The Secret World Of History's First Pope | St Peter's Holy Relics: The Quest | Timeline

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] in the heart of Rome stands one of the most fascinating monuments in the history of christianism since Peter's Basilica it was allegedly built on the very spot where Jesus's most famous apostle was martyred and buried and in the depths of this massive church is perhaps kept the vatican's greatest treasure which also is an incredible mystery that has fascinated researchers for centuries since Peter's relics the bones that were found there were the authentic bones of Peter we can't know that despite the Dutch they generate these relics are key for the Vatican indeed since Peter is considered the very first pope the first of an uninterrupted line until today as regarded as a foundation [Music] politics Professor used to enforce the Pope's Authority but does his tomb truly lie under Saint Peter's Basilica as the Vatican suggests did he even die in Rome for two Millennia the true story of Saint Peter has been subject to controversy we're not absolutely 100 certain that Peter ever came to Rome so that makes the existence of the bones slightly problematic but beyond the relics the prince of the Apostles is also a very mysterious character able to both betray Jesus and yet become the new head of christianism during the last couple of years the quest to discover the true Saint Peter has seen unexpected developments archaeological excavations in Israel have given important Clues to help Solve the Riddle behind his place of birth the legendary city of bethsaida this is a reliquary goes very well with the description that this is the village of the three apostles in Rome New Bones have been found more than three kilometers away from the Vatican a new twist in the adventure of Saint Peter's relics you see there's Petrus written when I saw this I felt we had found a great treasure from Israel to Rome and through turkey we have to follow in some Peter's tracks to find out historical and archaeological Clues he left behind in the hope of finally solving his many Mysteries [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] investigation begins at Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome this is where the Tomb of the prince of the Apostles is traditionally believed to lie the Basilica was built during the 4th century and completely rebuilt during their Renaissance this colossal building has been standing as the center of the Catholic world for more than a thousand years I think the Basilica sent Peter in Rome is of Paramount importance for the Christian Church it remains as a monument really to the most important of Jesus's disciples if you love history then you'll love history hit our extensive library of documentary features everything from the ancient origins of our earliest ancestors to the daring mission to sink the Bismuth history hit has hundreds of exclusive documentaries with unrivaled access to the world's best historians we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and timeline fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code timeline at checkout everything in the Basilica reminds us of Saint Peter's presence in the middle of the plaza stands 130 meter high Obelisk which supposedly witnessed the apostles martyr in 64 A. D at the end of the knave is Peter's Pulpit according to tradition this is the chair Jesus's disciples sat in as the first pope this is a fascinating location because it's theatrical it's the end of the Renaissance we want to show the power of the church and especially the symbol of Peter but Saint Peter's tomb is the center of all the theatricals [Music] three magnificent monuments in the Basilica have been honoring the very location of the Tomb for five centuries an immense cupola Rises 150 meters above ground the second highest dome in the Christian world right below it at ground level there's a huge canopy as tall as a 10-story building right in the middle of the Basilica below there's the chapel of confession decorated with marble and bronze only the pope is allowed to enter finally in the depths of the Basilica seven meters underground there's a mysterious funeral Monument from the second century that has long been buried under the basilica's foundations and was only discovered in 1940. it was a strong expectation there might be some kind of bones or some kind of a tomb there but it was by far from Clear Saint Peter's tomb had been lost for centuries and yet seemed to have been found precisely where it should have been in line with the basilica's architectural structures then after more excavations full of turns and twists bones were finally discovered inside the tomb this is the perfect epilogue for the Vatican because of the importance of Peter for papal Authority finding the bones of Peter or anything to do with Peter would have enhanced or buttressed the claims of the papal establishment in November 2013 Pope Francis shows Saint Peter's relics to the assembled crowd for the very first time 60 years after their Discovery below the Basilica this is a historical moment this is a very surprising moment because for the first time we can see the relics of the Apostles and Peter we knew they existed but no one except archaeologists and the various popes perhaps have seen them inside this bronze case are exposed to various bone fragments that supposedly belong to Saint Peter relics that have been incredibly important for believers throughout the centuries faith is not enough we like souvenirs and of course Saints relics are the ultimate souvenir they seem to have even been seen as being inhabited by sort of divine