Another story  was  denial  well before the excavations of 1940:  always  in  L iber Pontificalis  you told  that veneration for the tomb of Peter meant  that many Christians wanted to be buried "in the Vatican  at the body of Blessed Peter "(Liber P ontificalis  1.121 to 122).

Urban VIII in 1626  commissioned  Bernini's colonnade in bronze. From the report on the excavation of wells foundation for the colonnade learn that the Pope,  given the enormous difficulty of construction, availed himself of Nicholas Alemanni, scholar of renown, to assess risks, confessional and political of such a transaction. The Germans tried  to dissuade the pope from the grounds  various  reasons, among which  the question of the very existence of the body of Peter in the basilica.

Open the yard, a large number of tombs and burial mounds emerge unexpectedly, jobs are interrupted, and is called a consultation of experts, which participates the Alemanni, that says, on the basis of the types of burials, the membership of those bodies  a heathen and not to "saints".

On these embarrassing findings,  Urban VIII ordered strict silence,  pain of excommunication.

Strangely  a series of tragic events affecting the papal court: the Alemanni gets sick, and after forty days, dies. Follow unexplained deaths in the entourage of the Pope; the same Urban VIII  became seriously ill.But,  despite everything,  the work was completed by Bernini.

Urban VIII, left  it spread  the news  This kind of "curse"  for the profaners, but not  was  foolish enough to believe it.  What is astonishing is that many scholars seem to believe Catholic scholars today.

The excavations of 1940 have confirmed that the necropolis in the Vatican is  almost  totally pagan.

* (  In Addition To,  in  2003  in  Vatican on the way Trionphalis  (Near where it was called Meta Rom uli Terebithus Neronis) was found another necropolis in the same period of what lies beneath the basilica. The necropolis was given the name of St. Rose. This was destined to a lower middle class  (Slaves and freedmen),  so much better suited as a otterrare sentenced to death,  but  apparently  in this necropolis  did not find any evidence  some  the presence of Christians.)

From  Apocryphal Acts of Peter and Paul of Pseudo-Marcellus, of approximately 400, which had some luck in the Middle Ages and beyond, especially with regard to the pictorial representation of the martyrdom of Peter, we read:

[84] Burial and custody of the bodies. Suddenly appeared distinguished people looking stranger who said to one another: "We have come from Jerusalem to the holy principles of the apostles."With Marcello, distinct person who had believed to Peter after leaving Simone  [Simon Magus], secretly and took his body and laid him under the oak, next to the site of naumachia in the Vatican ...

This Act apocryphal, if true,  it should  refer  more  the necropolis of St. Rose  (Next to the remains of their naumachia Vatican)  than to that which is located in the basilica  St. Peter.

Perhaps Pius XII  did something inevitable, the new times were pressing. His successor John XXIII did not deal at all of the problem, and gave a little 'time to try to find a solution to the problem.

The solution was found,  but  further complicated the problem. With a metaphor to describe what happened, we can refer to something that our grandmothers knew well: when in times past, for economic hardship, it was not unusual to have to put the patches on clothes now easy to tear because they are too old ,  all knew from experience that the patch could not be made of a fabric newest of the support,  because the new patch would aggravate the gash. The same thing happens in any form of restoration.  We can say that:  Paul VI mise  a patch that made matters worse.

Today's criticism of these events seems "regressed".  Weigh too much to modern commentators  the heavy mortgages made by these two popes.

The Vatican is totally pagan necropolis, apart from a doubt artifact M - (Tomb Christ the Sun), which is defined by the presence of a Christian fresco showing an anchor and Jonah swallowed by the sea monster, only that what is called Christ as the sun is Apollo, very reminiscent of the pagan god of the Roman  Sol Invictus  (Mitra). The tomb is still undoubtedly pagan because it contained urns (cremation is forbidden by the Christian religion).

All the inscriptions on the tombstones of the rich patrician tombs are attributable, at the latest, the mid-second century, the only exception supposed newsstand Gaius that, dating from the late second century., Is totally devoid of any tablet with inscriptions.

Admitted that at first there had been the need to hide a dead among the dead, seems absurd that they have buried their own "in house of his murderess." Besides, why leave for over a hundred years? How to guard the place and prevent any other person you would build up its own grave? In fact, close to the "alleged" tomb of Peter terranean there are many more.

Too many because that is not answered. We add that, as seen in the figure, to build the shrine the supposed tomb was destroyed half of its length.

Why build over the grave a memorial that would put at the disposal of the remains of pagan Peter?

There was a hatred of the Roman plebs towards Christians, precisely because of the character "secret and mysterious"  with which they celebrated their cults,  which made them suspicious. Tertullian (160-220) writes that the mob was trying to preference to surprise Christians during the celebration of Mass.

Until the edict of Constantine, the Christian churches, as a whole, had to endure ten persecutions, but most were located in some provinces, while others were excluded. The most serious,  why is that  extended to the whole empire, is the one that occurred in 257, known as the persecution of Decius and Valerian. This bloody persecution was interrupted by Galen who returned to churches all their assets (261); this did not prevent the successors of Galen to operate other persecutions of Christians. The tenth and final persecution that occurred under Diocletian that began in 303 and ended in 311 when Galerius issued an edict of tolerance towards Christians (Edict of Serdica); In 313 Constantine issues the Edict of Milan.

The need to conceal the relics, it is clear: in fact,  the one and only witness genuine, authentic, a tomb of the martyr in Rome was found in 1854 in the cemetery of Sant'Ermete on the Via Salaria, the Father Marchi, master of de Rossi, a Jesuit.

This is the only tomb of a martyr found  inviolate!  It is a martyr of the persecution Diocleziana, the 303-304.

All reticence and lack of data on the stay of Peter in Rome, his martyrdom, the secret on the deposition of his body, to be seen in this light.

