For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His great mercy has regenerated us to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Has the Bible been distorted, altered, amended, or falsified?

Answer: Books Old Testament were written approximately between 1400 and 400 BC. BC, while the books of the New Testament are from 40 to 90 AD. AD Therefore, from the time when the Bible was written, from 3400 to 1900 years have passed. During this time, the original manuscripts were lost. They probably no longer exist. Additionally, throughout this time, parts of the Bible were copied over and over again. Copies were copied from copies. In light of this, can we still trust the Bible?

As the Bible says, when God initially moved people to write His Word, it was inspired and flawless (2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17). However, the Bible never says this about copies of original manuscripts. No matter how carefully scribes work, no one is perfect. As a result, between different copies Holy Scripture There were minor inconsistencies. Of the many thousands of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that have survived to this day, not one was similar to the other until in the 16th century. Printing presses were not invented.

However, any impartial student of the documents will agree that the Bible has been preserved in an exceptional manner over the centuries. In terms of content, copies of the Bible dated to the 14th century. AD, almost identical to copies from the III century. AD When were the scrolls found? Dead Sea, researchers were amazed to see how similar they were to other copies of the Old Testament, even though the scrolls they found were hundreds of years older than any previously known document. Even many hardened skeptics and critics of the Bible admit that it was transmitted through the centuries more accurately than any other ancient document.

There is absolutely no evidence that the Bible has been corrected, altered, or falsified in any systematic way. With the help of an array of biblical manuscripts, it is quite easy to recognize any attempts to distort the Holy Scriptures. No key doctrine of the Bible is harmed or called into question because of minor differences that exist between manuscripts.

Again, the question is: Can we trust the Bible? Absolutely! God has kept His Word despite the unconscious mistakes and deliberate attacks of human beings. We can be completely confident that the Bible we have today is the same Bible originally written. The Bible is God's Word and we can trust it....

Vatican. || http://site

Vatican and extraterrestrial intelligence

The Vatican knows more about UFOs and extraterrestrial civilizations than ufologists, but prefers to keep this information secret from the public. The bishops are confident that humanity is not yet ready to learn such secrets and, moreover, the discovery of this knowledge will pose a threat to the existence of the church. And this is what the Vatican fears most. Today the church does not have as much power as in earlier times, but it undoubtedly has a serious influence on politics and humanity in general. Having its own levers of control, the holy church, using the faith of people to enrich itself, lives off them and controls them.

Recently, an article was published on Wikilieks, where it was said that Pope Francis communicated with representatives of other races, and was also acquainted with their good intentions, in particular, to provide assistance in the energy sector. But as the author wrote, “They” are afraid of people’s belligerence, afraid to share such high technologies.

Secrets of the Vatican. What is kept in secret libraries?

According to scientists, the secret information that the Vatican possesses is stored in underground vaults with limited access. They have so many levels of protection that no bank in the world could boast of such a system. These secret libraries contain old books, manuscripts, a real bible, old scriptures. There are scriptures written on clay tablets, on stone tablets, on animal skins. In the Vatican dungeons there are also numerous works by ancient authors, drawings, paintings and much more that the human eye will never see.

Thousands of ministers daily translate ancient texts, restore and restore ancient manuscripts. Millions of dollars collected from parishioners, patrons, and various foundations are spent monthly on this.

Vatican Artifacts

Among other things, the Vatican has some ancient artifacts. They carry not only historical value, but are also capable of something more. These artifacts are the remnants of the technologies of civilizations that once inhabited our planet. The age of the Earth is great and over so many centuries many civilizations have been born and died as a result of wars or global cataclysms. It is believed that at least 3 eras of civilization have passed. Ours is the fourth. These artifacts were located all over the world and were taken for preservation to the Vatican, which became the religious center of the planet and the custodian of ancient relics.

The artifacts that the Vatican possesses are quite varied. Some of them are weapons, others are capable of endowing a person with certain skills, and others are intended for other purposes. But the purpose of many of them is still not known, but the church is actively pursuing research papers. The Ark of the Covenant, the Golden Fleece, the Spear of Longinus, and much more are located in the Vatican.

The Vatican is the main owner of the world's gold reserves, precious stones and other valuable metals and elements. These are both solid bars and ancient gold coins that were minted hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of years ago.

