Dome of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

One of the many beautiful photos by Sister Edith from the CSS Italy trip. This one is of the Dome of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The Meaning of Confessio

Sr. Edith shares the original meaning of "confessio" in Monastic Musings: Italian Musing #3: Confessio. Great photos too.

The confessio contains the remains of the martyr for whom the basilica is named, and sometimes those of other martyrs as well. The confessio, then, is a confession - but of faith, not of sin. Santa Susanna publicly confessed her Christian faith - at a time when it was not legal to be Christian - and made the ultimate confession with her life. Just as martyr derives from the Greek word for witness, the confessio under the altar stands as a statement of belief and faith in the resurrection.

The Tomb of St. Paul

It escaped my notice until today that a really big archeological find was made last month. The tomb of St. Paul was identified by archeologists in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. As with the tomb of St. Peter some decades ago, science confirms a persistent oral tradition.

St. Paul was beheaded and his body was buried in a cemetery at the Via Ostiense. The first basilica at that location was built in 390. According to the Catholic News Service: "[T]he sarcophagus had a funnel-shaped hole in the top--later closed with mortar--through which the faithful could stick pieces of cloth to make secondary relics." One side of the sarcophagus is now in public view.

Giorgio Filippi, a archeology specialist with the Vatican Museums stated: "The tomb that we discovered is the one that the popes and the Emperor Theodosius (379- 395) saved and presented to the whole world as being the tomb of the apostle."