power but do these bones truly belong to Saint Peter is the prince of the Apostles truly buried in such a theatrical tomb right where Traditions speculated they would be [Music] doubts continuously surface since they have been discovered were they Peter's bones were they somebody else's bones again we can't know for sure we can't know for sure especially since the bones haven't been dated yet in 2014 three kilometers away the Quest for Saint Peter's Relic starts anew after the unexpected discovery of remains that also could have belonged to him massimiliano floridi belongs to a very old family from the Roman nobility he witnessed this discovery in an unexpected place far away from the luxury of Saint Peter's Basilica the last twist in the Quest for Saint Peter's relics took place in a modest Church in Rome in 2014 the thousand-year-old Church of Santa Maria in Capella is undergoing restoration work that's when the workers discovered something peculiar near the altar congrators and we were quite surprised when we discovered that the altar was Hollow and inside the hull we found two terracotta pots that looked very old indeed one of the two parts catches his eye immediately on the lid a carve the names of the very first popes in history anastasius Cornelius and the most famous of them all Peter the most amazing thing is that we can see the name of Peter here you see there's Petrus written when I saw this I was really excited I felt we had found a great treasure inside the urns massimiliano faridi discovered many bone fragments which are now sealed away there were many bone fragments I don't know what part of the body they belonged to but they were clearly human the discovery was like a shock wave if these bones are indeed Saint Peters then who's the man resting under the Vatican in order to understand how these mysterious urns have been hidden here the owner of the church called upon an archaeologist to study the building closely the Santa Maria in Capella church is rather peculiar tombs and Bones from the Middle Ages were found there and many paintings and statues representing Saint Peter can be found everywhere however what archaeologist Cristiano mengarelli finds Most Fascinating his mysterious writing at the entrance of the church the history of the church wasn't really known and it was the same for the writing research has known about it but they never studied it closely the carved marble dates back to the foundation of the church in 1090.

it refers to relics along with several popes and martyrs we can also see the letters p-e-t which is an abbreviation sometimes used for Petrus in Latin or Peter in English Queen the one the name of every saint mentioned in the writing were found on the relics or rather on the lid of the Earth every name matched and so we deduced that the writing and the reliquary were reliable the relics of Santa Maria and cappella were considered authentic by Believers during the Middle Ages but is that correct how could the bones of the first pope in history Jesus's Apostle end up in this small Church in Rome by studying the writing closely we can see a date 1090 and there's a name too Pope Urban II and so the pope himself put the relics there and Urban II isn't just any Pope [Music] he's very charismatic and will call for the first crusade in 1095. yet these are troubled times for the papacy as another Pope is questioning his power over the Christian World Urban II found a solution to enforce his legitimacy in Rome Saint Peter's relics he who used you the image of Saint Peter to tell the world that he was the only true Pope the he who owns and Peter's relics is obviously the person in charge of leading the Church of Rome if someone was ever able to access the bones of Saint Peter it was probably the pope but was he truly able to steal the Bones from the Tomb of the Vatican or are these relics fake used by Urban II in his quest for power in order to be sure massimiliano faridi wanted the Bones from Santa Maria in cappella to be analyzed in a laboratory yet his request was quickly blocked by The vatican's veto so guys since we're in Rome we have to await the decision from the pope and his curates and they chose to prevent an analysis from taking place such analysis could indeed prove embarrassing for the Vatican because if these are indeed the true relics of Saint Peter then the authenticity of the bones the pope presented could very well be questioned but why are Saint Peter's relics such an important stake for the papacy and how could this modest fisherman From Galilee the one who denied Jesus becomes so important in the history of christianism it seems we'll have to decipher the unique relationship between Jesus and some Peter As Told by the Bible foreign kilometers away from Rome Peter grew up in Galilee in the North of Israel near Lake tiberias to be precise the Bible tells us that Peter was a fisherman along with his brother Andrew [Music] he was you know basically a Galilean type fellow until he met Jesus just like other Apostles Peter leaves his work and home behind in order to follow Jesus Peter is completely involved in this because Jews at the time were waiting for the Messiah a messiah that was the son of God but also a political leader the land of Israel was under Roman occupation they wanted to be free and they expected that the Messiah would free them Peter like other Jews is hoping for is a kind of a messiah figure someone anointed by God to do his purpose during the three years before the death of Jesus Peter quickly becomes the leader of the Apostles he is quoted more often in the Bible than all other Apostles together and his Charisma makes him the ideal spokesperson