We must consider how the nascent religion was surrounded by internal and external enemies.

What could be considered excessive prudence actually was a need not only to those times but of all time. "

We remember what they say  the  "Apocryphal Acts of Peter"  (Ch. 40):

And when the multitude repeated this aloud this "Amen", together with the '"Amen," Pie tro gave up his spirit to the Lord.

Burial of Peter and peace in the Church of Rome. Then Marcello, without asking anyone's opinion, it is not this possible, seeing that the blessed Peter had died, with his own hands removed it from the cross and washed it with milk and wine; chopped then seven mines rubber mastic, and another fifty of myrrh, aloes, aromas, and embalmed his body; filled a marble sarcophagus of great value with Attic honey and laid it in his own tomb.

The Acts of Peter date from the second century, many parts are fictional and several commentators have pointed out that you wanted to make the martyrdom of Peter similar to that of Jesus (very common use in martyrologies). But if that were the case, because in the "Acts" is then reproached Marcello this behavior by Peter himself who appears to him in a dream?

"... In the middle of the night, Pietro Marcello appeared to him and said:" Marcello have you heard that the Lord said: "Let im gardens bury their dead?" Marcello replied: "Yes." Peter continued, "You So you lost because you have consecrated to the dead! Because you, you're alive, you've taken care of a mo rto like you're a dead man. "

OMISSION

This part that follows, based on current findings and less, they want to prove to be one of theses courses to justify the burial of Peter in the place of his martyrdom is unfounded.  The thesis justifies this bizarre behavior on the grounds that at the time the Christians did not have their own cemeteries where to bury their dead. Maybe it was true for ethno-Christians but not for the Judeo-Christian .... And the Christians had already L 'Ostrianum where Peter baptized and held the chair.

A real interest in the catacombs was built in the early sixteenth century, at the time of the Reformation.

One of the most diligent discoverers of that age was  Antonio Bosio,  the  fruits of his long search, lingered for years, and that earned him the name "Columbus of the catacombs," were collected in his famous work"underground Rome," given in 1629 but published only after his death.

Generally it can be said that the research of the first scholars of the early explorers of the catacombs and not brought to the ancient burial ground of Rome less damage than they have made the tooth wrecker of time or the hordes of barbarians devastating. Only in the mid-nineteenth century, there was a real improvement in this field.

The new movement, which led to the real discovery of the catacombs in the scientific sense of the word, is linked to two names: those of  Joseph P. March the SJ and Giovanni Battista Rossi, and d.

Father  Marks was the initiator and pioneer, de Rossi the follower and finisher of the work.

The tomb of the Popes in San Callisto,  if it was only one of many discoveries made by de Rossi in his long career as a researcher, was certainly the most important. However, it was not only due to the luck of the discoverer, but also to having he found the right method for the exploration of the catacombs.

To preserve and enhance the relics of Christian and directing new digs Pius IX instituted, at the initiative of De Rossi, the  "Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology."  For the legal part were officially recognized the rights of the Holy See in the Concordat of the year 1929.

In "Bulletin  d the Christian Archaeology, year  V  No. 3  1867 "  GB de  Rossi devotes many pages of"The chair of s. Peter in the Vatican and that of cemetero Ostrianum ".

This text is illuminating in that it states that in antiquity preserved in the Vatican over the chair (chair of Peter in the gestation  period of Antioch **) until the sixth century there existed another, worshiped at the ancient cemetery Ostrianum,  that an ancient memory  (Acts of the Saints Papias and Mauroleone  **  inserted in the acts of Pope Marcello)  called "ubi Petrus baptizabat", and in other  documents appealed "to nymphas s.Petri, and fontis s. Petri ". As proof of his thesis cites the fact that up to Pope Paul IV (1555) there were two dates celebrating the chair of Peter. A resorted January 18 (the one dell'Ostriano  "Seat-ubi Petrus prius sedit Apostolus") and the other resorted February 22  and was  relative to the chair of Antioch ( s headquarters ubi Petrus primum Romae sedit ).  Paul IV unified  eliminating one of the two dates January 18 (and with this,  the memory of the second chair). Another test refers to the famous Papyrus of ampoules of Monza , which contains a list of ampoules containing oils taken from the lamps burning before the martyrs, donated to Queen Teodolinda  Pope Gregory the Great.  Over one of these Abbot John wrote:oleo de sed and ubi prius sedis cactus Petrus .  The same words  repeated in the papyrus. The oil contained nell'ampolla came from 'Ostrianum.

The de Rossi cites the codes of martyrology Geronimo  ( Martyrologium Hieronymianum ,  St. Jerome V sec.) which appeal to the coemeterium nymphas s. Petri (Ostrianum with the epithet of major, coemeterium majus.  Not being Ostrianum the largest among the cemeteries,  the name stands for the  "oldest ".

... The ancient and famous cemetery said to nymphas , where s. Peter baptized and where they were buried by s. John Priest them SS.  Papias and Mauro  year 303 martyred under Diocletian and Maximian.So  is written in the acts themselves: Quorum  corpora with l egi t  Joannes presbyter  no ctu, et sepelivit in via numentana sub die kal. februarii to nymphas ubi Petrus baptizabat.

In this  sentence there is a double confirmation:  Ostrianum was on Nomentana; There was a tunnel that linked the cemetery Ciriaca than on Nomentana.

The thesis GB de Rossi  were later  questioned  by his pupil Horatio Marucchi,  and therefore somehow forgotten.

That this way of working was not random it shows the story of the commemoration of June 29.

Already  from the year 258 was celebrated " Depositio Martyrum "at the place called" ad catacumbas " the third mile Appia,  on the day of June 29, to remember that at that place, for a period, were brought the remains of Peter and Paul. In Chronograph 354 stated " IIII Kalendas Iu lias Petri in Catacumbas, et Pau them, Ostiense, Tuscus Basso et consulibus ", indicating the liturgical feast in honor of St. Peter June 29 in c atacumbas  Appia, while St. Paul was celebrated on the Via Ostiense. In 354 the basilica of St. Peter was already  built!

