Simon, son of Jonah, fished the Sea of Galilee with his brother Andrew when Jesus called them. He confessed Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi, denied him three times on the night of the Passion, and was restored on the lakeshore after the Resurrection. The Acts of the Apostles show him leading the Church in Jerusalem and opening it to the Gentiles.
Tradition, supported by the earliest Christian writers, places his death in Rome during the persecution of Nero in the mid-60s. He was buried in a necropolis on the Vatican Hill. Constantine raised the first basilica over the grave in the fourth century, and the present St. Peter's, consecrated in 1626, keeps the high altar directly above it.
Excavations beneath the basilica between 1940 and 1949 uncovered the ancient necropolis and the shrine built over Peter's tomb. Pilgrims today can book the Scavi tour to walk through it, or pray at the Confessio in the basilica above, where a ring of lamps marks the spot.
