Pope Leo XIV marks the centenary of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, calling it essential for theology, catechesis and living memory of faith.
Newsroom (11/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) In an apostolic letter released on the exact centenary of its founding, Pope Leo XIV has described Christian archaeology as “a school of the Incarnation,” an indispensable discipline that makes tangible the historical reality of the faith and prevents theology from becoming “disembodied, abstract or even ideological.”
Dated 11 December 2025 and addressed to the entire Church on the hundredth anniversary of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, the document situates the celebration against the backdrop of two Jubilees a century apart: the 1925 “Jubilee of Peace” proclaimed after the First World War and the current Jubilee of Hope now under way amid continuing global conflicts.
Recalling the motu proprio I Primitivi Cemeteri by which Pope Pius XI established the Institute on 11 December 1925, Leo XIV underlines that its mission remains unchanged: to form professors, excavation directors and curators with rigorous scientific method while reconstructing the daily life of the earliest Christian communities.
Over ten decades the Institute has trained hundreds of specialists from every continent, organised landmark international congresses — including the controversial 13th Congress held in Split during the Yugoslav wars — and maintained study missions even in politically unstable regions. It has contributed to major Vatican excavations beneath St Peter’s Basilica and, more recently, at St Paul Outside the Walls.
The Pope stresses that archaeology is not an elite pursuit but “a path accessible to anyone who wishes to understand how faith is embodied in time, place and culture.” Quoting the evangelist John (“what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands”), he presents Christian archaeology as a “theology of the senses” that teaches humility, respect for matter and patient contemplation.
In an era dominated by artificial intelligence and rapid consumption, Leo XIV argues that archaeology offers a counter-witness: it preserves rather than discards, contemplates rather than consumes, and discovers profound meaning even in fragments once deemed insignificant.
Citing the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis Gaudium, the Pope reaffirms that archaeology, together with Church history and patrology, belongs among the fundamental disciplines of theological formation. Without it, he warns, theological studies risk losing contact with “the body of the Church, its wounds, its signs and its history.”
The letter also highlights archaeology’s evangelising power. Catacombs, martyr shrines and early Christian symbols, the Pope writes, speak unmistakably of hope and resurrection to believers and non-believers alike, to young people seeking authenticity and to pilgrims touching the stones where the first generations prayed.
Looking forward, Leo XIV calls for renewed cooperation among the Vatican’s archaeological institutions, greater collaboration with the Christian East, and continued investment in formation despite economic pressures — echoing Pius XI’s courage in founding the Institute amid post-war hardship.
In a direct appeal, the Holy Father urges bishops and educators to encourage young lay people, priests and religious to study Christian archaeology, noting the many professional opportunities it offers in ecclesiastical and civil heritage sectors.
Concluding with a blessing invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary, who “united the past and the future in one vision of faith,” Pope Leo XIV entrusts scholars and students to the Holy Spirit, “living memory and inexhaustible creativity,” and asks them never to tire of making visible “the Word of life” that became flesh and left its enduring mark on history.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican.va
Related Images:
