Gemile , where some scholars believe Saint Nicholas was originally entombed Tradition has long assumed that Saint Nicholas was originally buried in his hometown of Myra, where his relics are later known to have been kept, but some recent archaeological evidence indicates that Saint Nicholas may have originally been entombed in a rock-cut church located at the highest point on the small Turkish island of
Gemile, only twenty miles away from his birthplace of Patara. Nicholas's name is painted on part of the ruined building. In antiquity, the island was known as "Saint Nicholas Island", and today it is known in Turkish as Gemiler Adasi, meaning "Island of Boats", in reference to Saint Nicholas's traditional role as the patron saint of seafarers. The church was built in the fourth century, around the time of Nicholas's death, and is typical of saints' shrines from that time period. Nicholas was the only major saint associated with that part of Turkey. The church where historians believe he was originally entombed is at the western end of the great processional way.
Myra , where Saint Nicholas's bones were kept until 1087. In the mid-7th century, Gemile was vulnerable to attack by Arab fleets. Hence, Nicholas's remains appear to have been
moved from the island to the city of Myra, where Nicholas had served as bishop for most of his life. Myra is located roughly east of Gemile, and its location further inland made it safer from seafaring Arab forces. It is said that, in Myra, the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smelled like rose water, called
manna, or
myrrh, which was believed by the faithful to possess
miraculous powers. As it was widely known that all Nicholas's relics were at Myra in their sealed sarcophagus, it was rare during this period for forgers of relics to claim to possess those belonging to Saint Nicholas. A solemn bronze statue of the saint by Russian sculptor Gregory Pototsky was donated by the
Russian government in 2000 and given a prominent place in the square in front of the medieval Church of St Nicholas. In 2005, Mayor Süleyman Topçu had the statue replaced with a red-suited plastic Santa Claus because he wanted an image more recognisable to foreign visitors. Protests from the Russian government against this were successful, and the bronze statue was returned (albeit without its original high pedestal) to a corner nearer the church. On 28 December 2009, the Turkish government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of Saint Nicholas's skeletal remains to Turkey from the Italian government. Turkish authorities asserted that Nicholas himself desired to be buried at his episcopal town and that his remains were illegally removed from his homeland. In 2017, an archaeological survey at St. Nicholas Church in Demre reportedly uncovered a temple beneath the modern church, with further excavation planned to determine whether it contained the remains of Nicholas. A sarcophagus possibly containing his remains was found there in 2024.
Bari in
Bari, Italy where most of the
relics of Saint Nicholas are kept today After the
Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Byzantine Empire temporarily lost control over most of Asia Minor to the invading
Seljuk Turks, and so Christian
Byzantine Greeks of Myra became subjects of the Turks. At the same time the Catholic Church in the West had declared (in 1054 AD) that the
Greek church, the official church of the Byzantine Empire, was in
schism. Because of the many wars in the region, some Christians were concerned that access to the tomb might become difficult. Taking advantage of the confusion and the loss by the Greek Christian community of Myra of its Byzantine imperial protection, in the spring of 1087, Italian sailors from Bari in
Apulia seized part of the remains of the saint from his burial church in Myra, over the objections of the Greek Orthodox
monks in the church. Adam C. English describes the removal of the relics from Myra as "essentially a
holy robbery" and notes the thieves were not only afraid of being caught or chased after by the locals, but also the power of Saint Nicholas himself. Returning to Bari, they brought the remains with them and cared for them. The remains arrived on 9 May 1087. Two years later,
