Beneath the Vatican’s Ancient Stones: Unraveling the Enigma of the Sealed Chest

New details emerge on the case of Emanuela Orlandi, the Vatican citizen who disappeared on 22 June 1983. Monsignor Valentino Miserachs, Emanuela’s choral singing teacher, was heard by the bicameral commission of inquiry investigating the matter. His testimony is very important because he was the last teacher to see Emanuela inside the music school of Sant’Apollinare, shortly before all traces of her were lost. “Pope Benedict wanted to shed light on the issue. I don’t know if anyone besides me was summoned (in 21012, ed.) but I was summoned by the head of the Vatican Gendarmerie, there was also the councilor of the Secretariat of State and some other gendarmes “, Miserachs revealed.

“There are those who say that Emanuela had asked me for permission to go out before, I don’t remember this; if she had asked me, I would certainly have told her to ask the director”, said Monsignor Valentino Miserachs. “I was informed of Emanuela’s disappearance the next day”, when she went to music school in the afternoon. “In those days I was preparing the end-of-year concert”, he underlined. In those years, “the number of students began to grow dramatically, at the time we had 700 members. Were there any strange characters going around? Maybe, but how can you remember, it was a coming and going of people”, he recalled. Which is why, after Emanuela’s death, “we tried to reduce the number of members and made the uniform mandatory”.

Among the elements that emerged during the hearing, Miserachs cited a meeting that took place subsequently with Pietro Orlandi, Emanuela’s brother, and Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, former member of the Vatican Accounts Commission (COSEA). Chaouqui reportedly reported the existence of a mysterious chest, stating that “the chest, containing documents and objects crucial to unraveling the mystery of Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance, is in the basement of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore”. “You say so, I don’t know. I currently have no possibility of accessing the place, the basilica has been placed under administration”, added the former teacher of the Vatican city.