Drawing information from manuscripts, the Vatican was able to find most of the earthly treasures left by their ancestors. The Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the gold of Alexander the Great, El Dorado - valuables from these places have long been in the treasuries of the Holy Church. And watching the scientists who do not give up hope of finding these places, the Vatican does not blink an eye.

Monks are the main consumers of wine in the world. This is not only a long tradition, but also a necessity. After all, wine in religion is equated with the blood of God, just as bread, in turn, is equated with his flesh. In a word, wine and bread are sacred.

It is not surprising that the Vatican has many kilometers of cellars with bottles and barrels of wine, the site reports. Some wine has seen the times of Louis XIV himself, and some even earlier times. If you collected all the wine from his cellars, there would be enough to fill Tram Tower to the top twice!

The Vatican still holds many secrets that we have yet to learn about. Surely they will still be able to shock society!

Cursed by the entire Catholic clergy, Dan Brown reluctantly touched upon the weak point of the Vatican in his works. No, not the mythical story of Christ’s marriage to the supposedly lascivious Magdalena. Any historian or scholar will easily refute his fantasies. In reality, everything is much worse than any literary delights.

The mood in the Vatican Swiss Guard is bad. And paper scribblers have nothing to do with it. Exemplary guardsmen complain about the terrible drill - “military and Catholic,” as one of them put it. Phenomena very similar to our “hazing” are flourishing in the barracks. Formally, lights out here are at 24 hours. But at this time, the guardsmen are just beginning to have a fun life. You can buy cheaper booze on the Vatican grounds at the Annona duty-free supermarket, and as for love...

Since women are strictly prohibited from entering the barracks, and administrators of nearby hotels have been instructed not to allow women into their rooms Swiss Guards, then most often they make love with their comrades.

You can even judge the discipline of the “faithful army” by this fact: there were cases when empty bottles flew from the windows of the barracks onto the street. And after one football match, the guards staged a real street brawl with law enforcement officers.

Doubts about the value of the papal guard began almost 500 years ago. Florentine thinker Niccolo Machiavelli warned that the protection of the state cannot be trusted to mercenaries. “The power that rests on a mercenary army will never be strong or durable... Mercenaries are ambitious, dissolute, prone to discord, quarrelsome with friends and cowardly with the enemy, treacherous and wicked... In times of peace, they will ruin you no worse than in the military – the enemy.”

Nevertheless, in the first years after its founding, the Swiss Guard understood the task well. On May 6, 1527, 147 guardsmen died heroically - they saved Pope Clement VII from the horde of marauders of the German Emperor Charles V. Since then, this day has been considered the holiday of the Vatican Swiss Guard.

Today, the brave Swiss guard the pope's residence from annoying tourists and make sure that believers bare their heads in St. Peter's Basilica. Thus, the American pop star Michael Jackson was expelled from the temple because he did not want to take off his famous felt hat.

Of course, soldiers are also prepared for more serious incidents. Once a year they hold shooting competitions at the Vatican shooting range. Their magnificent costumes as halberdiers are deceptive - in fact, the costumed guards are excellent at not only firearms, but also martial arts. Despite this, it is absolutely clear that nothing remains of the former splendor and heroic traditions of the world's oldest army, consisting of 70 soldiers, 25 non-commissioned officers, 4 officers and 2 drummers.

Previously, a Swiss Catholic considered it his greatest honor to offer his life to the service of the Pontiff. But service in the Vatican has gradually become so unattractive that the Guard has difficulty filling its staff.

Back in the 1980s, papal recruiters had no problems. At the same time, nothing special is required from the Swiss, it is only necessary that he “love the Holy Father, as we all love God,” that he has a reference from the local bishop, that his height is not lower than 174 cm and that he does not have any beard.

In the first year of service, an ordinary guardsman, in addition to his salary, is provided with free housing, uniforms and food. After 20 years of service, they are entitled to a pension in the amount of their final salary.

Murders on the territory of the church state rarely occurred. After the secretary of Pope Pius IX, Minister Pellegrino Rossi, was killed by an anti-clerical terrorist, there were no assassination attempts here for almost 150 years. The “first call” for halberdiers in the last century sounded in 1958. Then guardsman Adolfo Rucker tried to kill his commander Robert Nunlist, shooting him in the head and chest, and then tried to commit suicide. Failed. Both survived. They tried to hush up the case, explaining the attempt by saying that Rucker was offended that he was expelled from the guard.

This may be true, but it is possible that the criminal incident is one of the events about which one can say: there are devils in still waters.

