Let’s start out with an admission: Yes, of course we know Santa Claus is real. He wears a red suit and visits all the good boys and girls (not you naughty ones) once a year. He has a slew of small helpers and a stall of dope reindeer at his home on the North Pole, and duh, he’s immortal and very much alive and well. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
However, there was a devoted Christian bishop named Nicholas who lived in the 4th century and became well known for his kindness and generosity, especially toward children and the needy. His good deeds and miraculous works were so notable that after his death, he was granted sainthood by the church; in fact, he was named the patron saint of all sorts of entities, including the countries of Russia and Greece; of charitable fraternities and guilds; and of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers.
Sadly, most folks eventually forgot about old St. Nicholas … but not the Dutch. The legend of the kindly Sinterklaas (the Dutch variant of his name) persisted in Holland, and as Dutch colonists settled in America and shared their Sinterklaas stories, the legend of “Santa Claus” — a joyful, generous gift-giver — was born.
The original St. Nicholas was buried in 343 A.D. in his hometown of Myra, in what is now Turkey. In the 5th century, a grand church was erected in his name around his sacred resting place. It is said that in 1087 A.D. a group of Italian sailors stole at least some of the remains of St. Nicholas from this church, brought them back to their hometown of Bari, and reburied them. Eventually, a shrine to the saint, the Basilica di San Nicola, was developed at the spot. Over the years, though, portions of the remains buried there have been disinterred and small pieces shared throughout the world as relics of St. Nicholas. These include parts that were transported to Venice during the First Crusade.
In 1953, the Pope supervised the opening of St. Nicholas’ Bari tomb during renovations of the basilica, and scientists removed the remaining bones from the tomb for study. After taking extensive measurements, notes, and photographs, the remains were reinterred in a new and improved crypt. Using the data on the skull which was collected in 1953, anthropologists used 3D technology to create perhaps the most authentic representation of what St. Nicholas looked like when he died in his 70s. Believe it or not (and don’t we all want to believe?!), the resulting image is strikingly similar to the famously rosy-cheeked face of Santa Claus!
But here’s the big news: Since 1989, Turkish archaeologists have been excavating within the walls of the Church of St. Nicholas in Turkey. Just last week, news broke that those archaeologists had unearthed a limestone sarcophagus that they believe contains the remains of none other than St. Nicholas himself … or at least what might be left of him after the Italian thieves desecrated his grave.
The five-foot deep and six-foot-long coffin with a raised, pointed lid was buried six feet under the ground in an annex of the church, and is still being meticulously unearthed by the Turkish team. They hope to find an inscription somewhere on the burial chamber that proves their theory that this is the real resting place of the venerated saint.