there's clearly a very close personal relationship between Jesus and will do anything for him [Music] the gospel tells us that Jesus in return gives Peter a very important power that will truly make him the prince of the Apostles that power is symbolized by keys that Peter is often represented holding in his hand these are the keys to heaven it'll become some kind of popular tradition Peter as the doormat of Heaven someone who opens and closes the door to Paradise but that's not what the text is about the Bible gives a much more mysterious explanation of this power whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven through this enigmatic formulation Jesus bestows upon Peter a huge responsibility to judge souls to forgive sins or to condemn to hell for all eternity if you forgive somebody the sins heaven will forgive them and if you don't heaven will not forgive them so it says that Jesus gave Peter a very very dominant and important role in the amongst the disciples in order to mark this key event in Peter's Destiny Jesus will give the prince of the Apostles a new name the name we know today Peter isn't named Peter we have to say it at some point Peter isn't called Peter he's called Simon and Jesus is the one who gives Simon the name of Peter Jesus is pictured as giving a nickname I suppose we would say rocky or something of that nature today Jesus comes up with this name because he sees the leader of the Apostles as a rock he can rest upon and also the founding Stone of the new religion Christianity the famous saying in petrosia Iraq and Upon This Rock I will build my church Etc has been one of the most controverted texts in the entire Bible Protestants and Catholics will tear each other apart for centuries regarding the interpretation of this ambiguous sentence Catholics believe this sentence enforces the idea of a hierarchy of a church with a leader a leader designated by Jesus himself [Music] the church that owns the relics of Saint Peter which is the Church of Rome will see itself as the heir of Peter himself and the pope is Peter's successor and that's why representations of Saint Peter the first pope can be found everywhere in the Vatican and also why the apostles relics have been key for the last two thousand years in justifying Rome's place at the center of christianism the city of Rome views Peter in its bid for power in its bid for political power the symbol of the prince of the Apostles has often been used by the church throughout the centuries but what do we know exactly about the real Saint Peter and where did he grow up his city of birth bethsaida is another riddle that has fascinated researchers indeed archaeologists have been looking for the location of this lost city for two centuries without success however since 2016 new discoveries have potentially uncovered the place foreign to the Bible Saint Peter was born in bethsider in the North of Israel a city very close to Lake Tiberius this is also the birthplace of two other Apostles Andrew and Philip however for over a thousand years the city has been abandoned and its ruins buried underground estelleville nerve tracked the archaeological quest to the various holy places from the Bible and Beth cider is indeed one of the last riddles when looking for Jerusalem we know where it is that's for sure but other locations such as best cider completely vanished there's no Village called Beth cider anymore so where was it the Bible locates bethsider in the north of lake tiberias in Israel but archaeologists never managed to agree on the exact location [Music] however everything changes when during the 80s a team of archaeologists identifies a promising site east of the Jordan River etel a massive excavation is organized and after 10 years of work they successfully Unearthed the ruins of a village we found remains from the Roman period including houses in which we found fishing equipment so we can conclude that there were fishermen living Intel so there was indeed a village where fishermen lived and that's all it took to officially identify the place as Beth cider because is this truly Saint Peter's birthplace for years one archaeologist had his doubts because etel is two kilometers away from the shore the name of betsaida means the house of the fishermen it makes much more logic to assume that a village named The House of the fisherman will be on the shore of the lake Mordecai avian is convinced that the remains of bethsider lie elsewhere since 2016 he's been doing research on another site called elaraj and located two kilometers away from etel much closer to the shore and discoveries have been piling up and this is a musical from the Roman period probably from a Roman bath house that is something very typical to Urban centers rather and to rules as villages these remains of a Roman Bath House were found exactly here four meters underground the archaeologist sees it as a key clue [Music] ancient texts say that bethsaida was promoted to the rank of Roman city during the first century which was a rare occurrence in the region but in order to be sure that these are indeed the remains of Saint Peter's City Mordecai avian is looking for another major clue the size of a church mentioned in a text from the 8th century in the beginning of the 8th Century a traveler by the name of willybold won the ring for the holy sites in Galilee following Jesus and on the way he says he crosses bedside and there is a church for the apostles for almost a thousand years we had lost track of this church built to honor the three Apostles it almost seemed like a legend but Mordecai avian discovered a fragment of marble that was buried it may not look like much but it could