The tomb of Saint Nicholas

Hello everyone! 👋 Or, I should rather say, Ho Ho Ho! 🎅 

As this is the last post before Christmas I would like to pick up on this holiday at least a bit. For a long time I didn’t know what to write about until I came across news from 3 years ago (how time flies!) about a tomb of Saint Nicholas! Therefore, let me briefly tell you about this discovery… 

Some of you may be now wondering what Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century Turkish bishop born in Myra, has to do with a bearded, cheerful, portly man in red who delivers gifts to children at the end of every December. In a nutshell: the modern fairy-tale character of Santa Claus is based on the Saint of Myra. If you want to read more about this “transformation”, I recommend this article. 

Despite the enormous fame that the Saint of Myra enjoys today, his burial place has long been a puzzle for researchers. Until 2017 it was believed that the alleged body of the bishop was stolen from the church in Myra in 1087 and smuggled by merchants into the Italian city of Bari. According to another legend, as the Venetians arrived in Turkey shortly thereafter, they envied their competitors from Bari and consequently they brought from Myra their own, in their opinion “real”, corpse of the Saint.

However, in December 2017 some new facts came to light. That’s when Turkish archaeologists announced that they had discovered a tomb that probably contained the body of “Santa Claus”. In the city of Demre (former Myra), in the basement of the 11th-century church, archaeologists found a tomb-like object. Looking inside the temple with electromagnetic radiation, they made an assumption that it could be the tomb of Saint Nicholas.

St. Nicholas Church in Antalya (Turkey) thought to be the burial place of Santa Claus

After the discovery of Turkish explorers the credibility of the tombs in Italy decreased significantly. According to the Turks, Italians must have taken the bones of another priest while the remains of St. Nicholas were still in Anatolia.

In 2017 the find had not been officially confirmed and Turkish researchers believed it would take a long time before they could make a final verdict on the remains:

“We believe this shrine has not been damaged at all, but it is quite difficult to get to it as there are mosaics on the floor” 
-  Cemil Karabayram, head of Antalya’s Monument Authority 

Unfortunately, when I searched the Internet for some updates I didn't find any news... It's hard to say what this might mean. Maybe the discovery simply ceased to be reported to the media due to insufficient evidence. 

Nevertheless, until we find out if the Turkish researchers are right, I recommend not to worry about the disputes over the resting place of Saint Nicholas, because what we all believe (and what is the most important today) is that Santa Claus lives in Lapland and in a few days he will come with a fresh delivery of gifts! 😀😀😀

For those who want to explore this topic:

• Archaeologists Might Have Found the Tomb of Santa Claus
• Where in the World Are Santa Claus’s Bones?
• Where's Santa buried? Resting places of the real St. Nick

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Happy Holidays to everyone who reads my blog! 🎄🎅🎁

Guys, I hope that despite these unusual times you will find joy and happiness at the end of December and I wish you a good rest so that you can enter 2021 with new energy 💪 However, before we say goodbye to this strange year, I hope you will visit my blog in a week for the last post in 2020. 

Merry Christmas ❗❗❗