In May 1998, five hours after taking the oath of office as commander of the Swiss Guards, Colonel Alois Esterman was shot dead. The whole world learned his name on May 13, 1981, when he turned 26 years old. During the assassination attempt on the pope, he shielded the pontiff with his body from the bullets of the Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca.

The newly appointed head of the world's smallest and most photographed military unit was killed along with his wife. Suspicion fell on his deputy, Cedric Tornay, who then committed suicide. Cedric Tornay was about to say goodbye to his service. In civilian life in Switzerland, a well-paid job awaited him. But the authorities were slow to sign his service recommendations as a violator of army discipline.

The secrets of the Vatican often remain unsolved, although many circumstances are simply alarming. Pope John Paul I died on September 29, 1978. The official diagnosis was a heart attack. However, there are still persistent rumors that he was simply poisoned by the Vatican entourage. The head of the Vatican Bank, Pavel Marcinkus, did dirty deals with the president of the P-2 Masonic lodge, Licio Gelli, and the head of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi, who was directly connected with the Italian mafia.

In 1983, the daughter of Vatican employee Emmanuela Orlandi disappeared without a trace. What happened to her is still unclear. One Vatican saleswoman “quite by accident” fell out of a window under some downright mystical circumstances, and cocaine was found on the gatekeeper. But all these secrets, shrouded in darkness, literally pale in comparison with the colorful story of Enrico Sini Luzzi, who was killed in January 1998.

A member of the oldest noble family in Italy, he belonged to the inner circle of John Paul II, working in the papal reception room. His duty was to escort guests to the Vatican as "his Eminence's nobleman." No one suspected that the papal chamberlain, Knight of the Order of Malta, led a double life. Only after his death did it become known about the 66-year-old saint’s love for boys.

The servants found the aristocrat in his palace wearing silk lingerie and a shawl tied around his neck. He died from a blow to the head with a candlestick.

Alexander Zotov

The huge Vatican library, founded in 1475, and in fact much earlier, since at the official opening there was already a large book base, stores the sacred knowledge of humanity. In it you can find all the answers to any questions, including questions about the origin life on Earth. The library consists mainly of Freemason collections. These collections are the most secret. Why does the Holy Church not want to share ancient knowledge with the whole world? Maybe they are afraid that this knowledge may call into question the existence of the church? Whether this is true or not, we It is not known, but it is a fact that only the Pope has access to some scrolls. The rest are forbidden to know this. There are also secret rooms in the Vatican Library, which, sometimes, the clergy themselves do not know about.

Since ancient times, popes have spent enormous amounts of money on obtaining new valuable manuscripts, realizing that all power lies in knowledge. So they amassed a huge collection. According to official data, today the Vatican storage facilities contain 70,000 manuscripts, 8,000 first printed books, a million later printed ones publications, more than 100,000 engravings, about 200,000 maps and documents, as well as many works of art that cannot be counted individually.
The clergy announced many times that they were going to open access to the library’s treasures to everyone, but things never went further than promises. In order to obtain the right to work in a library, you need to have an impeccable (from the point of view of the clergy, of course) reputation. Access to many book collections is closed in principle. No more than 150 carefully vetted researchers work in the library every day; This number includes church leaders, which are the majority here. The Vatican Library is one of the most protected objects in the world: it is protected more seriously than any of the existing ones nuclear power plants. In addition to numerous Swiss Guards, the library is guarded by ultra-modern automatic systems that form several levels of protection.
The Vatican may contain part of the Library of Alexandria.

As history tells, this library was created by Pharaoh Ptolemy Soter shortly before the beginning of our era and was replenished at an accelerated pace. Egyptian officials took to the library all Greek parchments imported into the country: every ship that arrived in Alexandria, if it had literary works on it, had to either sell them to the library or provide them for copying. The library's keepers hurriedly copied every book they could get their hands on, and hundreds of slaves worked every day, copying and sorting thousands of scrolls. Ultimately, by the beginning of our era, the Library of Alexandria numbered up to 700,000 manuscripts and was considered the largest book collection Ancient world. The works of major scientists and writers were stored here, books on dozens of different languages. They said that there is not a single valuable thing in the world literary work, a copy of which would not be in Library of Alexandria.