turn out to be the long-awaited proof we have here a piece of marble from a Byzantine period Chancellor screen and it was a large table was standing like this there's no doubt we have here he remains of a church the ruins of the walls supposedly belong to a monastery next to the church this will take several more years of careful excavations to fully uncover the building but more surprises await the archaeologists during the summer of 2018 he discovered a piece of carved rock that he believes to be a reliquary more than 1300 years old its design makes it very clear to me that what we have here is a reliquary it is divided into three boxes and goes very well with the description that this is the village of the three apostles Peter Philip and Andrew at the time where the queries were indeed often carved in stones and so each of the three cavities was perhaps used to expose A Relic from each of the three Apostles of bethsider Peter Philip and Andrew but what Relic from Saint Peter could the faithful worship here more than three thousand kilometers away from the Vatican and people in the Holy Land cannot go to Rome to see Saint Peter's tomb so anything that has to do with the person itself can be in the in the reliquary not necessarily both was this rally query used to keep an important item that belonged to some Peter we'll have to wait for more excavations in the years to come if we want to know more on the subject however the clues found so far already seem to indicate that this is indeed the original bethsider the discovery of a Roman bath house the remains of a church and the reliquary match perfectly what we know about Saint Peter's City from historical sources [Music] three years have passed since Peter met Jesus we are now in Jerusalem on the day before the crucifixion standing above the city the church of Saint Peter in galicantu commemorates the darkest moment in the life of Saint Peter right after Christ was arrested [Music] this church is here to commemorate the Judgment of Jesus by the high priest who will sentence him to death and also the place where Peter who followed Jesus will deny him three times the current church was built in the beginning of the 20th century on the ground where Jesus was lightly judged and Saint Peter denied him the house of the high priest Caiaphas starting during the 5th Century four sanctuaries have been built here one after another it shows just how much that event in the Bible has left a mark on the faithful in the depths of the church a holy place has been preserved throughout the centuries this is the prison where Jesus was supposedly locked in the last night before his death the only axis at the time was through this hole and he was probably brought down from there around the hole we can see three crosses carved in the stone they probably indicate that the person brought through that hole was the Christ these crosses date back to the construction of the church in the year 450 A. D and just as Jesus was being locked in here right outside the house in this Courtyard Peter's betrayal happened and there were some women and they heard him talking to other people and said oh your accent sounds like you are like one of them who was with Jesus and then Peter said I don't know this man and he said it three times he actually seems to pronounce a curse upon you Jesus be cursed in some sense so it's a pretty profound denial and so Peter abandons his master right before his death on the cross this event clearly shows the contradictions within the Apostle and a personality that isn't as strong as one could imagine he's quite impetuous he rushes into things but sometimes he loses his courage and he's he's not quite as good as he thinks he is he is not a perfect person Jesus is perfect but Peter isn't the denial could have been an Abrupt end to some Peter's Destiny but on the contrary this will show him as a human character with weaknesses that many Christians will be able to identify with throughout the centuries perhaps in a way that's the point that it's it's not somebody who's perfect it's somebody who has failed but still picked himself up and tried again so Peter in a way is like all of us after Jesus's death Saint Peter will have to face his weaknesses in order to carry out the mission he was given to create christianism and it's really Peter who who starts the whole missionary activity and so he plays a crucial part in the very earliest spread of Christianity within 30 years what was but a small local and trivial movement will spread to the East and all around the Mediterranean Sea christianization has started and will deeply change the face of the world look whatever tons of pinned All Star the Trove this little Jewish sect in order to fulfill his Destiny as the new head of christianism tradition tells us that Saint Peter went to Rome to spread the religion is the city to conquer once you're in Rome you're at the heart of the Roman Empire I think at some point everybody would have thought we've got to go to Rome [Music] throughout the centuries the Vatican based all its power on the visit and death of Saint Peter in Rome a giant Basilica was built on top of the Tomb of the first pope in history and yet the Bible never mentions any travel of Saint Peter to Rome it's actually a huge silence that we have Christian tradition has said that he went to Rome and that he was martyred there but there's actually no evidence in the Bible for that the death of the prince of the Apostles has been an incredible riddle for two thousand years a mystery the Vatican will try to solve in the middle of the 20th century by starting colossal excavations in the depths of the Saint Peter Basilica