The 1,674-year-old remains of St Nicholas may be about the be found. But at which of the sites that have long claimed to be his final resting place?
Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered an intact church and burial grounds below the Church of St Nicholas in the Demre district of Antalya, where the saint is believed to have been born.
'We have obtained very good results but the real work starts now,' said Cemil Karabayram, the director of surveying and monuments in Antalya. 'We will reach the ground and maybe we will find the untouched body of Saint Nicholas.'
Several towns have claimed to house the body of St Nicholas since the Crusades. If his body is found in Demre, then, this mystery will finally be solved.
When St Nicholas died in AD 343, his body was interred at the church in Demre, formerly known as Myra. But it was believed that during the 11th century, Crusaders removed his remains and took them to Italy. However, accounts from the time differ as to whether they were reinterred in Venice or Bari. Yet another story has it that his bones were taken by French knights to an abandoned churchyard in Ireland.
Basilica di San Nicola in Bari, Italy is viewed by most Catholic and Orthodox Christians as St Nicholas' final resting place. However, Turkish experts argue that the bones taken to Italy were those of an anonymous priest, and the saint was never disturbed.
St Nicholas is popularly known now as Father Christmas or Santa Claus – a name derived from the Dutch pronunciation, 'Sinterklaas' – rather than as a 4th-century bishop from Asia Minor.
