Home Gizmodo.com Archeologists Think They Discovered the Real Grave of ‘Santa Claus’ (Video)

Archeologists Think They Discovered the Real Grave of ‘Santa Claus’ (Video)

grave
What was believed to be the desecrated sarcophagus of St. Nicholas Photo: Wikimedia

Archeologists in Turkey think they may have reason to rewrite Christian history. Saint Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus, is believed to have been born in the Demre district in Antalya, and new research at a church that bears his name there has uncovered a tomb that could house his undisturbed remains.

On Wednesday, Cemil Karabayram, the head of Antalya’s Monument Authority, told the Daily Sabah that his team has searched through historical records relating to the St. Nicholas Church in Demre and found reason to believe that the conventional story about what happened to the remains of Saint Nicholas could be wrong.

The saint is believed to have been buried at the church before it was damaged in an earthquake. According to one account, Italian merchants stole his bones from a damaged sarcophagus (pictured above) during the first crusade in 1087 and brought them home where they’ve been stored at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Bari, Italy ever since. Each year, on December 6th, the clergy collects a clear liquid that seeps from the tomb that is believed to have miraculous powers. Some believe that the liquid is seeping in from outside the tomb, which is below sea level. But if people really are collecting some nasty liquid from a dead guy’s bones, it might be the wrong dead guy.

[vc_btn title=”Continue reading” style=”outline” color=”primary” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fgizmodo.com%2Fturkish-archeologists-think-they-may-have-discovered-th-1819136539|title:Continue%20reading|target:%20_blank|”][vc_message message_box_style=”outline” message_box_color=”blue”]Gizmodo, excerpt posted on SouthFloridaReporter.com, Oct. 5, 2017

Video by Veuer/Josh King[/vc_message]