There Is Now a Rumor That the Pope Is Opening Lucifer's Tomb at the Vatican

In November 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter was the first human to gaze upon King Tutankhamun's tomb since sometime around 1324 B.C. when the young pharaoh died.

While there was no curse found on or near the burial site, rumors of one spread far and wide after various members of Howard's team were struck down by tragedy.

A decade later this adventure would inspire a movie that was centered on the curse of a long-dead Egyptian pharaoh. The Mummy was released in 1932 and would go on to be the rosetta stone for films of its kind.

If there is one thing we have learned from the cinema, it's never open a tomb. This rule applies to everyone, even the pope, who might be opening up something called Lucifer's tomb according to social media.

Why would that be at the Vatican? This is a very bad idea. Read on for details.

Naturally, we have social media to blame for the wild idea that Lucifer's tomb is tucked away at the pope's house, and God's favorite boy is going to pop it open at some point.

TikTok user @theconsciouswolf shared a short video, sans citations, wherein he puts dramatic music over a nonsensical idea. "Wait, so since when does Lucifer have a tomb in the Vatican," he asks.

The only place to go for a query like this, other than heaven itself, is the Instagram of Dr. Dan McClellan who has a PhD in theology and religion. When he caught wind of this notion, he posted a thorough response that is worthy of its own sermon.

"There is no tomb of Lucifer anywhere near, at, or under the Vatican," he said in a Reel. By this, he means Lucifer as in Satan, as many have come to understand him in modern times. There, however, is a tomb for Lucifer but it's not what it seems.

According to Dr. McClellan, the original TikTok probably got this idea from a map of the Vatican Necropolis found on the website StPetersBasilica.info. There you can clearly see a tomb labeled Lucifer, which Dr. McClellan says was probably misspelled. It's easy to understand how this mistake was made, but he believes the original poster was just spreading conspiratorial nonsense for engagement purposes.

If you click on a link beneath the map, you'll eventually find a link to a 1986 Guide Vatican necropolis on Amazon. The guide includes other tombs that are labeled "the tomb of" followed by a name or family.

The fact that Lucifer's tomb isn't labeled as such suggests that someone named Lucifer isn't entombed there. He concludes this is probably a title "perhaps associated with some graffiti found in the tomb."

Another map shows Lucifer's tomb in a section of the Necropolis that was constructed in pre-Constantinian times.

"This is important because in the 300s C.E., Lucifer was not a reference to Satan. It was just a generic title and there were prominent Christians who had this as their personal name." So there you have it!

This is basically a title, like executive assistant. Perhaps this person was just taking notes and ordering lunch for some pope. Still, don't crack this tomb open.