This embarrassing contradiction was resolved more  late  -  as for the chair of St. Peter  -.

The feast was transformed,  after 431,  as follows : "[commemoration] of Peter on the Vatican, to Paul on the Via Ostiense and both in the catacombs under the consuls Tuscus and Low."

Of this step in the catacombs of St. Sebastian epigraphic evidence exists in extraordinary numbers: there are about six hundred graffiti with invocations to the martyrs Peter and Paul  (** Recent scientific investigations it became clear that the chair is kept in the Vatican  the Carolingian period IX sec.)

As I think these two great precursors and founders of religious architecture, we can not  fail to consider another issue that unfortunately adds  all these other "oversights"  concerning the tomb of Peter.

In their writings,  both de Rossi that Marrucchi from No no for granted that the catacombs are coeval to apostolic times , but just do a simple search on the web to learn that instead catacombs date back to the first half of the second century!

This alone would exclude  Ostrianum as a burial (death of Peter in about 67 d. C.)

Under Villa Torlonia there are the largest Jewish catacombs of Rome.

It may sound absurd, but not everyone remembers that the early Christians  who founded the Church of Rome  were Jews, and Jews  were Peter,  Paul and Jesus himself. It seems trivial but  is that so.

The so-called Judeo-Christian:  a few hundred  of people, when Peter and Paul arrived in Rome,  out of an estimated population of 30,000 people who made up the Jewish community of the first century.  Those Early Christians  they went to the synagogue on Saturdays and Sundays they gathered in homes scattered throughout Rome which also acted as church  (House churches), to take communion. Only at the end of the first century for religious reasons (Reform rabbinical 70 AD) was forbidden for Christians to attend the synagogues.

Lately  is  fall last objection that could be done on the assumption of the first deposit in the catacombs dell'Ostriano, as a recent study by Carbon 14  (Essay by  Leonard Victor Rutgers  published in the journal "Nature"),  in fact Catac ombe Jewish Villa Torlonia,  traces their age at a time next beginning of the first century .

In the first two hundred and fifty years according catalogs succeeded thirty popes. Few possess some information; the more you know only the name; some is uncertain existence.  Histories were made for deduction.

According to the same ecclesiastical nomenclature is mostly Greeks or foreigners. Vittore, African, is probably the first pontiff to Latin.

It is easy to understand:  Jews-Christians represented the Read part that knew the scriptures, new Christians who were based on Paul (ethno-Christians) were for  the  most former slaves or freedmen and illiterate,  at first,  the two Christian communities were actually almost opposite.

Since the early Christian communities of Rome were formed at the Jewish community,  is  logical to assume that  at these  have formed the first Christian catacombs. To reinforce this argument enough to observe the location of the same always close to those Jewish. The conformation is almost identical.

This hypothesis also explains  why is that  all Christian funerary inscriptions at the end of the second century (Church of Callisto) does not follow fashion then current in Rome.

The epitaph Roman funeral included the deceased's name preceded by a minimum of elogium  and there was the participation of survivors (those who dedicate the grave, parents, parentes).

Also provided data that were many years, months, days had lived the deceased. None of this is in the Christian epigraphs.

We have to wait another century  because  the distance from the greek language to Latin and with this step change in the epitaphs (Church of Damaso) for over three centuries will contain only the name of the deceased. As was tradition in Jewish circles.

The only difference is in the inscriptions and iconography. The Christian catacombs are usually decorated with ancient religious symbols such as fish or doves and the Greek letters  "Who" and "rho"  (X and P) intertwined monogram for the Greek word Christos. Whereas the underground tunnels of Villa Torlonia have decorations cool with Jewish symbols: menorah, palm branches, Ark of the Covenant, pomegranate, Aron (scroll of the Law) etc.

The existence of Jewish catacombs dating back to the first century is also demonstrated by the epigraphs  headstones.

Strangely it continues to put the emphasis on the existence of cemeteries mixed pagan-Christian, and it keeps saying he does not know where to bury their dead the very numerous Jewish community of the first century. 
As for the fact that the Vatican necropolis were found clues and Christian symbols that does not mean anything, it was not uncommon for wealthy and rich Romans would allow their slaves or freedmen, particularly devout, to be buried in their graves. 
But why in the nearby necropolis of Saint Rose, much more popular and coeval to the Vatican, there are no traces of Christian tombs?

The subsoil of Rome never ceases to amaze. In 2009, for the road works was found the Jewish cemetery in Monteverde, the oldest of the capital. The cemetery was discovered by Bosio, but he lost track several times in subsequent centuries. To date it is not clear the extent or the precise location.

Here's what he wrote GB de 'Rossi Rome Sotteranea Christian p. 90 vol. The

... How are Christian crypts isolated, conversely we also sometimes cemeteries 
underground non-Christians. In Rome two we know due to the Jews; 
the one on the way Portuense discovered by Bosio, and that of the vineyard Randanini 
Appia came to light and dirt road in recent years. The second is certainly 
of the Christian era, ie the third or more of the second century of 'LM-to ours, 
when the Jews in large numbers inhabited the region Capena door: and 
I will return to ragionarne composedly payables places. The first can be traced back to more 
ancient times, being in Trastevere; where Jews from the age of Pompey had room. 
The Marchi estimated that Cotesta cemetero Judeo trastiberino was the type, 
which conformed to the Christians of Rome to create their sotterrenei burial grounds 
(1). And really this is very probable genesis of cemetero Christian. Inasmuch as 
the church coming out of the womb of the synagogue brought with him many rites and customs 
of Judaism; and it is clear, that the similarity of cemetero Jewish and Christian 
can not come from imitations made ​​da'Giudei Christian rite ...

