About St Nicholas - Day 11
After Nicholas’s death, his tomb became a place of pilgrimage. This continued for hundreds of years. However, when Seljuk Turks invaded the area, Christianity was gradually driven out. In the 11th century, when Myra was attacked by a Turkish army, some senior Italian sailor rescued/stole the bones of the saint and took them back to Bari in Italy, where they are to this day. Helping yourself to precious relics was a bad habit in the Middle Ages – St Hugh of Lincoln, for example, is said to have bitten a finger bone off the arm of St Mary Magdalene when visiting the monastery that kept this relic!