Don’t Tell the Kids! Archeologists Discover Grave of Santa Claus Inspiration Saint Nicholas

Turkish researchers have announced the discovery of what they believe to have been the real tomb of Saint Nicholas, a fourth century AD priest whose generosity inspired the modern fairy tale of Santa Claus.

The tomb was discovered underneath the floor of Saint Nicholas Church in Demre, a small city on the southern coast of Turkey. It might seem like an obvious place to look, except that archeologists believed they’d already found the tomb centuries ago.

Osman Eravsar, the head of the provincial cultural heritage preservation board in Antalya, told local media that while the cavity had been discovered by ground-penetrating radar in 2017, only recently had they dug 5 feet below the church’s present floor, discovering an earlier floor that had been covered up.

“Now we have reached the remains of the first church and the floor on which Saint Nicholas stepped. The tiling of the floor of the first church, on which Saint Nicholas walked, has been unearthed,” he said. "There is a grave and it seems more magnificent, more special, than the ones in the church.”

Moreover, this grave is at the center of the church as opposed to in the corners, where other priests had been buried.

"This is a mystery since, although there was an earthquake, these walls look undamaged," he added.

Saint Nicholas lived between 270 and 343 AD, when Demre was the city of Myra, part of the Roman Empire but populated mostly by Greeks. Few details about his life have survived, but the tales of his incredible generosity, including giving gifts of money to people in need, survived long after his death. Less than 200 years later, Emperor Theodosius II ordered a church to be built over the site where Nicholas’ church had been located, and his remains were moved into a tomb inside the new church.

The church was raided twice by Italian sailors, who variously took to Bari and Venice bones they believed to belong to Saint Nicholas.

Saint Nicholas was later established as the Patron Saint of Children by the Catholic Church, and his reputation later served as the inspiration for the Dutch tale of Sinterklaas, which in turn inspired the modern Santa Claus. The day of his death, December 6, is celebrated in many European nations as Saint Nicholas Day, and traditionally was a feast day.