St. Nicholas, by Jaroslav Čermák (1831-1878). / Credit: Galerie Art Praha via Wikimedia (public domain)

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After years of excavation work, the leader of an archeological expedition at the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey, announced this week that her team has found a sarcophagus that may contain the body of St. Nick — a discovery that could muddy the conventional wisdom about the true resting place of the saint’s relics, which is currently believed to be Italy.

In a recent interview, the leader of the expedition, Professor Ebru Fatma Fındık, said that sources point to Turkey’s southern Antalya Province as Nicholas’ resting place after his death, which took place in the 340s. 

She said that after an earthquake in the region in 529, archeologists believe the Church of St. Nicholas, long a popular pilgrimage site, especially for Russian Orthodox Christians, “may have been built near the burial place of the saint.”

In another interview, Fındık speculated that the sarcophagus, “the first sarcophagus unearthed in the church” after drilling work began in 2022, could have been covered by gravel and sand from a flood or tsunami, which she says is why it is so well preserved.

Turkish claims to the resting place of St. Nicholas are not new — in fact, Turkish officials have admitted for years that if they can prove that St. Nicholas is buried there, “tourism will gain big momentum.” The present excavations at the church were initiated by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

“We have been carrying out excavations in the church for months … During our drilling work in the two-story building that borders the courtyard of the church from the south, we came across a sarcophagus” that they believe belongs to St. Nicholas, Fındık said. 

“Geologists related to this subject will come soon, and they will actually investigate and examine it,” she said. 

Who was St. Nicholas?

Nicholas was an early Christian bishop born in the third century in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, at a time when Christians suffered sporadic but often brutal persecutions under the Roman Empire. He was ordained a priest and later ordained bishop of Myra, an ancient port city that corresponds to the modern-day Turkish city of Demre. 

There are numerous legends about Nicholas, who was known for his generosity; perhaps the most famous of which is that he once dropped three bags of gold through an open window or down the chimney at a house in Myra to pay the doweries of the three women who lived there, ultimately saving them from a life of prostitution. This is likely the explanation for why the modern Christmas character of Santa Claus clandestinely brings gifts for children. 

Nicholas was imprisoned for a time under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, only released when Constantine the Great came to power and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Nicholas later participated in the Council of Nicea in 325 and fervently defended the Church against heretics such as Arius. 

He died on Dec. 6, which is the day his feast is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church. He is deeply revered in the East as well, especially in the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Where are Nicholas’ relics?

The location of St. Nicholas’ mortal remains is already a matter of some dispute, and the discovery of the additional sarcophagus, depending on what it contains, will likely muddy things further. 

Churches across the world — including in Germany, Russia, and even Virginia — claim to possess relics of him. But the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari, in Italy’s southern region of Puglia, has perhaps the strongest claim to St. Nicholas’ final resting place today. 

Amid the takeover of the Turkish region by the Muslim Seljuks, Nicholas’ bones were purportedly moved by merchants from Myra to Bari in 1087 — and a few bones reportedly made their way to Venice — not long after the Great Schism between Catholics and the Orthodox in 1054. 

A desecrated sarcophagus located in the Turkish church was previously thought to contain Nicholas’ body until it was taken — either for pious or opportunistic reasons, depending on whom you ask — to Italy.  

Pope Francis has visited Bari twice during his papacy, and during both the 2018 and 2020 visits, he stopped in the basilica’s crypt to venerate St. Nicholas’ relics. In the crypt where St. Nicholas is purportedly buried, there is an altar for the celebration of Orthodox and Eastern Catholic liturgies, making it an important ecumenical site. 

In 1953, scientific studies confirmed that bones from both Bari and Venice belonged to the same individual, though whether they were both from St. Nicholas remains inconclusive, Archeology Magazine reported.