Was Santa Claus real? Scientists have provided one piece of evidence that may support this assumption: they found that St. The bone attributed to Nicholas, the prototype of today's Santa Claus, certainly came down to us from the time and the place in present-day Turkey where this saint died.
Researchers at the University of Oxford have examined a tiny fragment of a pelvic bone and determined that it belongs to a person who lived in the XNUMXth century AD.
As announced, St. Nicholas died in 343 and is often depicted in paintings with a gray beard. According to legend, he was famous for his generosity, and this trait gave rise to the legend of Santa Claus.
"Many of the relics we study generally turn out to be from a later period than historians claim," Tom Higham, co-director of the Oxford Relics Center, said in a statement.
"This bone fragment, on the contrary, suggests that perhaps we are really looking at St. Nicholas' remains," it states.
The bone fragment, a piece of which was analyzed, belongs to the priest Dennis O'Neil, who lives in the state of Illinois in the United States.
However, most of St. Relics attributed to Nicholas are kept in the Italian cities of Bari and Venice.
According to the researchers, the sample they studied was taken from the left pubic bone, the lower part of the pelvis. Barry's collection contains only the upper part of the pelvis, suggesting that all these bones belonged to one person.
As many as 500 St. Nicholas' bone fragments. Their anatomical study showed that these bones also complement the bones in the Barry collection.
"The results now encourage us to turn to the relics from Bari and Venice to try to show that these bone remains belonged to one person," said George Kazan, another director of the Oxford Relics Center.
It is believed that St. Michael lived in Myra, near the present-day southern Turkish city of Demre, and that his bones were taken from there by Italian sailors.
The legend of Santa Claus dates back to the 6th century, when stories about St. Nicholas. In several European countries, December XNUMXth is celebrated as St. Nicholas holiday.
