Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday 6 December 2022

The original burial place of St Nicholas


Today is the feast day of St Nicholas.

Seven years ago I shared a post from the Medieval Religion discussion group by John Dillon on the medieval iconotof St Nicholas to mark the feast. This can be seen at  St Nicholas. Unfortunately some of the images have failed to embed but those that have are an interesting group.

The relics of St Nicholas were removed - i.e. physically and forcefully stolen - from his see city of Myra in the late eleventh century and taken to Bari in Apulia where the majority remain in the cathedral. 

Recent work in the church of St Nicholas at Demre, as Myra is now called, on the south western coast of Turkey has, it is claimed, revealed the original site of the burial place of the saint. The building dates from 520 and is on top of the remsins of the church St Nicholas would have known two centuries earlier. There are articles about this work from Heritage Daily at Original burial place of St Nicholas located by archaeologists and, with more detail, from Live Science at Exact burial spot of St. Nicholas, inspiration for Santa Claus, discovered in Turkish church


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