In the same book on p. 83 and following "Origin of 'Christian cemeteries."

"... We also know that the money collected in the ark of the church by the spontaneous LAR 
gizioni de 'faithful was disbursed to support himself in the lives of the poor, the widows, the orphans, and to 
give them convenient burial after death (2). And so religious and sacred was 
reputed quest 'use of' treasures of the church, which in the fourth century s. Ambrose taught 
: hiimandis fidelium relirpuiis .... vasa ecclesive etiam initiata confrimgere, conflare, 
make licet (3). Suffice these few notions irrefutable de 'Prischi 
rites and prische Christian laws, to hear, even when the same antiquity 
there testificasse him, that 'sepulchres faithful had to be different and separate 
from the graves de 'kind; taken into account holy thing, especially those de'martiri; 
and entrusted to the care and protection of 'sacred ministers and de'liberali and pious benefactors 
of the church. History is full of facts, documents, old monuments., 
trying to be really been so. "

The map below shows the location of the Jewish catacombs.

OMISSION

In the second part of the report  we talk about another set of "combinations"  that seem to come from the pen of a writer "visionary"  who either did take "the hand"  from the excesses of fantasy.  As often happens however, is the reality than fiction.

PART TWO  - THE HIDDEN PART

The bones of the A p ostolo -  Paul VI

The location of the tomb of Peter is not the subject of faith, a dogma, but the attitude of the Vatican to this topic that seems almost unreasonable. We try to understand why.

Theses courses after the excavations of 1950, as we have seen are built on a delicate topic:  though very unlikely, that pile of rubble anonymous could be the mythical Tropaion . To support this thesis has had to make a clean sweep of all the rest of the tradition,  which for centuries has inspired so many works of art that fill the  many churches dedicated to the Apostle. How to forget the episode of "Quo Vadis", the miraculous escape from  Tullianum, or crucifixion upside  down  and  the miraculous liberation from the shackles?

Supporters of the thesis of Tropaion  are aware that  you can not keep your foot on more brackets as before, because as a corollary to this argument assumes that the early Christians were forbidden to collect the body of the apostle and had to be buried in a simple grave dug in the ground near the circus . Proponents of the thesis justify this disrespectful  behavior of the followers of Peter with the fact that you were forced by circumstances  and  adding that in any case it was a common use among the Romans of the time!

What about these statements?  Simply that answers are not of a safe  foundation, so  as the thesis from which are derived.

All the writings of the time, even if apocryphal, never mention this and provenance, belie the fact.  And sisteva  then  a Roman law (Law of 12 tables) that allowed the relatives or friends to ask for the body of the executed is true that the authorities could decide otherwise, but by Proceedings  and other stories we know that P ehind could have influential friends  and, moreover, that  for authorities rom ane was a complete stranger; the second contains a malicious omission: it is true that the use of underground  corpses was used by the Romans of the time, but not at the Roman Jewish community, and  Jews were both the Apostles Peter and Paul that the vast majority of the early Christians, they say clearly the  Acts of the Apostles  and the  Letter to the Romans  Paul.

The scholar Protestant  O.  Cullmann, has always disputed the possibility of a false first burial at the Horti  as the place were less suitable for the purpose,  since  executions were held there and shows.  It goes on to bring case against both abstruse  and singular  are these claims.

Compared to the last century - before the excavations  - Criticism, with respect to this subject has undergone almost a cultural regression: all Catholic critics are fossilized positions on these abstruse.  The reason perhaps is of a practical nature: no one wants to deny two  popes.

Pius XI I was definitely in good faith  when  put her bones,  found in the vicinity of the excavation, in his private apartment. C Hiuse in a crate, they  were the subject  his veneration  for over a decade.  And Then,  in 1968,  with Paul  VI were analyzed and  it was realized that the remains belonged to three individuals, two males and a female, and ... to various farm animals!

The bones were placed in several polls in  plexiglass  and remittances from the excavations and are still the ì  in view.

Communications about the discovery of these bones are different and contradictory. At first it is said to have been Trovat and in a 'funeral urn in land c eet near the supposed tomb;  in a second time,  it seems  that  have been collected in several places near the tomb, finally, that they were in the famous bay "g" of the graffiti wall.

Nobody manages to spi and races like never  bones,  certified as those  apostle of the A,  have been drawn from  a set of bones mixed, as  reported  at first. All reports indicate a different origin.

However it happened, on the morning of Wednesday, June 26, 1968, two days before the close of the '' Year of Faith ', during the public hearing in the Vatican Basilica, Paul VI announces to the world that the relics of St. Peter have been found and identified.

Those beloved relics they wanted to keep a small part for himself in a silver reliquary. The inscription on the reliquary states: 'From the bones, found in the basement dell'arcibasilica Vatican, are believed to be the blessed Apostle Peter. "

Paul VI wanted at all costs to believe the thesis of Professor Margaret Guarducci:  a character from the personality that is a mixture of Maria Curie and Joan of Arc  .

Professor  Guarducci, as sent by providence, seems to finally take off  the Vatican from the empasse which was forced  the excavations of 1950: will demonstrate, with a report before  and then a book, which is that found the tomb of Peter  and,  with a series of events that have the prodigious, will find the bones of the Apostle.

The story  that concerns  is  so  full of twists that deserves a separate book.

The mystic fire that seemed to animate  Guarducci  fascinated everyone, including Paul VI who, in spite of the many  -  and against all logic  -  who advised  refrain from taking an official position, he began  with this release:

[We] believe it is our duty, the current state of archaeological and scientific conclusions, give to you and to the Church this good news, as we are obliged to honor the sacred relics, backed by reliable proof of their authenticity ... [In ] case, we must be especially eager and exultant, since we are in the right when  we believe that the few but sacred mortal remains were attributed to the Prince of the Apostles, Simon son of Jonah, the fisherman named Peter by Christ, the one who was chosen by the Lord to found His Church, and to which he gave the keys of His kingdom ... until His final glorious return.

Pope Paul VI, 26  J UNE 1968

The story,  in addition to the  "logic", had other illustrious victims:  archaeologist Jesuit Antonio Ferrua, head of the excavations beneath the Vatican, and Msgr. Kaas who  supervised as responsible  to them.

Antonio Ferrua,  assisted by Emgelbert Kirshbaum, Enrico Josi and  Bruno Maria Apollonj Ghetti,  was the author of the  voluminous printed documentation in two large volumes entitled:  Explorations  s eight Confession  of St. Peter  in the Vatican  and follow  n he  nni in 1940-1949.

Despite the impressive body of this treaty, it can hardly be considered a scientific report of the excavations.

The report came out  with a suspicious ad lags Radio Pio XII, and we know that  Antonio Ferrua, disagree with the conclusions, especially as concerned the alleged  discovery of the bones of the Apostle,  was invited elegantly to step aside.

The Guarducci asked and obtained  a  conduct further investigations,  entrusted to the skills archaeological professors Adriano Prandi and Domenico Mustilli. The results came out - in disguise - in 1963 with a title substantially "encrypted" that nothing nor did reveal its actual content,  nor the conclusions which he had received:  The tomb of St. Peter in the pilgrimages of the Middle Ages (Todi 1963) .

It is  reasonable to assume that the findings which came Prandi maybe stirred some disappointment, since, based on a strict reading of archaeological data, it was clear that nothing was found in the field P  could anticiparsi age of Marcus Aurelius.

This fact contradicts the song of ' Ecclesiastical History  where it says that Constantine  built Basilica where Pope Anacleto had built a kind of speakers or  to commemorate the  martyrdom Peter,  Anacleto reigned between 84 and 95,  while the suppo'm trophy  maximum of 160,  and,  if not trusted the tale of the oratory of Anacleto,  more so  it is not  that of Gaius!

Antonio Ferrua until death - which occurred  in 2003  at the age of 103 years- from the pages of '  Osservatore Romano  countered  always  theses of  Guarducci.

It was a long dispute because this also died in  1999 97 years and up to the last maintained its  positions.

Margherita Guarducci

The real star of this story was undoubtedly Margaret Guarducci. But who was, and why it appears in this story? 
At that time the story had an international outcry. the best thing is let us tell by herself. Here are one of the many interviews he gave.

Margherita  GUARDUCCI

Where is Peter?

taken from: 30 Days, February 1990, p. 40-44.

Margherita  Guarducci, the scholar who discovered the bones of the Apostle, warns that in the name of a false ecumenism, there are those who try to conceal the relics.

Interview by  Stefania Falasca :

A book reopens a thriller that is not only archaeological, and throws into disarray certain Vatican circles. It is " The tomb of St. Peter. An extraordinary story . " Just released, has found considerable success in Italy and already are planned editions in English, French and German. The author is an archaeologist and epigraphist internationally renowned Margaret  Guarducci, which began to be interested in excavations in the basement of the Vatican since 1952, was the star of one of the most important discoveries for the Catholic Church: the discovery of the bones of the Prince of Apostles. But the affair alternate light and shade so that the controversy is not over yet.

" In the basement of the Vatican Basilica, there are the foundations of our faith ": with this certainty breaking the fear millennial of previous popes,  Pius XII gave orders, in March 1939, starting the excavations under the altar of Bernini, the Altar of the Confession in the Basilica.

The work carried out by four scholars, Professor Enrico Josi, the Jesuits Antonio  Ferrua and Engelbert Kirschbaum and  the architect Bruno Maria Apollonj Ghetti, were conducted under the direction of Monsignor Ludwig Kaas. But the use of primitive and dangerous excavation systems, the lack of scientific rigor and lack of cohesion of the four scholars determined, in the opinion of  Guarducci, an anomalous situation which became a source of  countless  questions.

However, the location of the tomb was found and in 1950 Pius XII gave the historic announcement publicly. The work was considered closed. But that was the relics of the saint? To explain is the protagonist of the research.

Why, in excavations concluded and announcement, in 1952 the works were resumed and her own was commissioned to continue that?

Daisy  Guarducci: D to the final report, published in 1951, showed that in no part of the excavations had been found written in the name of Peter. It was certainly not a given recently, so much so that the Protestant theologian Oscar Cullmann then rightly remarked: "But that tomb was found?  There was no name, no bones. " You could not blame him. But two months after the release of the official report, published Ferrua father, on " Catholic Civilization "and" The Messenger ", an article containing a drawing newsstand funeral of the second century (the shrine marking the site of the tomb ). And, strange thing, on the right side of the wall he designed had placed a written Greek "Petros Eni "(Peter is here). Then I was a lecturer in epigraphy and Greek antiquities at the University of Rome, I saw the design, m'incuriosii and so I asked to be able to visit the underground of the Basilica. In May of 1952, fell for the first time in the excavation area, but did not see any writing on the wall indicated by Ferrua. The name of Peter, however, appeared with evidence in another part of the Vatican necropolis, the epigraph of the mausoleum of the Valerii. Therefore could not have escaped the four scholars. I studied the inscription and the result of this work came to the attention of Pius  XII who gave me permission to continue.

But where had jumped out of the one written on the drawing of father Ferrua?

Daisy  Guarducci: When I went to look at that wall, the writing was not there. Yet the graffiti really existed! Only later it was learned that the piece of plaster with over the graffiti had been removed and taken to his home by the Jesuit. For this he could enter in the drawing one written. Ascertained the incredible news, Pius XII forced, father Ferrua through general of the Jesuits to return the fragment to the Fabbrica di San Pietro, where he is still locked in a safe. So when the report came out in '51 which was not the name of Peter in the excavation area, the fragment was some time in the chamber Ferrua.

