Historic: Vatican to put St. Peter’s relics on display for first time

From CNS: 

For the first time, the bones traditionally believed to be the relics of St. Peter the Apostle will be on public display for veneration.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, said the veneration of the relics at the Vatican is a fitting way to conclude the Year of Faith Nov. 24.

Writing in the Vatican newspaper Nov. 8, the archbishop, whose office organized many of the Year of Faith events, said millions of pilgrims marked the Year of Faith by making a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s tomb and renewing their profession of faith there.

“The culminating sign” of the year, he said, “will be the exposition for the first time of the relics traditionally recognized as those of the apostle who gave his life for the Lord here.”

The bones were discovered during excavations of the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica in the 1940s near a monument erected in the fourth century to honor St. Peter.

Read more.