From catholicnews.com: U.S. writer follows varied path around globe to tombs of apostles.
As a Peace Corps volunteer, Tom Bissell was hiking through a village in Kyrgyzstan one day, and an old Russian woman offered to take him to see the tomb of St. Matthew.
"I remember thinking: ‘The tomb of Matthew? I thought he was buried in Jerusalem or Italy or somewhere like that,’" Bissell recalled in an interview with Catholic News Service. But Kyrgyzstan, he soon learned, also had a claim on the apostle’s final resting place.
The woman led Bissell to the ruins of a monastery next to Lake Issyk Kul, where according to local legend the saint’s relics were transported by Armenian monks in the fifth century. It was a small marker in the remote reaches of Central Asia.
"That planted the seed," Bissell said. He began to wonder about the rest of the apostles, and discovered that many of them ended up in pretty strange places. [continue]
If I didn’t have a 9-to-5 job, I’d love to be footloose enough to follow a trek like that with a theme that would take me all over the globe. I’d shake the dust of this place from my feet and the dog and I would travel the world. ::sigh::
Ditto, that Sarah!
It’s strange that I just did two posts related to exactly what Bissell is writing on, here and here. They just state the places where the largest portions of various saints’ remains currently lie.
I’ll be very happy to read his book once it’s out, and to make a trip (someday!) to visit all the different places. One thing I would love to do is to touch the beginning page of a biblical book to the tomb of each of the authors of the book. That would be great.
Pingback: biblicalia » Blog Archive » Tombs of the Apostles