But why Ferrua father had hidden the graffiti?

Daisy  Guarducci: This just do not know. I just know that this was the first of a series of mysterious incidents tending to conceal my findings later on San Pietro. That fragment was indeed extremely important also because it was in the immediate vicinity of the so-called " wall g ", the wall on the side newsstand funeral. In that wall, entirely covered with graffiti, in the era of Constantine were placed within a niche, the relics of St. Peter.

Constantine had made picks king from the ancient tomb earthy (my note: 250 years under ground), below the shrine of the second century, during the construction of the monument in honor of the Apostle and, after having them wrapped in a cloth purple, had them put in the tomb of marble to preserve moisture. For this reason, the site of the tomb was found empty by scholars during the excavations. But these conclusions arrived much later.

How?

Daisy  Guarducci: In 1953 I began to deal with the graffiti " wall g ". I deciphered with certainty the name of Peter repeated several times, often combined with the names of Christ and Mary. The letters PE were merged to form a key. Unequivocal symbol of the keeper of the keys of the Kingdom. I checked with another surprise then that the name of Peter intersected with those of Christ and Mary in a common acclamation of victory. Other authoritative epigraphists confirmed my studies. But the massive crowds, at that point, references to Peter, indicated that the relics of the Sa nto should not be far away  (See figure and notes below).

Where he found them?

Margaret  G uarducci:  The story of the discovery and the subsequent recognition of the relics of Peter is a strange and complex; almost an archaeological yellow.  When Pius XII announced in 1950 that the tomb had been found, was far from imagining that the bones of the Apostle were almost ten years in a small wooden box in  a moist environment of the Caves V aticane, located in the first level below the Basilica. And it was there that I found myself in 1953 on the recommendation of sampietrino (factory worker) John Segoni who had followed the first excavations and helped in the work Monsignor Kaas. But at that time I could not know that they were the bones of St. Peter. I was very involved in the deciphering of the "wall g" and I paid no attention to the discovery. We took the tape with the bones and took, awaiting analysis, Technical Bureau of the Factory, where they already were other coming

the excavations under the altar .

How were over the bones in that damp the Vatican Grottoes?

Margaret  G uarducci: John Segoni told me that probably in 1941, after the close of the day digging, along with Monsignor Kaas, emptying the grave of the "wall g" had noticed it in the presence of bones; taken and freed from debris, the placed in a wooden box on which they wrote "compartment wall g" (as I could see) and then they brought in the humid environment of the Caves. This was done without informing the other four scholars, with whom Monsignor Kaas had relations not entirely friendly. For this they claimed to have found in that niche only a few fragments of organic matter and a dime.

(My note: This answer is summed fraud concerning alleged bones of St. Peter. 
In the first book of 1958 the Guarducci speaks of "a few bones", and in any case on the ticket of 1941 could not be written "wall G" as it was so named later. 
The bones can not be displayed by Segoni those then analyzed by Venerando currents, as it is fragments of 132, 50 of which are of a certain size. 
It is impossible that such a quantity had been found to be insignificant from ferrua or Guarducci.
A p.162 of "Explorations" is clearly said that the cassette marble wall "g" was empty and the few things were preserved until 1951 in a dish covered with a glass dome. The four archaeologists disproved under oath to the reconstruction made ​​by Guarducci. 
The poor Mgr. Kaas, ridiculed by the statements of Segoni, was never able to defend himself because he died in 1952.)

How it came to establishing that those bones were the Prince of the Apostles?

Margaret  G uarducci: In  1962 the 'anthropologist Venerable currents, then a professor at the University of Palermo, began tests on the bones from the "compartment g". The expert, who had previously analyzed the other from the area of the excavations in question, he realized that,  while those belonging to more people, the bones from the "compartment g" were of one individual.  They included about half of the skeleton, were encrusted with earth and had red spots on the most prominent. The anthropological examination allowed to establish: the male individual, the height of about one meter and sixty-five, the strong constitution and age ranging between 60 and 70 years.Petrographic examination earth encrusted bones proved identical to the original site of the tomb, while the fragments of cloth of red, turned out to be from a precious cloth of woven gold. These bones were thus those who, at the time of Constantine, wrapped in a purple cloth were laid in the tomb of the " wall g "as relics of Peter and there they remained closed until the time of the excavations.

Where were arranged following the analysis relics?

Daisy  Guarducci: They were packed into 19 containers of Plexiglas in 1968 and placed in the tomb from which they had been removed from Monsignor Kaas.

The test results provoked reactions?

Daisy  Guarducci: Immediately after the investigations in 1964 began a series of objections and rebuttals. He tried in every way to invalidate the tests. There were those who wanted to misunderstand and deform and even those who wanted to ignore them. And the epicenter of quests to hostilities was just a Catholic environment. I also received letters from the Secretary of State against the results I achieved. I replied to all scrupulously. It is possible that in the reactions had a part to the chagrin of former diggers, who were seen escaping the main results. So much so that in 1968 it was extended to Paul VI an absurd proposal: to unite the bones of St. Peter the other found in that area. If this had been accepted it would be canceled forever all traces of Peter in the Vatican Basilica. But there was something strange in the quest to stubborn will to hide the results ...

(My note: here Guarducci seems confused because, as we shall see, it happened that, in fact, the bones of the alleged Peter were put together with those found in the excavations: the fact of the case in plexiglass!)

What?

