The Tomb of Saint Paul

According to ancient tradition, Saint Paul was beheaded outside Rome under Nero, at a place called Aquae Salviae, and buried by Christians in a cemetery on the road to Ostia. As early as about the year 200 the Roman priest Gaius could say: “If you go to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church.” Constantine built a basilica over the grave, and at the end of the fourth century it was replaced by a vast church, the largest in Rome until the new Saint Peter’s.

The basilica burned in 1823 and was rebuilt in its original form. Beneath its high altar lies a marble slab, broken into pieces, inscribed PAULO APOSTOLO MART, “To Paul, Apostle and Martyr.” Excavations completed in 2006 uncovered the sarcophagus beneath it. Part of it can now be seen by pilgrims.

In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI announced that a probe inserted into the sarcophagus had found purple linen with gold sequins, incense, and fragments of bone. Radiocarbon dating placed the bones in the first or second century, which he said “seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that these are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul.”

The chain displayed above the tomb in the photograph is venerated as the one that bound Paul in his Roman imprisonment.

Where

Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome, Italy

When to see it

Visible through an opening below the high altar, in the confessio.

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap

Read about

Saint Paul