in Rome in the search for the tomb and Relics of Saint Peter the discovery of the bones was considered absolutely essential for securing Peter's existence in the city to confirm that Saint Peter came to Rome tradition uses the tragic tale of his latter days his arrest during a deadly fire and his death on the cross upside down but what is actually true in this Legend and what can we learn from the latest historical research on the places Peter has visited from the place he was martyred to his final resting place his tomb thank you [Music] foreign a couple of meters away from the antic Forum the mamatime prison is one of the oldest places of worship of Saint Peter according to tradition that's where he spent his last days he was almost 70 years old we have to go down to the depths of the prison to discover the Bleak cells and Peter was supposedly kept in like a descent into hell thank you the conditions were awful here we can see holes in the walls and that's because there were chains and the prisoners were attached to them that prison dug in the ground is almost 2 700 years old this is the most famous a most terrible prison of the whole Roman Empire prisoners locked in here in this humid and dirty cell could stay there for years before dying of cold hunger or disease such a foul fate awaited the worst traitors of the Roman Empire this was the prison of the Roman State the high security prison for political prisoners versus the Gallup King was locked here for more than six years before being executed by Caesar but what could some Peter have done to deserve being locked in such a dark prison reserved for the worst enemies of Rome [Music] the Catholic tradition shows him Peter's death as something exceptional indeed the prince of the Apostles was supposedly found guilty of the worst fire Rome had ever known the traditional story about Peter's end is that he was taken up in the great fire of Rome the story told by Latin historians of that time along with archaeological excavations proved that this great fire indeed happened during the summit of 64 A.

D three-quarters of the city went up in smoke thousands of Romans died in the Flames amidst total panic [Music] so this fire in Rome has been a trauma we shouldn't forget it it almost shook no it did shake the authority of Emperor Nero historians today agree more or less that the fire was probably an accident but at the time a rumor is spreading in town that the emperor himself set Rome on fire in order to rebuild his ideal city neuropolis in order to deflect public discontent and save his power Nero finds a scapegoat [Music] in a way to try and deflect blame from himself Nero said that it was the Christians who'd started the fire he scapegoated these Christians who we are told were already the object of scorn and hatred at the end of summer 64 A. D Nero starts one of the first persecutions in history against the Christians dozens of men and women are tracked down and arrested tradition tells us that Saint Peter died during this historical Roundup and that's how he ended up in the mamatime prison before being executed in such an awful way along with the other Christians indeed to calm the Angry Crowd Nero turns this massacre into a show that thousands of Romans come to see the emperor even opens up his huge private arena in the Vatican to the public foreign there are stories about Christians being put to death on crosses that are then burned so they're burnt alive so lots and lots of people lost their lives and it was really very horrible according to tradition Saint Peter received a special punishment crucifixion but not like Jesus Peter asked himself to be attached upside down so as not to die like his master the fact he's upside down shows that he doesn't feel worthy of exactly the same kind of of death [Music] this tale about the apostles martyrdom is essential to the Catholic tradition the Saint Peter Basilica was built upon the ruins of Nero's Arena [Music] yet only the huge 160 meters high Obelisk is left from that monument at the time the Obelisk was located in the center of Nero's Arena and Peter was allegedly crucified at the foot of this giant monolith but what is actually true in this Tale Saint Peter's death seems very mysterious indeed the crucifixion is a spectacular ordeal where one dies because of Suffocation being crucified upside down has no interest since you die much faster and the spectacular effect isn't the same so many historians don't really believe in this upside down crucifixion business and so the legend behind Saint Peter's death was perhaps exaggerated but how much exactly did he die in year of circus was he even arrested during the historical Roundup some facts are confusing the persecution of 64 A. D is told by Latin historians of that time yet some Peter the leader of the community is never mentioned he's not mentioned he's not singled out in the Pagan accounts as among those executed the mystery deepens when reading the acts of Peter this Christian text from the second century tells us a completely different version of the death of the Apostle it is surprising that the acts of Peter doesn't mention the fire of Rome it just has um Peter put to death for completely other reasons what is this other completely different version of Saint Peter's death in order to find out our investigation brings us to the via apia the 500 kilometer long ancient road that connects Rome to the south of Italy this is where the final part of the acts of Peter took place the text says that Saint Peter took the Via apia in order to escape from Rome it seems he felt threatened in the capital but the causes are completely unrelated to the Great Fire of 64.

