VIDEO: Science confirms location of Christ's tomb

This is more than a little out of season, but good news is always good news, no matter how long it takes to travel to our corner of the forest.

An article which appeared in National Geographic confirms that the truths of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition can often be proven to the skeptical by the methodologies of modern science. An example of a recent find corroborating an ancient belief is the confirmation by archaeologists that early Roman Christians were correct in the location that they believed to be the tomb of Jesus Christ. The results of scientific tests appear to show that the limestone cave whose remains are enshrined within the venerable Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was in fact the burial site of Our Lord and Saviour.

Mortar sampled from between the original limestone surface of the tomb and a marble slab that covers it has been dated to around A.D. 345. According to historical accounts, the tomb was discovered by the Romans and enshrined around 326. Until now, however, the earliest architectural evidence found in and around the tomb complex dated to the Crusader period, making it no more than 1000 years old. But new dating results put the original construction of the tomb securely in the time of Constantine the Great (c. 306-337), Rome's first Christian emperor.

When Constantine's representatives arrived in Jerusalem around 325 to locate the tomb, they were allegedly directed to a Roman temple built some 200 years earlier. The Roman temple was razed and excavations beneath it revealed a tomb hewn from a limestone cave. The top of the cave was sheared off to expose the interior of the tomb, and the Aediculum (little house) was built around it. Inside the Aediculum is a long shelf, or "burial bed", which according to tradition was the place where the body of Jesus was laid out following His Crucifixion.

Here's a link to the National Geographic article (26/10/16), from which this video was taken.



Dear Catholic readers, the things we have always believed, on the foundation of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition -- dogmatically the two fonts of the Catholic Faith -- are every day being confirmed by modern science. We have nothing to fear from science. What we must fear, and pray for protection against, are the false teachings of those who would lead us into skepticism, or, worse, non-belief, or, worse yet, heretical denial of that which the Church has always declared to be true.