New Scientific Findings About Saint Philomena

Msg. Giovanni Braschi, who has been rector of The Sanctuary for over 20 years, has worked tirelessly to resolve the problems of the controversy of Saint Philomena and has ventured in all scientific avenues to establish the truth about our Saint. At the conference on 9 April 2005 in the catacombs of St Priscilla in Rome, where the tomb of Saint Philomena was discovered in 1802, the findings were announced.

There are two main parts of this investigation, the first being the tomb stones. These are terracotta slabs which were sealing the tomb of Saint Philomena which was normal and in keeping with other tombs in the catacombs. They tell the story of the person buried there with specific symbols drawn on them depicting the history of the sufferings and death along with the name of the person buried within. The case of Saint Philomena was discussed and argued at the beginning of the 20th century: the archaeologist Orazio Marucchi stated the false theory that the tomb stones had been used more than once. The scientific investigations which have been carried out at the present time which were not available in previous years have stated that the tomb stones were definitely only sealed once, which means that all the writing and symbols relate to the person buried within. This confirms that Our Saint Philomena is a Martyr Saint who did exist.

More importantly, they are dated 202AD, which means that Saint Philomena is an earlier Martyr of the Church than first thought.

The writing on the tomb stones PAXTE – CUMFI - LUMENA (peace be with you Philomena) and the drawings on them which were: a palm, a lily, 2 anchors and 3 arrows tell the story of Her Martyrdom. With the recent scientific results of the tomb stones we now have an explanation at to why the stones were placed in the wrong order. At the time of Her burial, there were originally two stones, but 3 were required to seal the tomb, the 1st was therefore cut horizontally making 3 separate stones. The name and symbols were then drawn on them. After having done this the mason worker realised that the tomb was wider at one end. Therefore the stones had to be placed to fit the opening resulting in the 3 stones being transposed as follows: LUMENA – PAXTE- CUMFI, placing the last stone first and by so doing resulted in the words being in the wrong order.

The second part of the scientific studies was regarding the glass vase which was found in the tomb with the Relics of Saint Philomena. It has been scientifically proven to have blood in it and to our surprise a small fragment of bone. This signifies that Saint Philomena had a violent death. This information, along with the fact that Her tomb was found in the oldest part of the Catacombs of St Priscilla, where only Martyrs of the early Church were buried, make the truth about Her stronger than ever.

Little is known about the story of Saint Philomena’s life led on earth except for what the visionary Sister Maria Luisa of Jesus said. She states that Saint Philomena was under the control of the emperor Diocletian, therefore if the vision are true, we take that this well known emperor was merely a symbol of the type ruler governing Rome at the period in time of Saint Philomena’s actual existence.