[MR] BBC Travel: Is Santa Claus Buried in Ireland

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today I found a BBC story perfect for the Christmas season, "Is Santa Claus
Buried in Ireland?"

Good question. The story revolves around a ruined Norman village near
Kilkenny called Newtown Jerpoint. The village was a thriving place in the
middle ages, but abandoned by the 17th century. Among the ruins is the
shell of a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Myra, from whom our notion
of Father Christmas descends.

The cemetery contains an effigy over a grave that may, or may not, contain
relics of the original Saint Nicholas. If this seems far fetched, consider
that saints' remains were often divided up and distributed among churches.
There was also a brisk, if illegal, trade in relics (both real and
spurious, which could explain why there are *three* heads of John the
Baptist in various European churches).

Saint Nicholas is supposedly buried in Turkey, but the Crusaders had a
habit of "liberating" saintly remains from Eastern churches, and shipping
them back to western Europe. Some claim Saint Nicholas was stolen and
reburied in Bari, Italy. It is possibly that some of his remains might have
eventually reached Ireland.

Newtown Jerpoint is completely contained within Jerpoint Park, a
privately-owned working farm. Its owners have no intention of opening the
suspected saintly grave.

The story is at
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20221213-is-santa-claus-buried-in-ireland
.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