Fun History Fact

Jolly Old St. Nicholas (Nikolaos of Myra) often started fistfights with colleagues who disagreed with his religious beliefs.  The picture above shows him bitch slapping Arius of Alexandria in 325 AD at the Council of Nicea.  Considered a heretic, Arius did not believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  When presenting his beliefs to  the Roman Emperor Constantine and a council of bishops, St. Nick grew so enraged that he smacked Arius down! Oh Yeah!

Mud may have preserved Turkish city 700 years ago, archaeologists say

DEMRE, Turkey — In the fourth century A.D., a bishop named Nicholas transformed the city of Myra, on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Turkey, into a Christian capital.

Nicholas was later canonized, becoming the St. Nicholas of Christmas fame. Myra had a much unhappier fate.

After some 800 years as an important pilgrimage site in the Byzantine Empire it vanished — buried under 18 feet of mud from the rampaging Myros River. All that remained was the Church of St. Nicholas, parts of a Roman amphitheater and tombs cut into the rocky hills.

But now, 700 years later, Myra is reappearing.

Archaeologists first detected the ancient city in 2009 using ground-penetrating radar that revealed anomalies whose shape and size suggested walls and buildings. Over the next two years they excavated a small, stunning 13th-century chapel sealed in an uncanny state of preservation. Carved out of the eastern wall is a cross that, when sunlit, beams its shape onto the altar. Inside is a vibrant fresco that is highly unusual for Turkey. Read more.