Bari, the City of Santa Claus
Believe
it or not, Bari is the city of Santa Claus. In fact the bones of old Saint
Nicholas rest in a magnificent cathedral built around one thousand years ago,
when sailors from Bari stole them from the city of Myra (now in Turkey).
NICHOLAS OF BARI, NICHOLAS OF MYRA, SANTA CLAUS, Feast day December 6, one of the most popular minor Saints traditionally associated with the festival of Christmas.
In 1087 Italian sailors or merchants stole his alleged remains from Myra and took them to Bari, Italy; this removal greatly increased the saint's popularity in Europe, and Bari became one of the most crowded of all pilgrimage centres. Nicholas' relics remain enshrined in the 11th-century basilica of San Nicola, Bari.
Nicholas' reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy. He was reputed to have given marriage dowries of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of prostitution, and he restored to life three children who had been chopped up by a butcher and put in a brine tub. In the Middle Ages, devotion to Nicholas extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of Russia and Greece; of charitable fraternities and guilds; of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers.
Known under the name Santa Claus, this legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents. The resulting image of Santa Claus in the United States crystallized in the 19th century, and he has ever since remained the patron of the gift-giving festival of Christmas.
