蜜桃交友

By Pope

Pope Francis has written to the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, in order, as the Pope says in his letter, 鈥渢o explain more fully the gift of some fragments of the relics of the Apostle Peter that I presented to Your Holiness鈥�.

The background to the gift

In the letter to the Orthodox Archbishop of Constantinople, Pope Francis reviews what he calls 鈥渢he uninterrupted tradition of the Roman Church鈥� which 鈥渉as always testified that the Apostle Peter, after his martyrdom in the Circus of Nero, was buried in the adjoining necropolis on the Vatican Hill鈥�.

The Pope goes on to recount how the tomb 鈥渜uickly became a place of pilgrimage for the faithful from every part of the Christian world鈥�, and how, later, the Emperor Constantine erected the Basilica dedicated to St Peter over the site.

The discovery of the bones

The letter goes on to explain how, in June 1939, immediately following his election, Pope Pius XII decided to undertake excavations beneath the Vatican Basilica. These works 鈥渓ed first to the discovery of the exact burial place of the Apostle and later, in 1952, to the discovery, under the high altar of the Basilica, of a funerary niche attached to a red wall dated to the year 150 and covered with precious graffiti, including one of fundamental importance which reads, in Greek, 螤蔚蟿蟻慰蟼 蔚谓喂 (鈥淧eter is here鈥�). This contained bones that can quite reasonably be considered those of the Apostle Peter鈥�.

These relics are now enshrined in the necropolis under Saint Peter鈥檚 Basilica.

The nine fragments

In his letter, Pope Francis describes how Pope Saint Paul VI had nine fragments removed and placed in the private chapel of the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace. The nine fragments were placed in a bronze case bearing an inscription in Latin, which reads: 鈥淏ones found in the earth beneath the Vatican Basilica considered to be those of Blessed Peter the Apostle鈥�.

鈥淚t was this same case, containing nine fragments of the bones of the Apostle鈥�, writes Pope Francis, 鈥渢hat I desired to present to Your Holiness and to the beloved Church of Constantinople over which you preside with such devotion鈥�.

The gift of Patriarch Athenagoras

Pope Francis shares how he 鈥渞eflected on our mutual determination to advance together towards full communion鈥�, and how he 鈥渢hanked God for the progress already made since our venerable predecessors met in Jerusalem over fifty years ago鈥�.

The Pope says he thought of the gift that Patriarch Athenagoras gave to Pope Paul VI: 鈥渁n icon depicting the brothers Peter and Andrew embracing, united in faith and in love of their common Lord鈥�.

This icon, concludes Pope Francis, has become 鈥渁 prophetic sign of the restoration of that visible communion between our Churches to which we aspire and for which we fervently pray and work鈥�.