Pope Urban II inaugurated a new church, the Basilica di San Nicola, to Saint Nicholas in Bari. The Pope himself personally placed Nicholas's relics into the tomb beneath the altar of the new church. The removal of Saint Nicholas's relics from Myra and their arrival in Bari is reliably recorded by multiple chroniclers, including
Orderic Vitalis and 9 May continued to be celebrated every year by western Christians as the day of Nicholas's "translation". Eastern Orthodox Christians and the Turks have both long regarded the unauthorized removal of the relics from Myra as a blatant theft, but the people of Bari have instead maintained that it was a rescue mission to save the bones from the Turkish invaders. A legend, shown on the ceiling of the Basilica di San Nicola, holds that Nicholas once visited Bari and predicted that his bones would one day rest there. . Prior to the translation of Nicholas's relics to Bari, his following was known in western Europe but not particularly popular. In autumn of 1096,
Norman and
Frankish soldiers mustered in Bari in preparation for the
First Crusade. Although the Crusaders generally favored warrior saints, which Saint Nicholas was not, the presence of his relics in Bari made him materially accessible to them. Nicholas's associations with aiding travelers and seafarers also made him a popular choice for veneration. Nicholas's veneration by Crusaders helped promote his following throughout western Europe. After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to produce "myrrh", much to the joy of their new owners. Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken around the world for centuries and can still be obtained from his church in Bari. Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December (the Saint's
feast day) by the clergy of the basilica. Myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus located in the basilica vault and can be obtained at the nearby shop. The liquid gradually seeps out of the tomb, but it is unclear whether it originates from the body within the tomb, or from the marble itself; since the town of Bari is a harbour, and the tomb is below
sea level, there have been several natural explanations proposed for the manna fluid, including the transfer of
seawater to the tomb by
capillary action. In 1966, a vault in the crypt underneath the Basilica di San Nicola was dedicated as an Orthodox chapel with an
iconostasis in commemoration of the
recent lifting of the anathemas the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches had issued against each other during the
Great Schism in 1054. In May 2017, following talks between
Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a portion of the relics of Saint Nicholas in Bari were sent on loan to Moscow. The relic was on display for veneration at Christ the Savior Cathedral before being taken to Saint Petersburg in mid-June before returning to Bari. More than a million people lined up in Moscow for a momentary glimpse of the gilded ark holding one of the saint's ribs.
Venice in Venice, which claims to hold roughly 500 bone fragments from Nicholas's skeleton The sailors from Bari took only the main bones of Nicholas's skeleton, leaving all the minor fragments in the grave. The city of Venice had an interest in obtaining the remaining fragments of his skeleton. In 1044, they dedicated the
San Nicolò al Lido monastery basilica to him on the north end of the
Lido di Venezia. According to a single chronicle written by an anonymous monk at this monastery, in 1100, a
fleet of Venetian ships accompanied by Bishop
Enrico Contarini sailed past Myra on their way to Palestine for the First Crusade. Bishop Enrico insisted that the fleet turn back and set anchor in Myra. The Venetians took the remaining bones of Saint Nicholas, as well as those of several other bishops of Myra, from the church there, which was only guarded by four Orthodox monks, and brought them to
Venice, where they deposited them in the San Nicolò al Lido. This tradition was lent credence in two scientific investigations of the relics in Bari and Venice, which confirmed that the relics in the two cities are anatomically compatible and may belong to the same person. It is said that someone dies every time the bones of Saint Nicholas in Venice are disturbed. The last time the bones were examined was in July 1992.
