Yahoo News Relics of saint who inspired legend of Father Christmas leave Italy for first time in 1,000 years
For the first time in nearly 1,000 years, relics of the fourth century AD saint who inspired the legend of Father Christmas have been allowed to leave Italy, arriving in Moscow to be venerated by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The remains of St Nicholas have been kept in Bari in the southern region of Puglia since 1087, when they were stolen from what is now Turkey by a group of Italian merchants. The purloining of saints’ relics was a common practice in the Middle Ages.
Encased in a specially-made golden ark, a four-inch piece of rib taken from the remains of St Nicholas arrived in Moscow on Sunday on a special flight from Italy.
The glass-topped ark was taken to Christ the Saviour Cathedral, a huge Moscow church that is a reconstruction of a cathedral that was dynamited in 1931 by the anti-religious Soviet authorities. For Orthodox Christians, Nicholas is one of their most revered saints.
The relics will be moved to St Petersburg next month before being returned in late July to the Basilica di San Nicola, the church in Bari where they have been kept in a crypt since the 12th century.
The decision to allow the relics to leave Italy for the first time was the result of an historic encounter between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, in Cuba last year.
It was the first such meeting between the western and eastern branches of Christianity in nearly 1,000 years – the two churches split after the Great Schism of 1054 and have been riven by mistrust and suspicion ever since.
Pope Francis stopped off in Cuba on his way to a visit to Mexico and the US, while Patriarch Kirill was there on an official visit.
Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra, which is now the city of Demre in southern Turkey. His reputed habit of giving gifts, often in secret, gave rise to the legend of Santa Claus – a variant of Saint Nicholas.
He is said to have provided gold coins as dowries to three daughters of a poor man who worried that they would be sold into slavery if they could not marry. The coins were thrown through a window and landed in stockings hanging up to dry – a fable that gave rise to the Christmas tradition of children hanging out socks or stockings to receive gifts.
St Nicholas is the patron saint not only of sailors and merchants but also pawnbrokers, archers, children and repentant thieves.
“Bari has shown once again that it can be a bridge between East and West,” said Antonio Decaro, the mayor of the port city. “At a time when selfishness seems to prevail in the world, this is a message of peace.”
