Links from St. Paul's chain given to Greek Orthodox primate by pope

Published: 2006-12-14

ROME (CNS) -- Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and all Greece accepted as a gift from Pope Benedict XVI two links from the chain that bound St. Paul before his execution in Rome. The links, in an alabaster reliquary, were handed to the archbishop Dec. 14 by Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, where the chain is preserved and venerated. Given the fact that St. Paul was the first to preach the Gospel in Greece and that he founded several Christian communities there, Archbishop Christodoulos had asked Pope John Paul II for a portion of the relics -- the bones -- of St. Paul. But the Vatican only recently rediscovered the exact location of St. Paul's tomb inside the basilica and construction work on the church over the centuries has made it impossible, at least for now, to open the tomb and see if any of the apostle's remains are inside. So, Pope John Paul had decided to give a section of the chain to the Orthodox Church of Greece. The consignment could not be arranged before Pope John Paul died in 2005, but Pope Benedict renewed the offer of the links to the archbishop.

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