Daisy  Guarducci: I informed immediately Paul VI of my discovery. He received me and told me: "I do not know what joy it gives me." It told me I would have given the announcement of the identification on the feast of All Saints of 1964, while it was in progress the Second Vatican Council. But the expected announcement was not made. I would not exclude that the reason for this was due to pressures inspired by a sentiment or anti-Roman and then in no antipetri with whom he believed perhaps to serve a misunderstanding ecumenism. The announcement was to be given in full of the council where one of the most discussed topics was ecumenism. And that might have annoyed the Protestants who for centuries have pronounced against Rome and the primacy of the Pope who comes from Peter. But the relics remained dear to Paul VI. Two years after the failure announcement at a hearing said, "Those bones are like gold for us." And taking everyone by surprise June 26, 1968 gave the public announcement of their discovery. Then made ​​reference to them often, especially in the last years of his pontificate. And in one of the last hearings granted to me said, "I thank you on behalf of myself and of the Church of today and tomorrow."

After the death of Paul VI, in 1978, he remained in the Fabric of St. Peter?

Daisy  Guarducci: With his death, my relationship with the Fabbrica deteriorated and were opened to the opponents of the underground Basilica. One of the first signs of changed conditions was the decision to Monsignor Lino Zanini, since 1978 the new CEO of the Factory, to end my tour in the basement. For ten years I had accompanied many personalities of culture and religion, including the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras, but what consoled me most were a few letters from people who had converted after visiting this sacred place.

And how do you react?

Daisy  Guarducci: Hostility grew to the point that after about two years was denied to me to set foot in the basement. Have passed since then ten years. In '77 had come guides written by me for the visitors, but the editions in foreign languages, except English, were immediately blocked by Monsignor Zanini. Between 82 and 83 I wrote a book " Peter ". So I went to the factory to take the pictures that I needed. I was denied even those. I was exasperated. I turned then to two cardinal Casaroli and Joseph Ratzinger. I still remember the exclamation with which Cardinal Ratzinger said the state of things: Unglaublich!  (Amazing!). After the release of the book Jesuit Father Bartolomeo Sorge, then director of " Catholic Civilization ", wrote me a letter in which I felt that would have given the opportunity to defend themselves Ferrua father on" Catholic Civilization ".The article was questionable. So taken up my pen and I answered fully. Antipetriana conspicuous part in the action have had some Jesuits.

In his book says that in the dramatic events of the relics of Peter the most disturbing aspect is represented by the dark interests that move within the Church. Could you explain?

Daisy  Guarducci: In the desire to minimize and to cancel the tangible presence of Peter in the Church of Rome, I said that a fundamental part had that false ecumenism under which lie unhealthy ideas and often agitate dark interests and still hostile to the Church.

At first I could not understand why all these strange episodes and the reasons for that constant tendency to conceal the findings. But quell'ostinata pertinacity concealing, denying against all scientific evidence demonstrating that the relics of the Prince of the Apostles really exist under the Basilica in Rome, where he could only come from those dark interests? If you do not exalt Peter, automatically puts the Catholic Church at par of all religions. Peter belonged to the ranks of the Twelve chosen chosen by Christ who lived in familiarity with him and witnessed His miracles. To Peter Christ entrusted the mandate to represent him in the ground. He is therefore tied the primacy of the Pope and the authority of Rome.

After the publication has received messages from men of the curia?

Guarducci: Yes, I have received some letters including a Cardinal Casaroli and a Cardinal  Alfonso Stickler who compliment me.

Believes that from now on things will change?

Guarducci: I do not expect accolades.  Is it true what I wrote Cardinal Stickler: I was left alone in this work that would have to affect more the Church  to me personally.  But I know the truth sooner or later states. This is why I dedicated my book to Providence that helped me and supported during all these long years.

Plexiglas boxes in the wall "G"

[ My Note : the one pictured  below  is the famous graffiti wall (schedule)  where the Guarducci  says you have read sentences that refer to Christ and Mary. For the most part it's gibberish. The problem is that this overlapping texts Margherita Guarducci  has pulled out of a world, she says, a great spiritual wealth which he called "mystical cryptography," a hidden language of the Christians].

In this interview, you feel all the bitterness of Guarducci to have been used and betrayed.

But in the interview, it's not clear all history. To find out what happened we must refer to the book "The relics of Peter under the Confession of the Vatican Basilica."

On 26 June 1968 Paul VI announced the faithful that: "... even the relics of St. Peter have been identified so that we can feel convincing .... This will not exhaust this research, audits, discussions and controversy ..... we have reason to believe that they have been tracked down the few but sacred mortal remains of the Prince of the Apostles ".The day after the date of the relics of Peter returned to the tomb monument of Constantine. Were present at the ceremony cardinals, monsignors, priests, notaries, researchers and the same Guarducci that, in the aforementioned book, bitterly notes: 
"At this memorable ceremony Paul VI was not present. This is indeed strange. His presence in fact such an occasion was almost indispensable. Remember that at the beginning of the excavations he was ready (his own words) to "fall on their knees" before the bones of Peter. What reason led him to not appear? ". But the pope did deliver nine small fragments of those bones, contained in a silver reliquary, which holds at his private chapel.

(That same casket was brought to comfort John Paul II during his stay in the Gemelli Clinic, after the notorious bombing of which was the victim May 13, 1981. 
In the display case, prudently, is written: "From the bones, found in underground dell'arcibasilica Vatican, are believed to be the blessed Apostle Peter. " )

OMISSION

We must say that is not a simple graffiti that can improve the judgment that he gave many,  besides the aforementioned Oscar Cullman, especially as the same  Guarducci  lets us know that another graffiti with the name Peter was also found on the  wall of the mausoleum of the Valerii (tomb - H).

But there is one thing that has never been clarified: who reduced the tomb (or cenotaph) in the state in which it was found in 1941? 
Certainly those who built a basilica above would have to keep it. Were the vandals; the Visigoths; Saracens; lansquenets? It is not given to know, indeed repeats the story that no one dared to desecrate the tomb.

