St. Peter's bones are now on display for the first time. The fragments had been buried beneath the Vatican for many centuries and then hidden away inside the Holy See for several decades, but now the public can see the possible remains of one of the founding fathers of the Christian church.
The remains were first revealed the to public on Sunday at a mass in St. Peter's Square to conclude the Catholic church's "Year of Faith," CNN reports.
The fragments include nine pieces of bones. They're placed like rings inside a jewel box which is placed in a bronze display case on the side of the altar during the Mass. This is the first time they're on display. Pope Francis said a prayer in front of the fragments at the start of the mass on Sunday and then he held on to the case in his arms for several minutes after his homily.
No pope has straight out declared that the fragments are those of the Apostle Peter, but in 1968, when the fragments were found in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Paul VI said they were "identified in a way that we can consider convincing." However some archaeologists argue that the fragments aren't his. There is no DNA to prove that they do belong to him.
They were found during excavations under St. Peter's Basilica after Pope Pius XI died in 1939.
St. Peter is believed to be one of the earliest and closest disciples of Jesus Christ. He was originally called Simon but Jesus renamed him. He was one of the first to witness Jesus' resurrection.
Pete went on to lead the early church and is known as the first Pope in the Roman Catholic Church. It is believed that St. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome around A.D. 64.
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