Carbon-dating of ancient tunics of Saints Peter and John separates legend from reality

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Once shrouded in history and legend, the so-called tunics of St. Peter and St. John the Evangelist have been subjected to a full restoration and carbon-dating analysis by experts at the Vatican Museums. They will be displayed in a new and permanent exhibition that aims to shed light on the mysteries of these treasures of Catholicism.

The work on the garments, sponsored by the Vatican Patrons of the Arts, found that the tunic said by church tradition to belong to St. Peter dates to a period between the sixth and seventh centuries C.E., while that allegedly belonging to St. John the Evangelist, a type of religious robe known as a dalmatic, was dated to sometime in the first or second centuries. Both saints lived in the first century after the birth of Christ.

The head of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta, said at a press conference on Thursday (May 23) that while the tunics may not have belonged to St. Peter or St. John, they still carry “devotional significance” for believers and that further studies will attempt to bring clarity to the provenance and long history of the artifacts.

The tunics, especially the one said to have belonged to St. Peter, were in a terrible state of disrepair. “The fibers would dissolve with a simple touch,” said Emanuela Pignataro, who worked on the restoration effort. The relics also had signs of “smearing,” with dark spots signaling a rapid decomposition process.

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For centuries, the tunics were kept in a cypress case inside the Sancta Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies, a chapel located near the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome and named after the sacred site in Jerusalem that allegedly once housed the ark of the covenant. The basilica, built in the mid-300s, was the papal residence for much of the first millennium, before the papacy moved to Avignon, in France. As the city’s cathedral, it is the episcopal seat of Pope Francis in his capacity as bishop of Rome.

The site contained “a collection of the most relevant relics in the history of Christianity,” said Luca Pesante, who heads the decorative arts department at the Vatican Museums, at Thursday’s press conference. “To look at them is like reading 2,000 years of history of the Roman Church.”

A visit to the Holy of Holies, where early popes went to make personal devotions, requires a climb to the top of 28 marble steps. It has been used to store relics at least since 772, according to documentation created under Pope Stephen III, though some historical documents mention relics being moved to a holy site in Rome centuries earlier.

It wasn’t until 816 that Pope Leo III had a reliquary box placed under the altar of the chapel on top of the stairs. Above the altar, the phrase “There is no holier place than this in the entire world” is engraved in Latin, and famed artists competed to decorate its walls.

The secrets of the Holy of Holies remained unknown until 1903, when Pope Leo XIII allowed experts to investigate its treasures just before his death.

“Until the 20^th century the chapel’s vault had been an absolutely mysterious object that had never been seen by anyone,” said Alessandro Vella, expert of Christian antiquity at the Vatican Museums at the press conference, adding that they were “wrapped with a halo of sacredness and the object of devotion.”

The election of the anti-modernist Pope Pius X in 1903, however, slowed the unveiling process, but in 1905 the French Jesuit scholar Florian Jubaru and the German Jesuit historian Hartmann Grisar were allowed to plunder its secrets. It took several attempts to reach the treasures, which were kept in a massive iron cage with two bronze doors covered with 13^th-century reliefs. A blacksmith was finally able to break the chains on the doors and open the vault.

Soon, however, the rivalry that broke out between the French and German scholars, Vella said, “led to the loss of important historical data.”

The Holy of Holies contained an immense collection of sacred objects made in silver and gold, pearls and ivory. Priceless relics from the most venerated saints, including St. Praxedes and St. Agnes, were kept in the vault, along with relics said to be the cradle and foreskin of Jesus, the chair Christ sat on at the Last Supper and his sandals. Purported pieces of Christ’s cross were also kept there, as well as keys allegedly forged from the chains that bound St. Peter during his captivity in Rome.

The vault also contained the Uronica icon, an image of Christ as ruler of the universe, which, according to legend, was made by St. Luke, author of the Gospel with his name, and completed “by inhuman hands” — meaning it was crafted by angels. It also held the alleged vestments of St. Peter and St. John.

Despite 13^th-century security measures, the items showed signs of tampering, and Pius X, in part to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Italian government, had the relics moved from the basilica to the Vatican Library, where they were eventually placed under the patronage of the Vatican Museums.

The recent investigation shows that the core artifacts date to the sixth and seventh centuries and mostly came as offerings from the sacred sites in the Holy Land, Vella explained. But he cautioned that in establishing the authenticity of the treasures, “there are few certainties, and confusion reigns supreme.”

The tunics’ condition suggests that they had a long career as gifts and showpieces for dignitaries and prelates. Relics have often been used in the church’s history as diplomatic instruments to forge alliances and build trust, Vella said.

A letter written by Pope Pelagius II in the sixth century dictated that any common object placed in contact with the grave of a saint would acquire its sanctifying power. This might explain why the tunics were attributed to the saints, even if they never actually wore them, Vella explained.

Jatta said the Vatican Museum is committed to preserving the relics and digging deeper into the secrets they hold. Whether the tunics, or the other relics in the Holy of Holies, are authentic remains a mystery, but the 1,000-year-old history that they contain is yet to be discovered.

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