The shape, size reproduction of the fragment of plaster of the Red Wall that, according to the reconstruction, bring back the inscription   ( Petros Eni , "Peter is inside"). Against this view, is the fact that there is too much space between the EN and I. In some photographs you can see what looks like a second vertical mark between the N and I, making us assume that the third letter is a H (age ) rather than an I ( iota ). If this is true, not only eliminates the reading "Peter is inside", but suggests a common epithet of Mitra divided into two lines: ( Petregenes , "born from the rock"). 

The historian Carcopino law will Pétros endei (= Peter is missing, is not there)

But even if the correct reading of the first line was Petros , the epithet could mean both Mitra as the Saint.Mitra had the nickname "Stone" well before the author of Matthew wrote that Jesus had given to Peter the fisherman. Obviously, the graffiti might just be the scribble a few old boy named Petronios!

Other interpreters say  that you could also read "Petrus east" that is, "Peter is at peace"; or as proposed Ferrua "Petr [os] / en the [kidney) (Peter in peace).

However, even assuming that there is written "Peter is here", what would change? The tomb remains nameless. This is well aware also  Guarducci, that as we read from the interview moves the problem on a supposed "international intrigue". This method is as old as the world, and today with the use of the media has almost become routine. There  Guarducci  however, must have been a woman of great charisma and resources if convinced Paul VI.

As you read the interview,  thesis  of  Guarducci  was always challenged by Father Antonio Ferrua.  Not only were obviously reasons for resentment to be "unmasked"  from  Guarducci  who led the Ferrua writing numerous articles on Catholic Civilization  against the thesis  of  Guarducci.  (1969 Ferrua said that the piece of plaster was inside the wall "g")

The confused account of Guarducci is actually even more complex,  because the story is full of stories that contradict.

The voluminous book of " Explorations "no signs almost never" bones "  found and when he does speak of "bones scattered on  ground and mixed together "(are those contained  and then  in boxes

of  plexiglass  ).

The first press releases  of  Camille M. Cianfarra the New York Time  the  August 22, 1949 speak  of a terracotta urn containing the bones  (Also the casket  without any registration!).

One of the archaeologists,  E. Kirshbaum,  in a book  ( The Tombs of St. Peter & St Paul ,  1959) speaks of a pile of bones at the base of the red wall, but it is not reported in the "Explorations". 

The comment of Pius XII, is about a set of bones found "next to the grave" (graffiti wall?).

Finally the thesis Guarducci-Segori speaking of a skeleton  refers to a single person (not those of the cassettes of pexiglass!)  that,  analyzed,  will be certified by Paul VI  like that of the Apostle.

Too many arguments, too many! The position  and the nature  of the finds  is never explained.

In an interview 02/01/2001 at Horace Petrosillo the Messenger,  the centenary  Antonio  Furrua  reiterates that: Point of paramount importance is that he was at first to dig into the "wall g" that November 1941, and in good conscience and honesty would report to Pius XII, as well Kirschbaum, that "the box was empty, with only remnants insignificant of bony scales, a bit 'of lead, a pair of silver wire and a coin of you with Limoges (X - XII sec.) " . The excavations lasted from 1940 to '51.  There Guarducci  never took part in the work of those years, and made the first visit to the excavations in Caves V aticane only in May 1952.

( N ote my : how to give wrong Ferrua who in 1941 found an empty magazine for that miracle in 1953 contains the bones, and that in 1962 are said to belong to St. Peter!).

A second point that resolves the issue is slander (*) of  Guarducci in respect of Msgr. Ludwig Kaas, secretary-treasurer of the Fabric of St. Peter, confidant of Pope Pius XII and superintendent in his eyes of the whole operation of the excavations in the Vatican grottoes. According to the professor, was Msgr. Kaas that, unbeknownst to the four archaeologists, he emptied the grave of excavated bones as "not an archaeologist, was unable to fully assess the importance of the niche in the complex of the monument of Constantine."

The solution of the yellow  for father Ferrua is as follows : the remains of St. Peter and St. Paul, because of persecution, were hidden in the middle of the third century in the catacombs of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way; when Constantine ordered him to return the box with the relics in the Vatican did Petrine wall the empty box as something sacred in the " wall g "and lay the relics in a more decent and more convenient Monument Constantine.

The answer Solomonic Antonio Ferrua is pervaded by a certain irony. It 'true that this kind of prophecy for future discovery hints at hidden things  of  his knowledge.

Antonio Ferra always denied reports theses of Guarducci. In a statement: Rome, 27  and 29  April  1995 (Adnkronos)  declared:

'' .. There 'no reason to believe the bones found beneath the Vatican basilica as those of Peter. In that tape that we found during excavations of the forties there were no human remains. Evidently, we are faced with a frame: bones were taken away and then and 'wanted to give it to the Apostle' '

OMISSION

The Vatican leaves one to believe in this tale of the tomb of Peter. Some "white fly" admits the evidence of the lack of bones, but insists with the thesis of the trophy of Gaius, although to prop up this thing says are obvious cases of mixed pagan-Christian cemeteries. Thesis to be proved, but that alone is not enough to show that those ruins  are what they say. Assuming that those ruins are "Christians" not to say that Peter was buried them.

Maybe some converted by Paul would agree to be buried in a pagan cemetery, but never would have done those of Jewish origin.

Giovanni Battista de 'Rossi, founder of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, author of a vast literature devoted to Christian archeology, in his "Underground Rome Christian described and illustrated, 3 vols., Rome 1864-1877" shows, without a doubt, that Christian cemeteries were formed as early as the first century, with precise rules which excluded promiscuity with pagan cemeteries. In the same book, you talk about that cemetery Ostrianum, where Peter preached and was the Chair. Quotes are dozens, but the proponents of the "Trophy of Gaius" are not a reliable tradition.

"Give and you shall receive, and the more you give the more you (Luke 6, 38) will be given, in an overflowing '

APPENDIX