Has the Tomb of Saint Nicholas, the Inspiration for Santa, Been Found in Turkey?
This is a big one, especially at this time of year: excavations at the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre, on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, have found a sarcophagus. And they have reason to believe it might be the final resting place of the church’s namesake, Saint Nicholas of Myra, better known as Santa Claus.
Saint Nicholas was a 4th century Greek bishop of the early Christian church within the Roman Empire, known as Nicholas the Wonderworker for the sheer number of miracles he performed. However he is best remembered today for his famous giving of secret gifts.
His name, Saint Nick, was altered in Dutch to Sint-Nicolaas and then Sinterklaas, ultimately giving us Santa Claus. Sadly we know very little else about the life of Saint Nick, with most sources written centuries after his death, but we do know that within 200 years he had amassed a sizeable following, enough for a Roman Emperor to order a church built in his name.
It is this ancient church which contains the newly discovered sarcophagus. The excavation, led by Associate Professor Ebru Fatma Findik from Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, is part of the “Legacy for the Future Project” from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This area of the building has been under excavation since 1989.
The latest excavation has been underway for some two years and the team believed they were dealing with a burial site because of the animal bones and fragmented clap lamps they had found. The sarcophagus is typical for the region, some 2 meters long, made of limestone and with a pitched lid.
As of this moment only a small section of the sarcophagus has been uncovered, and the team hope for an inscription somewhere on its surface to confirm the identity of the deceased. All they are prepared to say for now is that it could be Saint Nicholas.
For there is a problem with this identification: we already know where the body of Saint Nick is, at least within church tradition. His remains were said to have been removed from Myra during the Catholic Great Schism of 1054 and taken to Bari in southern Italy. There is a church there, the Basilica di San Nicola, in his name and holding his remains.
Perhaps this later story will turn out to be wrong, and perhaps Saint Nicholas is indeed in this new sarcophagus in Turkey. If it is true, we will finally and definitively found the final resting place of the original Santa Claus.
Original report from Turkiye Today: https://www.turkiyetoday.com/culture/could-sarcophagus-in-turkiyes-antalya-hold-remains-of-st-nicholas-known-as-santa-claus-89539/.
Header Image: The newly discovered sarcophagus which may hold the remains of Saint Nicholas. Source: Turkiye Today / AA Photo.
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