The big ‘Santa Claus’! Everyone is acquainted with the man with the red coat and sack full of toys; he is ever popular to children and all.
St Nicholas – the man who inspired the modern-day Santa Claus passed away on December 6, 343 AD, and was allegedly buried at the UNESCO recognised church located in the small coastal town of Demre.
But his alleged tomb, which has been described as the original Santa’s grotto, was not found until 2017 when researchers conducted electronic surveys.Turkish archaeologists reportedly detected a crypt 5ft beneath the marble slabs which make the church’s floor.
St Nicholas is believed to have been born 270 years after Jesus and lived in Demre for most of his life.
Very little is known about Nicholas’s life, but he is said to have rescued three girls from prostitution, to have chopped down a demon-possessed tree, to have resurrected three murdered children who were pickled in brine, and to have gotten into a fist-fight during the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, according to Britannica.
And, of course, Nicholas was said to have frequently given away his inherited wealth anonymously to the poor, eventually leading to the legend of St. Nick as Santa Claus.
One long standing theory is that the tomb shifted underground during an earthquake and remained undiscovered until modern techniques allowed experts to scan below the surface.
Researchers initially thought St Nicholas’ body had laid in the tomb inside the church before being stolen by Italian thieves in the 11th century.
However, Turkish archaeologists have since suggested the wrong bones were removed – and the ones that went to Italy belonged to an anonymous priest.
Nicholas’s relics, meanwhile, remain enshrined in Bari’s 11th-century San Nicola church and have been available to public view.
But his alleged tomb, which has been described as the original Santa’s grotto, was not found until 2017 when researchers conducted electronic surveys.Turkish archaeologists reportedly detected a crypt 5ft beneath the marble slabs which make the church’s floor.