What are the clergy hiding? Why were the original texts of the Bible replaced with handwritten ones? The Bible that we are used to keeping on our shelf is nothing more than a “washed up” likeness of the real Bible. Rome gives us the spiritual knowledge that it considers necessary. With the help Bible, the Holy Church rules humanity. Objectionable texts are insolently removed from “public use.” Therefore, in my opinion, it is useless to interpret the Bible, since it was written “under the dictation” of the Vatican. Having this knowledge, the Masonic Lodge, which was created by Rome, has and still unlimited power. It is almost impossible to be a state ruler and not be a Mason. They control all of humanity, decide its fate. Who will die, who will survive - such sentences are pronounced every day...
How long will we have to wait to solve the riddle?
The time will come when humanity will “take away” this knowledge from one-sided use and many myths and legends will dissipate and the Church will lose its power and will no longer be needed. And the people of Earth will understand their purpose in the world and will become clear-sighted. http://strangeworlds.at.ua/news/chto_skryvaet_vatikan_pochemu_on_prjachet_drevnie_znanija/2012-07-15-4980

Selected quotes from Hans Nilser's 1899 Diary, which describe the secrets of the Vatican, ancient manuscripts with which the author worked. Unknown manuscripts of the Gospels and narratives of the life of Jesus Christ. Vedas and much more that is so carefully hidden from people.

Hans Nilser was born in 1849 into a large burgher family and was a devout Catholic. From childhood, his parents prepared him to be ordained, and the boy himself, from childhood, expected to devote himself to serving God. He was incredibly lucky: the bishop noticed his abilities and sent the talented young man to the papal court. Since Hans was primarily interested in the history of the Church, he was sent to work in the Vatican archives.

April 12, 1899 Today the senior archivist showed me several funds about which I had no idea. Naturally, I myself will also have to remain silent about what I saw. I looked with awe at these shelves on which documents related to the most early periods our Church. Just think: all these papers are witnesses to the life and deeds of the holy apostles, and perhaps even the Savior! My task for the next few months is to collate, clarify and supplement the catalogs relating to these funds. The catalogs themselves are placed in a niche in the wall, disguised so ingeniously that I would never have guessed their existence.

May 18, 1899 I never tire of being amazed at the treasures contained in this fund. There is so much material here that is unknown even to me, who diligently studied that era! Why do we keep them secret instead of making them available to theologians? Obviously, materialists, socialists and slanderers can distort these texts, causing irreparable damage to our sacred cause. This, of course, cannot be allowed. But still...

June 2, 1899 I read the texts in detail. Something incomprehensible is happening - obvious works of heretics in the catalog stand next to the true creations of the Fathers of the Church! Absolutely impossible confusion. For example, a certain biography of the Savior attributed to the Apostle Paul himself. This is no longer possible! I'll contact the senior librarian.

June 3, 1899 The senior librarian listened to me, for some reason became thoughtful, looked at the text I found, and then simply advised me to leave everything as it was. He said that I should continue working, he would explain everything later.

June 9, 1899 Long conversation with the chief librarian. It turns out that much of what I considered apocrypha is true! Of course, the Gospel is a God-given text, and the Lord himself ordered that some documents be hidden so that they would not confuse the minds of believers. After all to the common man What is needed is the simplest possible teaching, without any unnecessary details, and the existence of different readings only contributes to a split. The apostles were just people, albeit saints, and each of them could add something of their own, invent something, or simply interpret it incorrectly, so many texts did not become canonical and were not included in New Testament. This is how the senior librarian explained it to me. This is all reasonable and logical, but something is bothering me.

June 11, 1899 My confessor said that I should not think too much about what I had learned. After all, I am firm in my faith, and human misconceptions should not affect the image of the Savior. Reassured, I continued my work.

August 12, 1899 With every day of my work, very strange facts multiply. The gospel story appears in a completely new light. However, I won’t trust this to anyone, not even my diary.

October 23, 1899 I wish I had died this morning. For in the collections entrusted to me, I discovered many documents indicating that the story of the Savior was invented from beginning to end! The senior librarian I approached explained to me what was hidden here. main secret: people did not see the coming of the Savior and did not recognize him. And then the Lord taught Paul how to bring faith to people, and he got down to business. Of course, to do this, he had to create, with God’s help, a myth that would attract people. All this is quite logical, but for some reason I feel uneasy: are the foundations of our teaching so shaky and fragile that we need some kind of myths?

January 15, 1900 I decided to see what other secrets the library was hiding. There are many hundreds of storage facilities similar to the one I work in now. Since I work alone, I can, albeit with a certain risk, penetrate into the others. This is a sin, especially since I will not tell my confessor about it. But I swear in the name of the Savior that I will pray for him!

