and a blue colored textile with filaments of linen."

"It also revealed the presence of grains of red incense and traces of protein and limestone," the Pope explained. "There were also tiny fragments of bone, which, when subjected to Carbon 14 tests by experts, turned out to belong to someone who lived in the first or second century."

Brown reports that the discovery of the bone fragments coincided with news that Vatican archaeologists had discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St. Paul, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome. Early Christians in Rome buried their dead in catacombs dug into the soft rock under the city and decorated the underground walls with biblical and religious images.

The Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, published a picture of a frescoed image of the face of a man with a pointed black beard and a furrowed forehead on a red background, inside a bright yellow halo.

According to Reuters, experts of the Ponitifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology made the discovery on June 19 in the Catacomb of Santa Tecla in Rome. They have described it as the "oldest icon in history dedicated to the cult of the Apostle," according to the Vatican newspaper.