Peter is persecuted according to the acts because of the way he had managed to convert a number of high-class Roman citizens to Christianity and was preaching against Roman mores and particularly was preaching Chastity which of course the upper class Romans did not like at all when on the Via Appiah the apostles seemed to suddenly change his mind according to the acts of Peter Jesus came to him and convinced him to accept his martyrdom and so he went back to Rome to give himself up [Music] the acts Peter are interesting for the things that they don't say rather than what they do say if we stick to the strict version of the acts of Peter the Apostle didn't die with the other Christians during the persecution of 64. his execution had been set apart so could he truly have died in Nero Circus the acts of Peter give no clues as to the place of the martyrdom during the Middle Ages the mystery regarding this place is so intense that a brand new Theory comes up 1 500 meters away from the Vatican there's another church asserting that it was built on the site where Saint Peter was crucified San Pietro in monterio the king of Spain himself had this magnificent building built in the beginning of the 15th century he is convinced that Saint Peter was executed here rather than in Nero circus and it all started from a mysterious Latin word the traditional story that about Peter's crucifixion says that he was crucified upside down in Terre duas metas for a long time we translated meta as a boundary marker used to Mark the end of the track in an arena which matches the official version but at the end of The 14th Century researchers highlighted the word meta has another very different meaning they start to re-examine the idea of the meta and found that the word meant a pyramid they decided that perhaps Peter was not crucified in a circus but midway between two pyramids during Saint Peter's time there were indeed two pyramids in Rome about three kilometers apart about halfway between them researchers found a site on the hill of the geniculum this is where the San Pietro in monterio church is built this other location for Saint Peter's martyrdom may seem strange but at the time it was a serious candidate in 1445 the pope ordered the carving of a representation of the Apostles martyrdom on the bronze doors of Saint Peter's Basilica we can see there are two pyramids depicted we can see Nero condemning Peter for crucifixion and we can see the Cortez snaking up the geniculo hill this theory that dates back to the end of the Middle Ages cannot be confirmed of course but it gives rise to doubt for two Millennia the location of Saint Peter's martyrdom has been debated as it is closely connected to the fate of his relics indeed a thousand years before emperor Constantine used the tale of Nero's Arena to state that he had found some Peter's tomb and during the 4th Century A. D he ordered the construction of the first Saint Peter's Basilica Constantine the emperor seems to have been built over the grave of Peter or at least that was believed to be the grave of Peter why is Constantine convinced that Saint Peter was buried on the hill of the Vatican did he truly find the original tomb [Music] to understand how Constantine could locate the Tomb of the Apostle we have to imagine how the Vatican looked at the time of Saint Peter it was a marshy Hill outside the city walls only Nero's Arena was there a giant building about 590 meters long where Peter was supposedly executed during the 4th Century the arena is already in Ruins yet emperor Constantine decides to build a giant 8 000 meter Square Church right next to it the first Saint Peter's Basilica [Music] the construction is an incredible feat of engineering as the land is incredibly hostile but Constantine insists on building the church here and nowhere else [Music] it was a sloping sight it was marshy if you had free Reign Over where to build your Basilica you would naturally find a nice flat part of the country to put it in that's the only plausible explanation is that he truly believed that this was where Peter had been buried indeed the emperor is convinced that Saint Peter has been buried exactly here a hundred meters from the supposed location of his execution in the center of Nero's Arena he thinks that simpy's body was recovered by the first Christians after his martyrdom just like Jesus but no Source at some pieces time corroborates this yet Constantine believes in it because at the time there was a graveyard next to the arena a vast necropolis that will have to be buried under the basilica's foundations Constantine supposedly kept one single tomb that of Saint Peter yet as the centuries went by the access to this tomb became impossible the initial tomb itself completely disappeared under the constructions that came afterwards we haven't seen what's down below since the 4th century and so we can easily imagine that there's nothing there during the Renaissance the very tomb of Saint Peter becomes a myth some Protestants such as Luther declare that there's neither tomb nor relics under the Vatican because some Peter never came to Rome there is a lot of debate about whether Peter himself died here so that makes the existence of the bones slightly problematic [Music] in the 20th century archaeologists will finally try to solve this 2 000 year old riddle so they have to dig right under the Basilica in search of some Peter's tomb and in doing so perhaps uncover the precious relics of the prince of the Apostles of course nobody really knew what was going to be underneath the Basilica and so really this was opening up to who knows what what truly lies under the