March 22, 1900 The head librarian fell ill and I was finally able to get into the other secret rooms. I'm afraid I don't know all of them. The ones I saw are filled with the most different books in languages ​​unknown to me. There are some among them that look very strange: stone slabs, clay tables, multi-colored threads woven into bizarre knots. I saw Chinese characters and Arabic script. I don’t know all these languages; only Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic are available to me.

June 26, 1900 From time to time I continue my research for fear of being discovered. Today I discovered a thick folder with Fernand Cortez’s reports to the Pope. Strange, I never knew that Cortez was closely connected with the Church. It turned out that almost half of his detachment consisted of priests and monks. At the same time, I got the impression that Cortez initially knew perfectly well where and why he was going, and deliberately went to the capital of the Aztecs. However, the Lord has many miracles! However, why do we keep silent about such a great role of our Church?

November 9, 1900 Decided to leave aside documents related to the Middle Ages. My work in the vault is almost finished, and it seems that they no longer want to let me access top-secret papers. Apparently, my bosses have some kind of suspicion, although I try not to attract their attention in any way.

December 28, 1900 I found a very interesting fund dating back to my period. Documents in classical Greek, I read and enjoy. It looks like this is a translation from Egyptian, I can’t vouch for its accuracy, but one thing is clear: we're talking about about some secret organization, very powerful, which relies on the authority of the gods and rules the country.

January 17, 1901 Incredible! This simply cannot be! In the Greek text I found clear indications that the priests of the Egyptian god Amun and the first hierarchs of our Holy Church belonged to the same secret society! Did the Lord really choose such people to bring people the light of His truth? No, no, I don't want to believe it...

February 22, 1901 I think the head librarian suspected something. At least I feel like I’m being watched, so I stopped working with secret funds. However, I have already seen much more than I would like. So the Good News sent by the Lord was usurped by a handful of pagans who used it to rule the world? How could the Lord tolerate this? Or is it a lie? I'm confused, I don't know what to think.

April 4, 1901 Well, now access to secret documents is completely closed for me. I directly asked the senior librarian about the reasons. “You are not strong enough in spirit, my son,” he said, “strengthen your faith, and the treasures of our library will again open before you. Remember, everything you see here must be approached with pure, deep, unadulterated faith.” Yes, but then it turns out that we are storing a bunch of falsified documents, a heap of lies and slander!

June 11, 1901 No, after all, these are not fakes or lies. I have a tenacious memory, and besides (may God forgive me!) I made a lot of extracts from documents. I carefully, meticulously checked them and did not find a single error, not a single inaccuracy that would accompany a fake. And they are not stored as cheap and malicious slander, but carefully and with love. I'm afraid I'll never be the same person again. pure soul. May the Lord forgive me!

October 25, 1901 I wrote a request to be granted a long leave to my homeland. My health had deteriorated, and besides, I wrote, I needed to cleanse my soul alone. No response has been received yet.

November 17, 1901 The petition was accepted not without hesitation, but, as it seemed to me, not without relief. In three months I will be able to go home. During this time, I should send copies of the documents I found to Augusburg in various ways. This, of course, is disgusting to the Lord... but isn’t hiding them from people disgusting? The senior librarian repeated to me many times that I should not tell anyone about the secrets that I saw in the library. I solemnly swore. Lord, do not let me become an oathbreaker!

January 12, 1902 Robbers visited my apartment. They took all the money and papers. Fortunately, I had already secretly sent everything more or less valuable to Germany. The Holy See generously compensated me for the cost of the lost valuables. A very strange theft...

February 18, 1902 Finally, I’m going home! My bosses saw me off and half-heartedly wished me a speedy return. It's unlikely that this will ever happen...

The ancient walls of this sacred state saw not only the light of Faith and Hope, but sometimes darkness even happened to make a nest here. Lies, betrayal and envy did not escape this place. Indifference - instead of love, deceit - instead of wisdom, pride - instead of humility, intolerance and greed - all this was also there. And history will not forget this...

The entire history of the Vatican has been riddled with controversy and mystery. And, despite the apparent spirituality of the papal state, here, too, passions were in full swing, intrigues were in full swing. After all, for a long time Catholic Church was closely connected with Rome.

