[Apologetics] Extraordinary Find Dug Up Near Vatican

[Dianne Dawson]

http://channels.isp.netscape.com/whatsnew/default.jsp?story=20061206-1302
   
  Extraordinary Find Dug Up Near Vatican
  
Vatican archaeologists have dug up a stone coffin buried underneath Rome's second largest basilica that they believe contains the remains of the Apostle Paul.      The Associated Press reports that the sarcophagus dates to at least A.D. 390. The complex excavation work began in 2002 and was just completed in November. "Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist who headed the project at St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica, told AP. The interior of the sarcophagus has not yet been explored.      Tradition has long claimed this as the burial site of St. Paul. Before the current basilica, two ancient churches once stood at the same place. Roman emperor Theodosius built the second church in the fourth century and left St. Paul's tomb visible first above ground and later in a crypt. That church was destroyed in a fire in 1823, and the basilica
 that still stands today was then built. At that time the ancient crypt was filled with dirt and covered up with a new altar. "We were always certain that the tomb had to be there beneath the papal altar," Filippi told AP.      The Vatican decided to unearth the sarcophagus and make it visible again after many pilgrims who came to Rome in 2000 for the Catholic Church's Jubilee year were disappointed to find St. Paul's tomb could not be visited or touched. 


Like a deer that longs for running waters so my soul longs for you, O God.

Ps 42:1
 
 



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