Basilica in the Vatican and what can we learn from the analysis carried out on the relics found there do these bones truly belong to Saint Peter [Music] the history of these extraordinary excavations begins in February 1939 right before World War II well this is not 1939 Pope Pius XI dies and in his will he asked to be buried as close as possible to the tomb of Saint Peter the new Pope Pius XII will do everything he can to respect the will of his predecessor on the 28th of June 1939 he orders tricky archaeological excavations that will last 10 years they have to dig under 22 000 square meter Basilica that could collapse under its own weight at any time digging below Saint Peter's Basilica was probably a rather difficult Adventure because it could destabilize the building the excavations are very secretive very discreet people shouldn't know too much about it and it absolutely couldn't disturb the worship [Music] seven meters underground archaeologists Unearthed a vast necropolis with many mausoleums the massive City of the Dead buried so there was indeed a graveyard next to Nero's Arena where the corpses of the Christians executed in the arena could have been buried yet the most important archaeological Discovery was yet to come [Music] if they find a peculiar Arrangement some kind of small dedicated space within the mausoleums and against a wall painted red they find some kind of Small Monument [Music] the building is in Ruins but today we're able to reconstruct an image of the original Monument it was a rather simple Mausoleum about two to three meters high with small columns on the sides is this Saint Peter's tomb that's what emperor Constantine believed during the 4th Century in any case because this building was found right in the center of the first Saint Peter's Basilica it was treated as a place of pilgrimage to Peter's honor and that becomes kind of the archaeological seed from which the subsequent Basilica grows however the date the monument was built is problematic it seems to date back to 160 A.

D which is one century after Peter's death could this building truly be a tomb or is it rather a symbolic funeral Monument built to worships in Peter to prove that it is indeed his tomb archaeologists looked for bones inside The Monuments but they didn't find any so where do the Relic shown by Pope Francis in 2013 come from three years after the excavations ended in 1953 The Quest for Saint Peter's relics takes a new unexpected turn thanks to the perseverance of researcher Margarita guaducci she believes the tomb is authentic and she convinces the Pope that they need to undertake new excavations which she'll be in charge of Margarita guaducci studies the walls around the monument they're covered with strange writings at first glance they look like simple lines but in truth there are code used by the first Christians [Music] the graffiti of largely eroded it's their incomplete but the scraps that we have mentioned his name and oh Peter pray for me or something like that she's able to identify the sign for Saint Peter that the first Christians carved this is a P with a cross the two lines below represent the keys that are associated with him but there's no mention of any relics however Everything Will Change when analyzing a fragment of the wall lying on the ground close to the tomb the writings aren't complete but what she does decipher will give her the solution to the mystery of the relics [Music] and she read Petros any which means Peter is inside and so she's convinced that his bones are indeed here Margarita guarducci is convinced that the bones are inside the wall she's been studying for months and where the sign of Peter has been carved several times she then investigates the archaeological work carried out during the 1940s and discovers something amazing ten years ago bones were actually found in a hole inside the wall but the team of archaeologists didn't pay them much attention since they were outside the tomb they targeted had the bones been stored nobody really knows anymore so she does some more research and ends up finding the Box in a Cupboard Margarita guaducci discovers several bone fragments along with dirt and what's left of Golden Threads during Antiquity important people were buried like that wrapped in gold threaded clothes are handed over to an independent laboratory to be analyzed and the conclusion seem promising anthropological studies confirmed that they're all Bones from the same man a sturdy person everything seems to fall into place Peter was a fisherman so he was probably sturdy and the man is estimated to have been around 70 years old when he died which is about Peter's age this is the perfect epilogue for the Vatican in 1964 Pope Paul VI who took over after Pius XII announces officially that the tomb and Relics of Saint Peter have been found again but Margarita guaducci's investigation is soon questioned the story of a box laid aside for years sounds suspicious how did the bones end up inside the wall and what happened between Peter's death and the construction of the funeral Monument during the second century so what we can say is that this Monument was probably built to shelter Peter's bones yeah me but concluding that the bones found there are his would mean that nothing has changed but the bones haven't moved we know that the hole where the bones were found has been opened before medieval coins were discovered there and the skeleton is incomplete is it possible that some bones were taken and brought somewhere else this would match the story of the relics in Santa Maria in cappella the church in Rome where peculiar urns were Unearthed in 2014.