Other locations near Thomastown, Ireland Because of Nicholas's skeleton's long confinement in Myra, after it was brought to Bari, demand for its pieces rose. Small bones quickly began to disperse across western Europe. The sailors who had transported the bones gave one tooth and two fragments chipped from Nicholas's sarcophagus to the Norman knight
William Pantulf. Pantulf took these relics to his hometown of Noron in Normandy, where they were placed in the local Church of St. Peter in June 1092. In 1096, the duke of Apulia gave several bones of Saint Nicholas to the count of
Flanders, which he then enshrined in the Abbey of
Watten. According to legend, in 1101, Saint Nicholas appeared in a vision to a French clerk visiting the shrine at Bari and told him to take one of his bones with him to his hometown of
Port, near
Nancy. The clerk took a finger bone back with him to Port, where a chapel was built to Saint Nicholas. Port became an important center of devotion in the following of Nicholas and, in the fifteenth century, a church known as the
Basilique Saint-Nicolas was built there and dedicated to him. The town itself is now known as "Saint Nicolas de Port" in honor of Nicholas. The clergy at Bari strategically distributed samples of Nicholas's bones to promote the cult and enhance its prestige. Many of these bones were initially kept in Constantinople, but, after the
Sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the
Fourth Crusade, these fragments were scattered across western Europe. A hand claimed to be that of Saint Nicholas was kept at
San Nicola in Carcere in Rome. This church, whose name means "Saint Nicholas in Chains", was built on the site of a former municipal prison. Stories quickly developed about Nicholas himself having been held in that prison. Mothers would come to the church to pray to Saint Nicholas for their jailed sons to be released, and repentant criminals would place
votive offerings in the church. As a result of this, Nicholas became the patron saint of prisoners and those falsely accused of crimes. An index finger claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas was kept in a chapel along the Ostian Way in Rome. Another finger was held in
Ventimiglia in
Liguria. Today, many churches in Europe, Russia, and the United States claim to possess small relics, such as a tooth or a finger bone. An Irish tradition states that the relics of Saint Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the twelfth century and buried near
Thomastown,
County Kilkenny, where a stone slab marks the reputed "
Tomb of Saint Nicholas". According to the Irish antiquarian
John Hunt, the tomb probably actually belongs to a local priest from
Jerpoint Abbey. The
Russian Orthodox Church announced on 22 September 2024 that
Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral in
Baku received a part of Nicholas' relic as a gift.
Scientific analysis at
Kizhi monastery,
Karelia Whereas the devotional importance of
relics and the economics of pilgrimages led to the division and dispersal of the remains of most saints across numerous churches in several countries, Saint Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one place: his grave crypt in Bari. Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the
archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones. In the late 1950s, while the
crypt was undergoing much-needed restoration, the bones were removed from it for the first time since their interment in 1089. A special Pontifical Commission permitted Luigi Martino, a professor of human anatomy at the
University of Bari, to examine the bones under the commission's supervision. Martino took thousands of measurements, detailed scientific drawings, photographs, and X-rays. These examinations revealed the saint to have died at over seventy years of age and to have been of average height and slender-to-average build. He also suffered from severe chronic
arthritis in his spine and pelvis. In 2004, at the
University of Manchester, researchers Caroline Wilkinson and Francesco Introna reconstructed the saint's face based on Martino's examination. The review of the data revealed that the historical Saint Nicholas was in height and had a broken nose, which had partially healed, revealing that the injury had occurred before his death. The broken nose appeared to conform with hagiographical reports that Saint Nicholas had been beaten and tortured during the
Diocletianic Persecution. The facial reconstruction was produced by Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Manchester and was shown on a BBC2 TV program
The Real Face of Santa. In 2014, the Face Lab at
Liverpool John Moores University produced an updated reconstruction of Saint Nicholas's face. In 2017, two researchers from
Oxford University, Professor Tom Higham and Doctor Georges Kazan,
radiocarbon dated a fragment of a pelvis claimed to belong to Saint Nicholas. The fragment originally came from a church in
Lyon, France and, at the time of testing, was in the possession of Father Dennis O'Neill, a priest from St Martha of Bethany Church in Illinois. The results of the radiocarbon dating confirmed that the pelvis dates to the fourth century AD, around the same time that Saint Nicholas would have died, and is not a medieval forgery. The bone was one of the oldest the Oxford team had ever examined. According to Professor Higham, most of the relics the team has examined are too recent to have actually belonged to the saint to whom they are attributed, but he states, "This bone fragment, in contrast, suggests that we could possibly be looking at remains from St Nicholas himself." Kazan believes the pelvis fragment may come from the same individual as the skeleton divided between the churches in Bari and Venice, since the bone they tested comes from the left
pubis, and the only pelvis bone in the collection at Bari is the left
ilium. In the absence of DNA testing, however, it is not yet possible to know for certain whether the pelvis is from the same man. == Veneration and celebrations ==