Saint Nicholas: From Patara to Bari

Tradition places the birth of Nicholas at Patara, a Mediterranean port that was for a period the capital of Lycia. The earliest accounts of his life were written centuries after his death and probably contain legendary elaborations. The site is only partly excavated: a theatre rebuilt in 147 AD under Antoninus Pius is among the ruins. Patara was a flourishing maritime and commercial city, so a port is a fitting start for the patron saint of sailors.

Location precision: The saint's birthplace is a tradition, and the pin marks the ancient city rather than any house.

Visitor guidance: Only part of the site has been excavated and renovated.

Nicholas went to the church to pray and was proclaimed the new bishop of Myra. In one early story he saves three innocent men: as they are about to be executed, he pushes the executioner's sword to the ground. The present church in Demre dates from AD 520, built over an older church where he had served. Emperor Nicholas I of Russia restored it in 1862, and a bronze statue stands near it.

Visitor guidance: The bronze statue of the saint stands near the church.

Nicholas is said to have attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and Theodore the Lector's list of attendees records him as the 151st. Yet Athanasius of Alexandria never mentions him, so scholars argue over it. A later legend, first attested in the fourteenth century, says he lost his temper and slapped an Arian. The council met in the imperial palace, and ruins on the shore of Lake İznik might well be the site.

Location precision: Sources do not say where exactly the council met; the pin marks the town of İznik, not a proven site.

Visitor guidance: İznik is a modern town on the shore of Lake İznik; the council site itself is not certain.

Archaeologists believe Nicholas was first buried in a rock-cut church at the highest point of this small island, at the end of a 350-metre processional walkway. His name is painted on part of the ruined building. In the mid-7th century, with Arab fleets threatening, his remains appear to have been moved to Myra. Today the Byzantine ruins can be seen from the sea, and boats anchor in the crescent-shaped bay.

Location precision: Archaeologists only believe he was first buried here; the pin marks the island, not a documented tomb.

Visitor guidance: Boats anchor in the crescent-shaped bay; the Byzantine ruins can be seen from the sea.

In spring 1087 Italian sailors from Bari seized part of the saint's remains from his burial church in Myra. The remains arrived on 9 May 1087, and Pope Urban II later placed them in the tomb beneath the altar of the new basilica. Each year on 6 December a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb. In 1966 a vault in the crypt became an Orthodox chapel. Catholics and Orthodox Christians both come here as pilgrims.

Visitor guidance: An important pilgrimage destination for Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

Venice wanted the saint too: the city had an interest in obtaining the remaining fragments of his skeleton. Their church and monastery on the northern Lido house relics of Saint Nicholas, shared with Bari. Analyses found that the relics, divided between the two cities, belong to the same person, Bari holding the larger bone fragments and Venice the smaller. The presence of the relics in Venice is little known.

Visitor guidance: In the northern part of the Lido di Venezia; it is not a major pilgrimage place like Bari.