ROME — The first scientific test on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul “seems to confirm” that they are those of the Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday.

Archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome, which for about 2,000 years the faithful have believed to be the tomb of St. Paul.

Benedict said scientists had conducted carbon tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

“This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul,” Benedict said, announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican’s Paoline year, in honor of the apostle.

According to tradition, St. Paul was beheaded in Rome in the first century during the persecution of Christians by Roman emperors.

The pope said that when archaeologists opened the sarcophagus, they discovered alongside the bone fragments some grains of incense, a “precious” piece of purple linen with gold sequins and a blue fabric with linen filaments.

In 2002, Vatican archaeologists began excavating the 8- foot-long coffin, which dates from at least A. D. 390 and was buried under the basilica’s main altar.

The decision to unearth it was made after pilgrims who came to Rome during the Catholic Church’s 2000 Jubilee year expressed disappointment at finding that the saint’s tomb — buried under layers of plaster and further hidden by an iron grate — could not be visited.

It was the second major discovery concerning St. Paul announced by the Vatican in as many days. On Saturday, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced the June 19 discovery of a fresco inside another tomb depicting St. Paul, which Vatican officials said represented the oldest known icon of the apostle.