Soon thereafter, as a man of faith, and an early Christian, Nicholas pilgrimaged to the Holy Land of Jerusalem.

The journey was perilous in those years, and Nicholas is said to have saved his ship from shipwreck on the return trip to Patara – as well as resurrecting a drowned sailor.

His actions earned him distinction as the Saint of Sailors.

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Nicholas eventually left Patara for Myra, where he lucked into the role of the city’s bishop. As travellers know, the safest place to go in a new place is the local place of worship. Nicholas arrived to find that it had been decided that the first person to enter the church would be ordained the new Bishop of Myra.

Later, St Nicholas of Myra even became imprisoned and exiled by Emperor Diocletian for practising Christianity. Whence freed, St Nicholas attended the Council of Nicea in 325AD, a convention to facilitate an end to hostilities against members of the early Christian faith.

For his adventurous life, St Nicholas lived until the ripe age of 65. So popular had his legacy grown by the time he died in Myra on December 6, 343AD, that a church was built in the city to honour his life.

The legend of St Nicholas travelled far and wide, reaching the Germanic regions of the world – where a feast would be held in celebration of Sint Nikolaas. The night before the feast, children would leave their socks and shoes by the fireplace, and wake up on the morning of the feast to find gifts waiting for them.

So goes the tale of how a Turkish merchant’s son became immortalised as the gift-bestowing, jolly, European-looking Santa Claus.

Sources: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/12/06/saint-nicholas-of-bari–bishop-of-myra.html

https://www.ktb.gov.tr/EN-113778/santa-claus.html