While researching the information contained in this book,
my search for the stories of the twelve apostles led me to
many famous libraries, such as Jerusalem, Rome and the Museum
British in London. For years I borrowed or bought each
book that I found on the subject of the twelve apostles. They do not fit in
a shelf of one and a half meters.
I traveled three times to the island of Patmos and to the places where the seven churches of the book of Revelation were found. I spent a whole day
(without fruit) to the ascent towards the high and snowy mountains of Lebanon,
through the famous cedars and other sites, to verify a rumor of
that Saint Jude had originally been buried in some small
Lebanese village nearby. It had not been like that.
I have personally visited many of the tombs that, according to
the tradition, contain the bones of the Twelve; It is not that I consider
that have some spiritual value, but I wanted to find out, in my
historian's condition, how they had arrived at the place where
find, with the expectation of finding in those places traditions that
they would not have been included in the history books. This search
it took me from Germany to Italy, to Greece and to almost all countries
of the Middle East.
With great courtesy, the Vatican extended a permit for me
take pictures in all the churches of Rome and anywhere
from Italy. Parts of the remains of the bodies of some of the apostles
they are preserved in that historic land.
The amazing descent to the deep subsoils of the Basilica of
Saint Peter to photograph the bones of the apostle Peter, who rest in an ancient pagan cemetery in Rome, was an experience
Especially memorable. Without having seen it, it is impossible to imagine
a temple as big and solid as the one of San Pedro settled with firmness over a cemetery full of family tombs beautifully
preserved whose antiquity dates back to the 1st century BC!
I went on seven occasions to Petra, in Jordan, and three times to
Antioch, in Turkey. I also visited Babylon and made four trips
to Iran investigating the history of the missions of the apostles in
those places.
Of course, I had some disappointments. For example, to date
John's remains have not been found anywhere. I entered his
grave in Ephesus many years ago. After centuries of neglect,
recently the authorities sealed the tomb and covered it with
a marble floor. Although Juan's body has disappeared,
it is believed that there are parts of the remains of all the other apostles,
and I have seen them.
Visitors to biblical lands often pass by a few
meters of authentic relics of the apostles, without finding out about it.
I had made twenty-six trips to Jerusalem before I learned that
the head of Jacob the Greater and several bones of the arms of Jacobo
El Justo, in addition to a part of the skull of Juan el Bautista, are
venerated in two temples of that city. And I must add that there
strong historical sources that confirm its authenticity.
However, this book is not a work about bones. It's a book
about living people whom Paul described as the founders of the churches (see Ephesians 2: 19-20). We are interested in
bones of the apostles because they could be indicators of the places
where the Twelve carried out their ministry or the places where
they suffered martyrdom
Allow me now to face frontally the typical protestant attitude
of skepticism regarding the apostolic remains in churches
and hermitages. I used to think that the so-called "relics" were frauds
pious, result of the fervent and superstitious religiosity of the
Middle Ages. Maybe some of them are, but after one approaches
to this whole issue with a skeptical perspective, and then, with certain
reluctance, is forced to recognize the high possibility of its authenticity; it becomes an unnerving but moving experience