Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  No, Virginia, he’s not really dead.  However, the person who is dead is a Fourth-Century Turkish Saint named Nicholas of Myra.   You might know him better as St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Pere Noel, and Fat Bearded Gift-Dude.  If you want to visit his grave, then don’t go to Turkey; the crypt of St. Nicholas at Myra’s cathedral is empty.  So too is the crypt in Bari where St. Nicholas’s body was taken in the 1100’s.  His final resting place, after a travel across Europe?  Jerpoint Abbey in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Father Christmas was looted from Turkey after Italian soldiers took him back to Bari.  From there, as the Genoese pushed the Normans out of Italy, a family of crusaders called the de Frainets took St. Nick with them on their travels.  He was stored in Nice for awhile, then eventually found his way to Ireland when Nicholas de Frainets settled there in the early 1200’s.  Apparently, he’s been there ever since, buried beneath a marker at the aptly-named St. Nicholas Church.

Tags: St. Nicholas’ body found, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Claus inspiration, Jerpoint Abbey, Kilkenny, Ireland, St. Nicholas of Myra, de Frainets

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