Two of the most popular yet very morbid tourist spots in both Rome and Paris are the catacombs that wind around several meters beneath the street. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to see the ones beneath the city of Rome, which I was pretty disappointed about. I did, however, get the opportunity to visit the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. In St. Peter’s, the deceased popes are interred in the Vatican Grottoes, which are about one and a half stories below ground. In the center of the Grottoes sits an unlabeled, white marble sarcophagus, ready to be labeled and used when the next pope passes away.
Papal Entrance to the Vatican Grottoes
Not all popes, however, are kept in the Vatican Grottoes. There are several popes that have been placed within St. Peter’s above ground. Now before most popes are buried, they are embalmed so that in the event they are up for sainthood and are granted it, their bodies can be displayed to the public. Pope Innocent XI as well as Pope John Paul II have been granted sainthood. Their bodies are currently on display, along with a few other popes, in St. Peter’s, not below it. They are adorned with the papal garments they would have worn during their service as well as silver (in Pope John Paul II’s case, most likely wax or similar) death masks and hand coverings.
How Pope’s bodies are handled are obviously extremely different from what we saw in the catacombs below Paris. There are no bodies, no flesh, no fancy death masks, and no fancy marble sarcophaguses. In the catacombs, there are just bones, which had been relocated from their original burial sites when Paris began running out of space. Instead of building on top of the burials, the bones were removed and placed underground in what are now the catacombs. Uniquely, the bones have been placed in simple designs related to either death, love, or religion.
It is very surprising that such an eerie tunnel system lined with the bones and skulls of humans can be considered quite beautiful and magnificent. But I guess at the same time, people feel the same way about how popes like Pope Innocent XI are adorned post-mortem once they are declared saints. In a sense, death really doesn’t have to be that morbid and eerie after all.