Tomb Of St. Peter

I have been interested in the field of archaeology ever since I was a little boy.  While in the US Navy during the Vietnam war I was fortunate that my ship was home ported in Naples, Italy for a year.  During that time I visited Rome quite frequently as well as Pompeii and Herculaneum.   While on holiday in Italy five years ago, my wife and I stayed for a couple of nights on the island of Capri.  On the northeastern tip of the island is Mount Tiberius and the ruins of the palace of the Emperor Tiberius who was the roman emperor when Christ was crucified.  He was the emperor that Christ referred to when he said, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's".

Surprisingly, my wife and myself were one of the few tourists at the site on a hot Summer day, which must be reached by walking up a fairly steep road.  It was probably at this palace on Capri that the ailing emperor was residing when the events of Christ's passion and resurrection were unfolding.  It is a very beautiful spot and using your imagination you imagine its former glory with many of the main areas still preserved albeit is somewhat dilapidated condition.  While staring out across the Tyrrhennian Sea towards the Amalfi Coast, I thought about the old Emperor under whose authority  Christ was crucified by his soldiers.   Probably self absorbed, decadent and physically declining, he never could know that the greatest crime in history was being committed and he was destined in a few short years to meet the victim as his judge.
 
I have been to Rome many times over the years.......it is one of my favorite cities in the world.  To a Catholic with eyes to see, it is overlaid with sacredness stretching back  to the early Christian era.  It was here that St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred during the reign of Nero.  Underneath St. Peter's Basilica is a necropolis dating back to early Rome.  I have never toured the area but with special permissions tours are given to pilgrims.  Traditionally, the burial spot of St. Peter, his grave was found directly beneath the high altar and under the center of the famous dome.  Although no 'death certificate' has been found, all the evidence from archaeology and history indicate that the bones of a short but swarthy 60-70 year old man found wrapped in a purple cloth were those of St. Peter.

There is a very good lecture posted today on Youtube by a former tour guide of the necropolis.  I highly recommend it if you are interested in the power and truth of tradition.  Very often modern men discount tradition as fables or stories embellished by time.  Without the use of the 'scientific method', everything old is discounted in the Bible and history.  I think this lecture will prove beyond a doubt that all evidence points to the tomb of St. Peter as fact rather than legend.