Renovations at a church in Demre, Turkey, uncovered what a local preservationist said is the burial place of St. Nicholas, the local bishop who became known throughout the world as “Santa Claus,” a Turkish news agency reported.
The current Church of St. Nicholas in Demre was built sometime in the two centuries after 600 A.D., professor Osman Eravsar said, atop ruins of an earlier church flooded by the Mediterranean Sea’s rise.
Removal of a floor slab installed nearly 50 years ago revealed an early Fourth Century floor on which St. Nicholas likely walked, said Mr. Eravsar, who chairs a cultural heritage preservation group in Antalya, Turkey.
“This is an extremely important discovery, the first find from that period,” Mr. Eravsar told the DHA news agency. “Therefore, we see this church as a discovery that will increase [its] architectural history and its iconographic value a bit more,” he added.
The professor said there are “probably other bones” beneath the older ruins that belong to St. Nicholas, making the church a final resting place for the saint. Other bones said to belong to the saint are on display at a local museum as well as some relics in Italy.
Nicholas of Myra, an ancient Greek city in Asia Minor which is today’s Demre, was born in A.D. 270. The son of a wealthy merchant, Nicholas was famed for giving his family’s wealth to the poor, in particular providing a destitute man with dowries for his daughters. The gifts were made by tossing purses of gold coins through a window at night, the story goes, and the secret gift-giving is said to have inspired the legend of Santa Claus dropping presents down chimneys.
The name Santa Claus comes from the Dutch nickname for the saint, “Sinter Klaas.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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