{"id":4831,"date":"2018-08-17T14:21:39","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T11:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2020-11-29T15:47:26","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T12:47:26","slug":"authenticity-of-the-remains-of-st-luke-the-evangelist-in-padua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/4831\/authenticity-of-the-remains-of-st-luke-the-evangelist-in-padua\/","title":{"rendered":"Authenticity of the remains of St. Luke the Evangelist in Padua"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to an old tradition, Luke the Evangelist was born in Antioch (Syria), died at a very advanced age (84 years) and was buried in the city of Thebes, capital of the Greek region of Boeotia. From here \u2013 as it is confirmed by St. Jerome \u2013 his remains were removed to Constantinople and conserved in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles in the second half of the\u00a0 4th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

In the Middle Ages, more precisely in the 11th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup> centuries, in the cemetery area of Prato della Valle <\/em>adjacent to the monastery of St. Justina, the remains of numerous saints were unearthed. Manuscripts dating back to the 14th<\/sup> and 15th<\/sup> centuries, based on hagiographic texts of earlier date, relate a new discovery (inventio) <\/em>that occurred in 1177: they speak of miraculous phenomena (fragrant smells associated with the remains, people having dreams within which apparitions linked to the discovery occurred), and they also mention the identification of the titulus <\/em>(i.e. the inscription hearing the name of the dead person) and of the symbol featuring three calves on the case containing the remains. All this spurred abbot Dominic and the bishop of Padua, Gerardo Offreducci, to travel to Ferrara in order to meet Pope Alexander III (who was currently stationed there), so that he would certify that the corpse belonged to St. Luke.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But how the remains were in Padua, and not in Constantinople? The manuscript mentions that the remains of St. Luke, together with the relics of St. Matthias, were removed from Constantinople in the times of the Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363 AD); other sources suggest the 8th<\/sup> century iconoclast persecution as probable date for the transfer: actually historians are still evaluating the plausibility of such hypotheses.<\/p>\n

The Benedictine monks, who had established themselves in Padua in the Abbey of St. Justina before 1000 AD, started to venerate the remains of the Evangelist with considerable care; around the year 1313 they built a marble sarcophagus within which to place the remains encased in lead. Soon afterwards, in 1354, Emperor Charles IV of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, acquired the skull, which ended up in the cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague, then capital city of the Empire: it has been conserved there till the present day. In Padua\u2019s abbey, various literary texts were composed \u2013 some for liturgical use \u2013 intended to strengthen faith in the authenticity of the relics and to divulge the fame of St. Luke. In 1436, the painter Giovanni Storlato was commissioned to portray a series of scenes that relate the life of the saint, <\/em>the transfer of the relics from the East, <\/em>and their resurfacing in Padua <\/em>on the walls of the chapel dedicated to St. Luke.<\/p>\n

In 1463, a dispute arose with the Franciscans Minor of St. Job in Venice who contended that they possessed the body of the \u201cauthentic\u201d St. Luke, which was transferred to Venice from Bosnia following Ottoman aggression in the Balkans. A careful reconnaissance of both remains ensued, the conclusion of which conferred authenticity to the Paduan relics. A century later, in 1562, when the construction of the actual basilica was nearing completion, the marble sepulchre was transferred with great pomp to the left arm of the transept.<\/p>\n

In 1992 Mons. Antonio Mattiazzo, bishop of Padua, received an unexpected request from the Metropolite of Thebes Hieronymos. The latter visited Padua on a pilgrimage to venerate the remains of St. Luke and he asked that \u201ca significant fragment of the relics\u201d should be donated to his Church, \u201cso as to be deposited in the place where the holy sepulchre (empty) of the Evangelist is currently venerated\u201d. Metropolite Hieronymos augured that such a gesture be understood as an ecumenical sign.<\/p>\n

Thus, at the request of the Bishop of Padua and following the consent of the Benedictine monks, a detailed interdisciplinary inquiry was set up. The skull was brought over from Prague for a couple of days, and the marble sepulchre was opened on the 17th<\/sup> September 1998: within a sealed lead case, a human skeleton was discovered that had been quite well preserved.<\/p>\n

The Scientific Research Committee <\/em>led by prof. Vito Terribile Wiel Marin, established that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the skeleton, almost entirely preserved, lacked the skull, the right ulna and a few of the smaller bones. Subsequently, it was further established that the skull brought over from Prague fits in with the top cervical vertebra (the atlas<\/em>) of the Paduan skeleton, demonstrating that the parts belong to the same individual.<\/li>\n
  2. the anthropometric data suggest that the skeleton belonged to a male human being, deceased in old age (between 70 and 85 years), height ca. 163 cm.<\/li>\n
  3. Paleopathological<\/em> examination<\/em> revealed the presence of: a well spread osteoporosis<\/em>, a very serious arthrosis<\/em> of the spine (especially in the lumbar region), a pulmonary<\/em> emphysema<\/em> (evidence for which comes from the curvature of the ribs). Such lesions are typical of a man who died in old age.<\/li>\n
  4. the careful preservation of the bones through several centuries indicates that already in the past, the remains were considered important relics, worthy of being treated with all the care possible in order to ensure long lasting preservation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The abundant \u201ccomplementary material\u201d discovered at the bottom of the casing (shells, serpent bones, beads, plant fragments, drapery etc.) required the intervention of other specialists. From a comparison of results, the antiquity of the remains and the Eastern origins of some of the objects (pollen grains, fabrics) was confirmed.<\/p>\n

    On the 17th<\/sup> September 2000, a Catholic delegation, including the Bishop of Padua and a monk from the Abbey of St. Justina, donated part of the rib bone flanking the heart region to the Metropolite Hieronymos of Thebes. The gesture was much appreciated by the Greek Church. The final results of the research were presented in an International Congress, held in Padua in October 2000. The scientific data \u2013 as they have been upheld at the conclusion of the meeting \u2013 do not contradict the traditional claim that the remains are those of the Evangelist St. Luke. Rather, they stand as precise data, complementary to the manuscript sources, using which further historical investigation may proceed with better grounding. Of major historical interest, of course, is the issue regarding how, when and why the transfer of the body from Constantinople to Padua occurred.<\/em>
    \n__
    \nFrom the     Benedictine Abbey of St. Justina<\/a>, Padua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    According to an old tradition, Luke the Evangelist was born in Antioch (Syria), died at a very advanced age (84 years) and was buried in the city of Thebes, capital of the Greek region of Boeotia. From here \u2013 as it is confirmed by St. Jerome \u2013 his remains were removed to Constantinople and conserved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[6702],"tags":[332,7879,7878,94,7877],"class_list":["post-4831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thechrist","tag-bible","tag-holy-gospel","tag-luke","tag-new-testament","tag-st-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}