It is about the Vatican that terrible legends are told, legends about the punishing hand of the Inquisition, which terrified people in the Middle Ages.

During the Roman Empire, Christianity slowly gained strength, and throughout the territory religious communities tried to seize power. But only the Roman community succeeded, and since then it has turned not only into the center of a religious movement, but also into a powerful political force. Until the nineteenth century, all other provinces endured a state of siege, military trials took place, and people were sent to prison or exile.

One of the legends associated with the Vatican says that the founder of the Roman community was none other than the disciple of Jesus Christ - the Apostle Peter. The chronicles that have survived to this day also speak in favor of this fact. And although today no one can say whether this was true or whether in this way the Roman community was trying to emphasize its superiority by being close to the founder of the religion of Christianity, there is still a story that Peter actually preached and lived in Rome. According to legend, his grave is located exactly on the hill where the Vatican is located today. And later the Church of St. Peter was erected there.

Another legend says that Rome was the city that for the longest time prevented the spread of the Christian religion in the state. And that’s why the blood of the great martyrs was shed here and Peter himself was killed here. Therefore, the Roman community was simply obliged to take responsibility before posterity for atonement for the sins of its citizens. And that is why the Vatican was created.

But the most amazing, and at the same time very sad secret about the Vatican is the story of Pope John VIII, or rather, the pope. In the history of Catholics there is a very strange and very unpleasant fact for believers, which today in the Vatican is considered fiction, but no one still knows exactly what really happened. According to legend, in the ninth century, for several years the papal throne was occupied by... a woman. It must be said that in those days a woman was considered the offspring of the devil.

Pope Joan in characterWhore of Babylon

So, according to legend, a certain Christian missionary, traveling around the world, acquired a daughter, Agnes. However, taking this girl with him everywhere for a missionary was far from the most worthy occupation at that time, and therefore, dressing her in a man’s dress, he made her his first assistant. Agnes studied well, but one day her father was killed. For this teenage girl the best option to survive was to remain a boy. She wandered around the world like this for several years and eventually settled in a monastery near the city of Fulda, taking the name Johann.

She stood out greatly among her brothers, but at the age of sixteen, having fallen in love with a monk, she ran away with her lover to France. But on the way he died, and Agnes, remaining under the name Johann, began to new life. She arrived in Rome and began to slowly advance to the upper tier of the clergy, and in 855, after the death of Pontiff Leo IV, she ascended the papal throne. And, it is quite possible that no one would have found out about the true sex of the pope, but Agnes made a mistake: she became pregnant. She had contractions during Procession of the Cross, which ended in death for both the child and the pope.

Also, the most fascinating mystery of the Vatican is the location of the tomb of the Apostle Peter. It is with her that she is very connected interesting story, which happened quite recently, in the middle of the last century.

So, on February 10, 1939, when Pope Pius XI died, a huge number of believers gathered in the huge St. Peter's Cathedral, who, in a single mournful impulse, fervently prayed for the repose of the soul of the pontiff.

At the same time, under the nave of the cathedral, in the crypt, work was in full swing. Workers were removing marble slabs from the dungeon floor. But after digging about twenty centimeters, the spades again stumbled upon the slabs. Moreover, behind the wall there was a fairly spacious niche. And since the workers knew that the cathedral was built on stilts on loose soil, they had doubts: whether to continue the excavations or not, since as a result they could upset the balance of the entire building.

But what were these workers doing in the dungeon, and on such a day? It turned out that they were fulfilling the will of the deceased pope, who at that moment was escorted by crowds of believers to last way. Just the day before, the will of Pius XI, drawn up by him in his own hand, was opened, where he wanted to be buried under the southern wall of the ancient dungeon, near Pius X, close to the “confession” of Peter, where, according to the legends, the tomb of the first disciple was located Savior.

“Confessional” of the Apostle Peter (under the floor is the place of the apostle’s supposed burial)

The manager of Vatican affairs, Cardinal Pacelli, who in a few days was to take the papal rank and the name Pius XII, ordered the preparation of burial in the bequeathed place. And although the architects warned that there was unlikely to be enough space for a grave, the cardinal ordered the floor behind the wall to be removed in the dungeon to free up the necessary space.

A priest stood near the workers, carefully examining the garbage that the workers were clearing out. His name was Ludwig Kaas. German by nationality, Kaas held the title of doctor and was a professor of church history. Once upon a time, his dad instructed him to explore the dungeon under the Cathedral, so for five years Kaas explored this dungeon by inch.

