The tomb of St. Philip, one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus, was unearthed in a great discovery in the Denizli province of Turkey.
The discovery took place at the Hierapolis (Pamukkale) ancient excavation site of Denizli in western Turkey on Tuesday 26 July 2011. The excavation has been going on in the area for some 32 years led by the Italian Prof. Francesco D’Andria. Prof D’Andria gave the news of the great discovery on Tuesday, saying: “The discovery of the tomb of St Philip, who is a very important figure for Christianity, will make a tremendous impression in the world,” shortly after the great success of his team.
Up till now, people believed that the tomb of St. Philip was in the back hill of Hierapolis known as Martyr's Hill, but Italian Archaeologist Francesco D’Andria and his team discovered a new unknown church 40 meters of Martyr's Hill and the real tomb of St. Philip the Apostle is in this church.
“St. Philip is considered a martyr. In fact, the church built in his name on the Martyr's Hill is, for this reason, also called Martyrion, despite the fact there were no traces of the grave of St. Philip. As we were cleaning out the new church we discovered a month ago, we finally found the grave. With close examination, we determined that the grave had been moved from its previous location in the St. Philip Church to this new church in the fifth century, during the Byzantine era. We are extremely happy and proud to have discovered the grave of a saint whose name appears in the Bible – this surely is an important discovery for religious tourism, archaeology and Christendom,” the professor said.
Read also:
The Fate of the Relics of the Apostle Philip
Conversion, Crucifixion and Celebration
