St Nicholas is believed to have bee buried in Myra, Turkey. When I visited this place in the early 1990s, all the tourist shops were full of Disneyland style merchandise on the thematic of Santa Claus, in Turkish, "Baba Noel" (because of an old popular French song which was a prayer to Santa, "Petit Papa Noël"). This local Santa Claus craze reached the paroxysm of kitsch. I was back in Myra 10 years later. The atmosphere had completely changed. There were still some "Baba Noel" signs and plastic stuff, but very few. The place was crowded with Russian tourists who came for Saint Nicholas, patron saint of Russia. The tourist shops are full of St Nicholas icons, from the smaller ones (1 €) the size of a fridge magnet to large hand-painted ones (100s of €). Russians love to wait in line when visiting some sanctuary or holy tomb. They used to do it on Moscow Red Square for Lenin's tomb, I have seen them in Jerusalem doing the same at the Holy Sepulchre, and in Myra you can see them waiting in line to get to St Nicholas' tomb (an empty sculpted Roman sarcophagus inside the St Nicholas church). Each visitor carries his icon purchased in the shop outside, and when they get to the sarcophagus they extend their hand and touch the marble with their icon.
He ain't dead, he's been cloned many times over. To borrow a phrase, "What would Santa do?" has resulted in many happy events & charity. Merry WWJD Christmas to all!