The spacious niche that was discovered under the floor suggested that this might be the tomb of Peter.

The secret of the tomb of the Apostle Peter possessed Pacelli's heart and soul all his life. When the conclave elected him pope, and he became Pius XII, the first thing he did was go down into the dungeon to look at the sacred slab with his own eyes. The Pontiff, after much deliberation, gave an order that his predecessors were afraid to even voice: he ordered excavations to begin under the cathedral, where, in his opinion, the tomb of the Apostle should have been.

It must be said that the pontiff took a great risk. After all, if it turned out that there was nothing there, and St. Peter was not in the Vatican, then this would be evidence that would completely refute the sacred legend.

It turned out that the slabs that the workers stumbled upon were nothing more than the foundation of the floor of the first basilica, which was erected by Emperor Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century. And traditions say that the altar of the basilica stands just above the tomb of Peter, and when the basilica of Constantine itself was destroyed, a cathedral was built in its place, the one that has survived to this day. And the altar was installed in the same place, having cut a window in the floor - a confessional, from which believers could look at the tomb of St. Peter, hidden deep underground. But this was strange, to say the least, since no one could know for sure whether the relics of St. Peter were there or not.

No one knew about the excavations: the “masons” were obliged to remain silent and not tell anyone about the work, not even their household members. But after the war, the world still learned about the excavations.

In his speeches, Pius XII hinted in a rather veiled form that the excavations would bring some “certainty,” but his omissions only fueled interest.

But the further the workers dug, the more interesting things they discovered. If it was previously believed that the southern walls rest on the walls of Nero’s circus that was once located here and that part of the cathedral is located where Christians were executed under Nero and where Peter was supposed to have been crucified, then excavations have revealed something completely different.

It turned out that the Basilica of Constantine was built on the site where the cemetery was once located. One can imagine the state of archaeologists when they first came across one mausoleum, and then the rest, which stood in a row, turning into a kind of enfilade. Under the blows of shovels, a whole necropolis appeared from the darkness: dozens of mausoleums, sarcophagi and crypts...

Little by little, the outlines of the cemetery were revealed: truly, it was the largest necropolis that archaeologists had ever found here. And he was located just under the nave. From the inscriptions on the mausoleums it was clear that the burials were intended for pagans and only a few of them for Christians. This means that they were buried here at the very dawn of Christianity, long before Constantine ordered the construction of a temple on this site. And this meant that Christians themselves chose this pagan cemetery as their last refuge.

But why? There must have been a very good reason for this: for example, the desire to find eternal peace near Peter.

One of the mausoleums was surrounded by a wall, which archaeologists called the “red wall.” And it was there that a mosaic depicting a Galilean fisherman was found. Yes, yes, the same Peter whom the Savior called to feed His sheep.

In this way, the chronology of events can be restored. In 67, Peter was executed at Nero's circus and buried in a nearby cemetery. And starting from the 80s, his grave began to be protected: the wall in the dungeon testifies to this. It is possible that the Christians, probably having bought this site, built this stone fence around the tomb of Peter. Thus, in the second century, the so-called “red wall” was erected by the faithful.

It turns out that excavations in the dungeon confirm the existing tradition, but the question arises: if Peter’s tomb was found, then where could his relics go?

The “fenced place” was examined up and down, establishing that this was the tomb of St. Peter, but there was one problem. Unfortunately, it turned out to be empty.

But scientists were not so pessimistic. Some experts on the history of Catholicism note that in one of the niches there are human remains, although without a skull. Medical examination has proven that these are the bones of one person, and a person of not very old age. The documents mention these remains in passing, but there is every reason to believe that the remains that were found under the “red wall” still belong to Peter’s grave.

Pope Francis and Met. John of Pergamon performed a joint prayer in front of the so-called “tomb of St. Apostle Peter"

One day in July 1939, Pius XII turned in his thoughts to the “confessional” of the Apostle - St. Peter. It was at this time that he made a rather responsible decision for himself to “get to the bottom” of the secret, despite the fact that many would still prefer that this secret be surrounded by a veil of mystery - after all, then it would be much calmer to live...

But for some reason it seems that it was Pius XII who left this life calmly, without a heaviness on his heart. After all, in the end, this dad was convinced that he had believed all his spiritual life not in vain, and he knew the answer to the question that worried him even before archaeologists found it. Truly, faith often still outstrips science.

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