A happy feast of St Peter and St Paul to you. Apparently St Paul has now caught up with St Peter in having the Vatican state that they’ve found his bones. As far as the more cynical go, they’ve confirmed that some old bones in an old tomb are, well, old. But at least they’re the right sort of old to complement the existing tradition. This follows the discovery of a fresco that is being touted as the earliest icon of St Paul.
The UK press reveals some extraordinarily sloppy reporting. The Telegraph not only decides to illustrate this with a sketch of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, London (doh – well same name and it is a church) but reporting on the fresco in the catacomb of St Thekla, says she “was a follower of St Paul who lived in Rome and who was put to death under the Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the 4th Century”. Yikes!
The Guardian doesn’t do much better with the story of the bones, which are found “beneath the Vatican” inside the tomb under St Paul Outside the Walls. You might have thought that “outside the walls” was a bit of a clue to location, and that it was therefore unlikely to be under the Vatican.
In a culture shaped by Protestantism and modernity, stories about bones and relics are decidedly odd. However, does the oddness – that tinge of “mediaeval superstition” – really excuse journalists from writing without thinking. A first-century follower of St Paul dying in the fourth century, a tomb outside the walls under the Vatican. Really.
I rather suspect that Paul, the passionate communicator of truth, would be more concerned that today’s communicators aren’t that interested in truth, than he ever would be about his mortal remains.
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Why, I never knew that St Thekla (my patroness) lived that long! Thanks, Telegraph.
Now I’m curious – how did she become your patroness? Were you baptised / received (or whatever the appropriate description is) on her feast day?
I was indeed baptized on her feast, Sep. 24 (Oct. 7 NS). In the Serbian tradition (especially, but also in other Orthodox traditions in the Balkans), the baptismal day of the first ancestor is honored by his descendants as a patronal feast. This celebration is called the “Slava” (“Glory”). Since I am the first-baptized Orthodox Christian of my kin, I observe my own baptismal day as my Slava.
Thanks. I have learned something.
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