When it comes to popes, Saint Peter is kind of a big deal. It's not only that he was an original apostle of Jesus and in fact the head honcho of the 12 apostles, per Britannica. There's also the matter that, according to widespread Christian tradition, Peter was the first-ever pope. Like so many saints in early Christianity, legend maintains that Peter met a gruesome end, crucified upside down by authorities under Roman Emperor Nero.
All of this means that any relics recovered from the mortal remains of Saint Peter would be pretty highly venerated amongst the faithful. Yet, while bones that reportedly belong to Peter have been displayed in the Vatican, Smithsonian Magazine reports that the circumstances of these bone fragments' recovery and identification are unclear. The remains were taken from an ancient burial ground under St. Peter's Basilica uncovered after 1939. It's indeed possible that early Christians would have wanted to be buried near a big-name apostle.
Yet, as The Guardian notes, no pope has ever gone so far as to definitively state that these nine bone fragments belong to Saint Peter. In 1968, Pope Paul VI did claim that the bones were "identified in a way we consider convincing," but offered precious little evidence beyond that. Skeptics therefore remain, well, skeptical, while believers will have to decide whether or not they want to take it as a matter of faith.
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